New Penn State chuck

[Mark Singer]

I have a Jet Mini Lathe...never bought an upgraded chuck. I noticed that Penn State has a new chuck for the mini w/3 sets of jaws. It looks pretty good but I would like some advice from the pros...Thanks in advance you spinnig wizards

Here is the link:
http://www.pennstateind.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PSI&Product_Code=CMG3&Category_Code=NEW

[Doug Jones]

Mark, I cannot talk about the perticular chuck you ask about,,, but

Go big or go home. I bought the four jaw chuck from PSI and basicly it was money down the drain. Stick with the big names in chucks.

Happy hunting, Doug

[Jim Becker]

Go big or go home. I bought the four jaw chuck from PSI and basicly it was money down the drain. Stick with the big names in chucks.
I kinda have to agree with Doug here, Mark. Quality is a good thing when it comes to securely holding a spinning chunk of wood near your face and other important body parts. Further, the unit you cite still requires three hands to operate since it uses two "tommy bars" to open and close.

The nice thing about a chuck like the OneWay Talon (http://www.oneway.on.ca/Oneway/talon.htm)or similar is that they 1) operate with one hand and 2) are adaptable to other machines simply by changing a threaded insert to match the new spindle configuration. That's a better long-term investment, even though they are double the price of the PSI. And honestly, only one of the jaw sets that come with the PSI are likely to be useful most of the time and they are similar to the #2 jaws that come standard with the Talon (or Vicmarc 100 or SuperNOVA). With my Talon, I use the #2 jaws 80% of the time; the #3 jaws about 15% of the time now that I have a larger lathe and the spiggot jaws only occasionally for special projects, such as the knobs I recently turned for Jason.