My Glaser screw chuck has arrived

[Bill Wyko]

As expected, the quality is amazing. The machine work is done to perfection and the design is as innovative as all the Glaser tools. Obviously Paulo has spared no expense when it comes to the materials used to make this screw chuck. Beautiful, thick hardened aluminum with a flawless anodized black finish. Right away I see a feature that really sets it apart from the rest, the ability to screw the face plate up to your wood. I haven't done much screw chucking but it seems to me that if you use the piece of wood to tighten to your face plate, you could strip out the thread in the wood. This chuck allows you to snug down your piece of wood to a depth you want, then screw the faceplate up to your piece of wood. By doing this, the thread in the wood is stationary and the face plate tightens up to your project. This also allows you to screw chuck thinner projects safely by using the face plate as a depth stop as well.
I don't have pictures yet because I'm trying to leave my camera at home so I can document my latest project. Tonight I'll take it for a test drive and I'll post pictures and my review of it in action tomorrow. As of now though, I have to say it's an incredibly well built and well designed tool. Can't wait to put it to work.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Congratulations, Bill. I know that you'll really love it.

I'd love to hear what you have to say about it after you've had a chance to work with it.

[Bill Wyko]

Thanks Harvey but It's your fault. (That's what I'm telling the wife anyway) Unfortunately I'm stuck working late tonight. We have to get a truck done for the Barrett Jackson Auction. It has to be delievered tomorrow morning. We busted our arse to get our part done but now we're stuck here waiting on the upholsterer and the wheel guy.

[Dan Forman]

Are the threads to seat it on the spindle (not the wood screw) aluminum too? If so, I don't think I'd care much for that.

Dan

[Bill Wyko]

Dan, the aluminum is 2024-T6 aluminum. That's extremely hard material. Wear will be pretty much non existent. It's an expensive material but that's what makes it a quality tool. It's commonly used in the manufacture of truck wheels, aircraft structures, and screw machine products, scientific instruments, veterinary and orthopedic braces and equipment. All are applications which see a lot of abuse or require extremely close tollerances. While a valid concern, it was addressed in the design.

[Bill Wyko]

Here are some pics of the Glaser screw chuck. I also included a picture of my old screw chuck. On the old one you can see wear on it that is due to movement in the chuck. That's why I never felt comfortible using that one. Expecting a wood chuck to hold metal securly is what I don't care much for. Good news is, now I get to expand my skills once again with a tool I can feel safe with.
We didn't get out of work until 10:00PM last night so I didn't get any lathe time. I will this weekend though. I have a beautiful burl with this bad boys name all over it.
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400501802.jpg
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400501805.jpg
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400501796.jpg
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400501798.jpg

[Mark Hubl]

Bill,

I think you will really like the screw chuck. There is a fella in our club that does lots of wonderful platters, he has run one for years and really loves it. Now that they are available again I am sure others will find out why they were a coveted tool when not available. This is the piece in the Glaser lineup that will be my first.

[Bill Wyko]

I'm glad you mentioned a platter. I just remembered a blank I have at home I want to make into a platter. I think it'll be the first piece I use it on. Glad to hear such positive things about the chuck.

[Mark Hubl]

Bill,

If your platter blank is thin, you can use a masonite (or something else) spacer. The fella in our club uses these with the chuck. The screw really grabs well so you don't have to use the entire screw on thinner blanks.

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for the clarification Bill.

Dan

[Bill Wyko]

Bill,

If your platter blank is thin, you can use a masonite (or something else) spacer. The fella in our club uses these with the chuck. The screw really grabs well so you don't have to use the entire screw on thinner blanks.


That's the beauty of the Glaser chuck, I can just screw the back plate up towards the wood screw so it only goes into the wood as far as you want it to. It kind of becomes a depth gauge for the wood screw.

No problem Dan, a valid concern for sure.

[Bill Wyko]

WOW!! I got to put the chuck to use last night. First off I wanted to see how solid the mount was by itself so I left the back plate backed off slightly . This would give me a feel for the difference the back plate really makes. While it was a rock solid mount, I had a slight wobble, probably due to my hole not being perfectly perpendicular to the surface of the piece. Then I brought the back plate up to the piece of wood and snugged it to the blank. It only took about a 1/4 turn to secure it. All of a sudden the blank was attached to the chuck more solid than if I had used a tenon in my Oneway chuck. I can't believe how well the back plate stabilizes the piece. Another great thing the back plate does, is square the blank up to the lathe. When I turned it on with the back plate secured to the piece, it spun absolutely true. Any slight wobble I had in the beginning w/o the back plate was completely gone all together. This thing is so rock solid, it feels more stable than any chuck of any kind. Here are a few pictures of the beginning of the platter. I'll finish it over the weekend. Once again, I feel Glaser has created the finest tool available of its kind. I'm going to do this whole piece with the Glaser mini tools too. One, because they're so fun to use and 2, to continue to test them to their limits. I'll get a chance to use my vacuum chuck too so I'll get back to you with a review on that as well. Anyway, here are a few pics of the beginning of the platter, please enjoy.
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400514523.jpg
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400514521.jpg
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400514513.jpg
Another nice thing about the Mini's, storage.
http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2109/11908737/23971405/400514515.jpg

[Tim Rinehart]

I don't use a screw chuck as often as I probably should and have had ok success using the conventional screw chucks, but finally decided today to give my Glaser screw chuck a try to rough out some cherry pieces I needed to have ready for a class in March.
The ease of just drilling the 1/4" hole and mounting ease with the threads configured as they are made this much quicker than the way it was done with my old screw chucks. As Bill and others have stated, this is a well designed tool, like all their line. I'll be using this tool quite a bit more after today...a big time saver for roughing a tenon onto a hf for me.

[Bill Wyko]

I'm all but done with the platter. The Glaser screw chuck is hands down, the most rock solid chuck I've ever used. A real pleasure to use. As far as the platter goes, I decided to add a little design accent to it. I had a left over segmented ring laying around from yearas ago so I put it to use. As I said in an earlier post, I also did the entire turning with the glaser MiniQR tools. The more I use these tools, the more I enjoy them. I don't have to remove the tail stock to get in front of the turning, I can use the scraper as a negative rake scraper by just turning it up side down. This, in itself, was an excellent tool for preventing checking and tear out. Maple with spalt, burl and curl is notorious for tear out. In this case, it was a non issue entirely. Took all the frustration out of turning wood like this. I was also able to turn it down to less than 1/8" easily and the whole thing weighs in at only 4.5 ounces.
I also got a chance to use the Oneway Vacuum chuck to remove the tenon. It is a suprizingly strong mount. Only little issue I had was that because I turned the platter so thin, the vacuum had pulled the center of it slightly inward. So once I released the vacuum, it made a slight bump on the bottom when the wood relaxed back into shape. Just something that has to be accounted for when using a vac chuck.
All in all, a very enjoyable project. More and more, the Mini QR's are becoming my go to tools. Just so incredibly easy to use. Something tells me I'll also be doing a lot more screw chucking and vacuum chucking in the future too.