What would be the best all around chuck for a lathe

[Jay Jolliffe]

The title say's what I want to know....I know I do want a chuck & one with changeable jaws but don't know what one. Leaning towards a Nova chuck...Any help on this would be appreciated...also I do not have a lot of money to spend on this....This vortex is not good.....If it gets too bad I will sell the lathe & stick to what I know...I thought getting the lathe rather cheep would be good but it's eating away at money I don't really have right now...

[Reed Gray]

I prefer the Vicmark chucks as being very well made, and intended for heavy duty use. The top three are Oneway, Nova, and Vickmark. All are good tools. Grizzly does make a clone of the Vicmark, and I have heard that it is a good copy. You will eventually discover, that it is better if you have a chuck for each set of jaws, rather than changing the jaws out each time you want some thing different. Some of the catalog stores will have 'used' or reconditioned chucks, and some will also sell just the body without any jaws on them.

robo hippy

[William Bachtel]

Vicmark. They are the best ones available. I loved mine, I sold all my super nova's.

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I have a Vicmarc, OneWay, and Grizzly. I use all 3 regularly. That said I like the Vicmarc the best. If I could only have one it would be the Vickmarc. It's money well spent, & should you ever give up turning it will give you the best resale value, making it actually cheaper to have own for the time you used it.

[Rob Sitze]

Vicmarc, heaviest chuck that I've found, I own 2 and wish I had a third.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Also bigger is usually better all around. OneWay strong hole and Vicmark are great. People try to use the smaller chucks on lager bowl find they won't hold as well and usually pull the bowl out of the chuck.

[Bill Wyko]

I use a oneway strong hold. I like the fact that they offer a wide variety of jaws for it. I also had my first one loosen up so I contacted them. They advanced me one almost immediately. Excellent customer service

[Mike Peace]

I have Nova chucks - G3, SN2 and a Titan, small, medium and large. I think Nova chucks offer some of the best value. Chucks make turning easier but really are not essential. You might be able to put off buying one for a while by making an effort at learning how to hold projects without a chuck with face plates, glue blocks, jam chucks, etc. It may make you a better turner. These alternatives will take more time but may increase your skills. Check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aUXil-5dEeo

Folks turned bowls and boxes before chucks came into common use.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Love my Vicmarc chucks. Are about the best I have found.

[Alan Trout]

I have Novas and Oneways and have used several Vicmarcs all good chucks and most will serve the purpose for 99% what we turn. If you are turning pieces under 20" I think it is hard to find a better deal on a chuck then the Super Nova II. You can buy two Super Novas for close to the price of a single Vicmarc VM120 or are Stronghold. I have never had a single piece come out or loose because of the chuck. It was always operator error. I had a good friend of mine almost killed in June by a 20" mesquite bowl chucked in a Vicmarc 150 which is the largest commercially available chuck made. He went through 14 hours of reconstructive surgery on his face and head. It was not the chucks fault. The tenon was not made correctly in a sound piece of wood. Technique is more important than the chuck.

Good luck

Alan

[Michael Mills]

Nothing at all against the Vicmarc or Oneways. I have Novas (G3's, SN's, and SN2) and never a problem.
One of the best buys right now on the SN2 is from the service center for $100 or if you have a lathe 12" or less the G3 on the bay or Amazon for $125 including insert and shipping.
http://novatoolsusa.com/Reconditioned-Products_c10.htm

I don't think you will go wrong with any of the top three.

[Thomas Canfield]

Jay - you got a lot of good general advice, but you need to give more info to get better advice. What size lathe do you have and what size work will you be doing? I started out with a Talon for a Jet 1014 that I have supplemented with a Oneway Stronghold after going to a Powermatic 3520. I really prefer the straight profile jawsof the Oneway over the dovetail on my Novas G3 and SN, but all get used for different things.

[Bill Wyko]

Another feature on the stronghold, you can change the threaded insert. So if you replace a lathe with say a 1", 8tpi headstock with a bigger one with 1-1/4 8tpi, you don't have to replace your chuck. I don't know if the other ones offer this feature though. It saved me considerably when I went from JET1442 to my PM4224.

[David Dobbs]

I have couple Nova chucks, couple Grizzly chucks, but the ones I like best are my One Way chucks.

[Michelle Rich]

I agree with all above & my preference is Vicmark, but you say you have budget issues and you don't tell us what size your lathe is. ( do not use a stronghold on a mini lathe, etc) If I had severe budget issues I might be tempted to get the PSI chuck that has quite a few jaws included. or I would go with the Grizzly clone and get the vicmark jaws, that I might need. Anyway you go at this the $$$$$ will be substantial. No way of getting around it.

[Hilel Salomon]

Got just about all of them. I have different jaws on each, but if I have to choose one and only one, it would be the Vicmarc 120. It can handle small projects and huge ones, doesn't collect dust (has a back cover), can take different inserts, and I happen to like dovetailed jaws.

[Roy Turbett]

I think it depends on how big your lathe is and the spindle size. My Powermatic 90's have 1 1/2" x 8 spindles and some chucks including the Nova don't make an adapter that large. On the other hand my Jet mini has a 1" spindle. I use Vicmarc 120's on the Powermatics and an Apprentice chuck on the Jet mini. The Apprentice (from Craft Supplies) costs half as much as the Vicmarc 120 and comes with 4 sets of jaws, a 1" spindle and a 3/4" spindle adapter. The Vicmarc comes with one set of jaws and one adapter.

