A story about the HF 2" Mini Lathe chuck

[Jeffrey Makiel]

When it comes to hobby stuff, I tend to be frugal these days. Sometimes too frugal.

I needed a small chuck so I can build or do maintenance on pool cues. Pool cues are usually between 1/2" dia. to 1-3/8" dia. depending on which end you're working on.

So, I bought the Harbor Freight 2" chuck. It comes with a MT1 shank, so I ordered an MT1 to MT2 adapter from eBay to fit my lathe.

What I found out:

The maximum "normal" grip diameter was only 1-3/8". Not 2". And, flipping the jaws end for end and using the steps in the jaws for stuff larger than 1-3/8" did not grip well at all.
The jaws had a camber due the sloppy slots in the chucks body that caused the jaws to angle outward. Therefore, they only had a small point of contact with the turning, and wanted to spit the turning out after 30 seconds.
The MT1 to MT2 adapters from eBay introduced a lot of vibration. The runout was visibly noticeable from 10 feet away.


Here's a picture essay of what I did to make this chuck functional. Therefore, I do not recommend this chuck to anyone. I see similar offerings by others for about twice the price and these come with an MT2 shank. I cannot comment if these chucks share the deficiencies as the HF.
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[Alex Zeller]

I don't think anyone has ever said Harbor Freight tools are the pinnacle of precision. Glad you could make it usable.

[Marvin Hasenak]

The HF mini chuck has a set of jaws that were designed decades if not centuroes ago for use with metal. A machinist would true them up before use by clamping a true circle like a washer in the back of the jaws. Then cut the jaws true with his lathe, this would ensure that the jaws would be square and true when the jaws were tightened. If you want a more detailed set of instructions, I believe the Taig mini lathe site has instructions on how to true up their chucks.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Interesting point about truing. I've seen the truing method on YouTube regarding a fairly large Sanou metal chuck. It was more about correcting a bad run out vs. a routine initial setup process though.

Now in days, with modern machinery, I would think truing not be necessary unless there is a quality problem. And, there are plenty of low end imports with quality problems as I've read about.

Just about all pool cue builders use metal lathes and metal lathe-type chucks. They use three and four jaw chucks to achieve the needed accuracy and tolerance that a cue stick demands. They also use plastic/phenolic collets in their chucks to protect their work. So, it must work.

In fact, I never seen any cue maker use a wood-type chuck for anything. Probably because most metal lathes use either an MT3, D1-4, 5 or 6 attachment method and sport a spindle bore of 1-1/2" with a D1-5 or 6 backing.

I've never seen a metal lathe to have a 3/4, 1, or 1-1/4" threaded spindle to accept a Nova, Barracuda, etc., chuck...only wood lathes. And even the largest wood lathes usually have spindle bore of a maximum of 3/4" which make them less attractive for end work on a cue stick which is about 1-3/8" diameter at the butt and 7/8" at the mid joint.

I guess one can buy a blank backing plate for a metal lathe chuck and drill and tap for the appropriate spindle thread. But, you would still have the small spindle bore problem.

I recently bought a PSI Universal wood chuck based upon recommendations here. I must admit, it does hold wood really, really well. So, the little HF chuck will probably see light duty action only like shaft cleaning and tip replacement.

cheers, Jeff :)

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

It was always my understanding that a x inch chuck only referred to the exterior diameter and for metal working chucks meant their jaws would at most open to about 2/3 of that diameter. A friend has one of those little HF chucks and no problems for his purposes. I have looked for one just to examine it and they never seem to have them in stock at the local HF store.