Lathe chuck question

[phil dunn]

I am needing an inexpensive 3 or 4 jaw chuck for my lathe to hold a mandrel to spin cork for fishing rod handles. I am looking at one from Grizzly and am wondering if ya'll have had any experience with them. My past experience with Grizzly handtools has not been impressive. I don't think it has to be very precise but I would like it to be functional. I am open to any other sources if you have them. Thanks

[Mike Henderson]

You could try the Barracuda2 (http://www.pennstateind.com/store/barracuda-lathe-chucks.html) from PSI. I have one and have been satisfied. Not as many jaw selections as the majors but a good starter chuck.

And welcome to SawMill Creek!

Mike

[JerHall]

for several members of our club. I used them at a workshop in eccentric turning and was pleased to see they held the Vicmarc long nose jaws just right. I believe it is a copy of the small Vicmarc, and a good value. Should be able to use any Vicmarc jaws, which is a lot of choices. I would get one if I needed yet another chuck. To be clear, here is the one I mean:
http://grizzly.com/products/H6266

[phil dunn]

Mike, Thanks for the welcome and the reply.I am trying to stay way cheap on this since my lathe is an old Craftsman and not very good. I'm sure I will upgrade later when I get into this since I know it will be fun. This lathe will most likely be only for turning cork. I guess I am asking is Grizzly OK or is penn state better. They also offer a cheaper chuck that will close enough to hold the madrel or smaller stock.
I know when I get deeper into turning wood I will be back with more questions and a better machine. Turning wood on this Craftsman only teases me. But for now I have a lot of rods to build. Thanks, Phil

[Jason Hallowell]

I got into making my own rods recently, and have made a bunch of grips and reel seats in the last month. I'm not sure what type of mandrel you plan on using, but the $99 chuck from grizzly mentioned above doesn't close very small, even if you buy the pin jaws for it.

If your headstock has a morse taper, you could do like I do and use a pen mandrel for reel seats and shorter grips. For the longer spinning grips I use a cheap 3-jaw chuck to hold a piece of all thread that I use as a mandrel. The chuck I use is similar to this one from grizzly - http://www.grizzly.com/products/3-3-Jaw-Chuck-1-8-TPI/H8034.

If I keep this rod-building thing up, I'll probably have to spring for one of the nice Lamar mandrels for turning my grips and seats, but my all thread works fine for now.

[phil dunn]

Jason, That 3" or the 5" was what I was looking at getting, so it works well for you? That is good to know. Thanks, Phil

[Jason Hallowell]

Jason, That 3" or the 5" was what I was looking at getting, so it works well for you? That is good to know. Thanks, Phil

Mine isn't the grizzly brand, but it looks just like it, and was probably made in the same factory in china. For holding small round stock, most cheap 3-jaw chucks will be more accurate than even expensive 4-jaw chucks. Here's a spinning grip I just finished a few days ago using my cheap chuck with an all thread mandrel.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff202/desert1pocket/Rods024.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff202/desert1pocket/Rods027.jpg

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have 2 of the $99 grizzly chucks and they are as good as my $219 Vicmarc.

[Jason Hallowell]

I have 2 of the $99 grizzly chucks and they are as good as my $219 Vicmarc.

That's good news. I've been thinking about getting a couple of those cause I'm tired of constantly changing the jaws on my one and only bowl chuck. I was a little worried about the quality, but from your comment, I think I'll go ahead and do it.

[Marvin Hasenak]

If you can mount a Jacobs chuck on the headstock that would be a pretty inexpensive way to hold a mandrel. You can get a 1/2" Jacobs chuck for less than $25 from Little Machine Shop.

Marvin

[Thomas Minehan]

Hi Phil,

I went down the same road you are on. I bought an old Craftsman lathe for turning reel seats and cork grips. I used All Thread as a mandrel. One end was held in a Jacobs chuck in the head stock. The other end was slightly hallowed to accomodate the point of my live center. The cork rings were mounted on the All Thread and held between nuts and washers at each end. The nuts were tightened enough to keep the rings from turning while they were being shaped. Worked fine and didn't cost much as I already had the Jacobs chuck and only had to buy the All Thread and 2 nuts and 2 washers.

One word of caution - I found my rod building came to a screeching halt one day when I decided to see if I could "make something" on the lathe.