[Olaf Vogel]

I've not tried the other brands but after tonight's session I can give the Oneway Stronghold a ton of praise.
I was working on a very large piece (and grossly underestimated the weight).

So the foot was mounted in the chuck (5" jaws) and also held by my steady rest as I was hollowing it out.
After about few hours, I heard 2 loud bangs - I thought they sounded like electrical shorts, but couldn't figure out what happened.
It did smell weird but everything seemed fine.... So I kept turning.

20 min later I started getting more vibration and wobble. At that point I realized that the lower rollers on the steady rest had exploded and disintegrated!
The whole thing was being up held by the chuck!!!
Ok, so that to be expected right?

Well.....after replacing the wheels 2 more times, I finishing roughing the piece in, took it off, and found out it still weighed well over 80 lbs.

So when the wheels failed it was way over 200 lbs and 24" tall!!!
And chuck held it just fine.

All I can say, is that I'm now very grateful to Oneway for making an awesome product.
I shudder to think what would have happened if that thing had come loose at 300 rpm.

[Olaf Vogel]

I've not tried the other brands but after tonight's session I can give the Oneway Stronghold a ton of praise.
I was working on a very large piece (and grossly underestimated the weight).

So the foot was mounted in the chuck (5" jaws) and also held by my steady rest as I was hollowing it out.
After about few hours, I heard 2 loud bangs - I thought they sounded like electrical shorts, but couldn't figure out what happened.
It did smell weird but everything seemed fine.... So I kept turning.

20 min later I started getting more vibration and wobble. At that point I realized that the lower rollers on the steady rest had exploded and disintegrated!
The whole thing was being up held by the chuck!!!
Ok, so that to be expected right?

Well.....after replacing the wheels 2 more times, I finishing roughing the piece in, took it off, and found out it still weighed well over 80 lbs.

So when the wheels failed it was way over 200 lbs and 24" tall!!!
And chuck held it just fine.

All I can say, is that I'm now very grateful to Oneway for making an awesome product.
I shudder to think what would have happened if that thing had come loose at 300 rpm.


Last edited by John Keeton (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/posthistory.php?p=1962890); Today at 6:48 AM.

[Bill White]

I have the Grizz Vicmark clone. It has done all I've needed.
Bill

[John King]

Jay - All the advice on chucks and jaw sets is worthless without knowing what lathes the advisors use, what type of turning the advisors are doing, etc.

First step is for you to decide what you are going to do with the chuck. Bowls? Finials? Peppermills? Tool handles? Other?

Until you decide what type of turning you are going to be doing, it's not possible to select a chuck and jaws.

I turn a lot of bowls and peppermills on a Oneway 2436. I have two Vicmarc 120 with multiple large jaw sets (including jumbo jaws) for bowls, and one Vicmarc 100 with pin jaws for finials and peppermills.

So, think about what you want to do before selecting a chuck and jaw set. - John

PS - There is no "best all around chuck." That's the reason there are so many chuck sizes and jaw combinations. Each chuck/jaw combination is generally best suited for a farily narrow range of applications. - J

[Reed Gray]

I think that when it comes to final evaluation, the biggest thing in how well the chucks hold is how good of a job you do in fitting the piece being held to the chuck. Proper tenon size and shape, how big the chuck is compared to how big the piece you are holding is, and how sound the wood is. I do prefer a dove tail as it is a locking wedge joint, been used in woodworking forever.

robo hippy

[Jay Jolliffe]

It's a Grizzly lathe with a 14" swing....I'd like to do bowls & plates but I really don't know right now as I just got it today. I do know I need a chuck. It came with a 3 jaw chuck that looks like the one of a South Bend metal lathe...

[Bill Devlin]

I have both the G3 and SN2. When I got my SN2 I had a wobble problem. I had to go thru a few inserts to get the wobble to go away. I have a Grizzly 760 22" swing and I turn some large bowls and core with the Oneway coring tool. I have noticed my SN2 has a bad wobble in the jaws. I put a micrometer on them and am getting a variance of over 20/100. Taking the jaws off and checking the mounts I'm still getting 8/100 variance. Just ordered the VM120 and 5" jaws to see how it works. I even cleaned all faces to ensure no grit is causing the error.

[Geoff Whaling]

Another feature on the stronghold, you can change the threaded insert. So if you replace a lathe with say a 1", 8tpi headstock with a bigger one with 1-1/4 8tpi, you don't have to replace your chuck. I don't know if the other ones offer this feature though. It saved me considerably when I went from JET1442 to my PM4224.

Most modern chuck designs incorporate an insert system that enables the turner to interchange inserts for various spindle thread sizes. This means you only have to replace inserts at a moderste cost rather than purchase all new chucks if you change lathes.

Being a Queenslander I have a long association with Vicmarc chucks and lathes, both are top quality so are very good choices. Vicmarc also offer both "Tbar" or geared scroll chucks and tommy bar conventional scroll chucks, to cater for various preferences.

I would suggest that you look at the range of chuck jaws offered that are suitable for the work you like to turn, then base your chuck purchase decision upon that. Oneway, Vicmarc, and Nova all offer a good range and are quality chucks. The chucks mentioned above from the "service centre" are most likely remanufactured / refurbished chucks that were returned for various quality issues - personally I would ask that question directly before going that route.

[John Keeton]

This thread is four years old.

[Brian Kent]

Thank you, John. I just noticed that. I couldn't figure out why no one was recommending Hurricane chucks (I don't have one) when that is included in every chuck recommendation thread nowdays.