longworth chuck,,

[jeff oldham]

I was thinking about getting a longworth chuck,,i have cole jaws now and its really simple to change the jaws,,but the cost of the longworth is whats stopping me,,,can anyone tell me if they think it would be worth the difference between the two to buy one,,

[Brice Rogers]

I don't know if there is any benefit of one type over another. They both hold bowls and platters with rubber stoppers. One uses the chuck to tighten and one uses a machined spiral to tighten. I suspect that the Cole jaws can tighten a bit more.

So if you have cole jaws, why would you want to get something that is so similar? If you don't have a vacuum chuck, why not spend your money on that?

[CHARLES D Richards]

I have cole jaws, longworth chuck, and a recent vacuum chuck. I haven't used the cole jaws in years and purchased the longworth chuck since I enjoy turning large bowls over 16" in diameter. Now that I have the vacuum chuck and have grown to have confidence in it, I have not used the longworth chuck. I'm with the Brice and in my situation, and you could only buy one, I'd get the vacuum chuck

[carl mesaros]

I have cole jaws, longworth chuck, and a recent vacuum chuck. I haven't used the cole jaws in years and purchased the longworth chuck since I enjoy turning large bowls over 16" in diameter. Now that I have the vacuum chuck and have grown to have confidence in it, I have not used the longworth chuck. I'm with the Brice and in my situation, and you could only buy one, I'd get the vacuum chuck

I also own both cole jaws and the Longworth chuck. Both work well but since I purchased the Holdfast vacuum chuck they have remained in the drawer.
The Holdfast system is about the same amount of $$ as the Longworth if I remember correctly.
If you decide on the vacuum system, consider getting both the large and small chucks. That should handle most of your holding needs.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I don't own a Cole jaw set, but I'll give my $0.02.
Pros of the LW are that you can easily just pop the turning off, and clamp the LW in your current jaws and proceed. You can do large turnings. Small turnings less than the chuck size cannot be done. You can remove and reclamp a piece. You can also true up a bowl to re-shape the bottom. IMO its safer than the spaced out jaws of the Cole. You must have the tailstock to hold the piece, since it's "grip" isn't as strong as the Cole.
I also have a vacuum chuck system, and there are times when I still grab the LW. Finishing a bowl that would be hard to center when reversed is one of them. Also, since it does take some time and effort to hook up my system, I grab the LW.
Most of the time, I use a jam chuck........ That's one method that almost always works. That one is free......

[Grant Wilkinson]

Another benefit for me was that I could easily make a longworth.

[jared herbert]

I made a longworth chuck from plans that I believer were in the now defunct woodturning design magazine. I works well and was not that hard to build, I used scraps so it didn't really cost me any thing except for the hardware.

[robert baccus]

A simple and quicker solution is a friction chuck from 1/2" ID. pipe and a padded internal drive.

[Jay Mullins]

I haven't seen one of those, do you have a picture or a website for it?

[Gary Baler]

Get a vacuum chuck and you'll live happily ever after.