Chuck recomendations

Zirroe

Zirroe

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I got a grizzly gear head lathe, the chuck is a cheap chinese made model and it doesn't run straight.

I have my eyes on a bison 6 jaw set tru chuck.

Now my question is, do you guys recommend a 3 jaw or a 6 jaw chuck?

also is there any other brands I should look into? affordability is a must, also don't want to lose quality
 
How far out of true is the chuck running? You might be able to true it by taking a facing cut on its back plate.
 
6 jaw

I was in your shoes some months ago where I had a brass rod pulled out of my Chinese 3 jaw. After that the chuck was not "happy" - but until then it did it's job.
If you are concerned about runout you could swap out the Chines to a 4 jaw manual and dial it in. I know, I know - it's not fun - but if you do it a couple of times you do it fairly quickly.

I ended up buying a 6 jaw Bison from Grizzly http://www.grizzly.com/products/6-1-4-6-Jaw-Set-Tru-Chuck/T10420
and have not regretted it. A disappointment was that the backplate (D1-4) was way out and I had to custom mount a tool to turn the face. When that was done the chuck was very easy to dial in to as close to zero as possible.

There is most likely others - higher end - than the Bison but for my work it's enough. I now do shafts (oversized) without any collars (joint work) when chucking up - so the TIR is as close to zero as it can. The 6 jaws get a better grip than the 3 jaw which might require a collar due to higher tightening force.

If you are really cool - go for the hugh collet chucks - you would see several of the old school guys up here have them (I was considering one my self)
http://www.bison-bial.com/Index.aspx?ESID=13&KID=1|14|210&TID=57647

Those with the hand wheel to close the collet looks very nice.
Edit: Here is a link to these http://www.grizzly.com/products/Atlas-Hand-Wheel-Speed-Collet-Chuck-D1-4-Mount/T10354

Good luck with your hunt.

K
 
Last edited:
I had a Buck 3 jaw adjust true chuck on my lathe and it had non reversible outside jaws that were really good at removing fingernails and knuckle meat, so after several warnings and suggestions from my fellow AZ'ers, I began looking for some inside jaws. What I found on ebay was an entire Buck adjust true chuck WITH inside jaws for $300 shipped. That's about as much as just the jaws cost. It holds very steady at half a thou run out and I couldn't be happier. I don't know about 6 jaw chucks, as I have never used one, but I'm very pleased with my 3 jaw Buck chuck.

Joe
 
Buck chucks are considered the top end. That was a great price of 300. When I was searching a few years ago on eBay, I think 600 was more the norm for a used Buck 6-jaw set-tru chuck. I never bought one... I instead got a new chinese 6 jaw adjust tru from ebay for I think about 250. It looked good, but I never had a chance to mount it on my lathe.

My lathe said it had a D1-4 camlock mount, but every D1-4 backplate I tried bottomed out on the taper while the shoulder was still about .030" from the spindle face. I have a bastard lathe spindle :(
 
chuck

Newton said:
I was in your shoes some months ago where I had a brass rod pulled out of my Chinese 3 jaw. After that the chuck was not "happy" - but until then it did it's job.
If you are concerned about runout you could swap out the Chines to a 4 jaw manual and dial it in. I know, I know - it's not fun - but if you do it a couple of times you do it fairly quickly.

I ended up buying a 6 jaw Bison from Grizzly http://www.grizzly.com/products/6-1-4-6-Jaw-Set-Tru-Chuck/T10420
and have not regretted it. A disappointment was that the backplate (D1-4) was way out and I had to custom mount a tool to turn the face. When that was done the chuck was very easy to dial in to as close to zero as possible.

There is most likely others - higher end - than the Bison but for my work it's enough. I now do shafts (oversized) without any collars (joint work) when chucking up - so the TIR is as close to zero as it can. The 6 jaws get a better grip than the 3 jaw which might require a collar due to higher tightening force.

If you are really cool - go for the hugh collet chucks - you would see several of the old school guys up here have them (I was considering one my self)
http://www.bison-bial.com/Index.aspx?ESID=13&KID=1|14|210&TID=57647

Those with the hand wheel to close the collet looks very nice.
Edit: Here is a link to these http://www.grizzly.com/products/Atlas-Hand-Wheel-Speed-Collet-Chuck-D1-4-Mount/T10354

Good luck with your hunt.

K
Click to expand...

what did you custom mount to turn the face? I'd love a picture?
thanks Bill
 
Bill,

I'll have a look-I know I did some picks of the setup before and after but I'm not sure if I did some during install.
The original was mounted directly to the drive plate and was ok. The plate added a bit of distance from the headstock but the carriage was not able to move close enough to turn the plate.
So I loosened the qctp angled the tools to barely make it to touch the face of the plate. Skared the living $hit out me turning a quality product with that large diameter-but it worked out very nicely.
Not that mutch custom set when I think this throug, so I used the wrong word there.
Anyway, would check my Mac for pics though.

K
 
thanks for all the comments, I ended up winning a Buck 6 Jaw adjust tru chuck on ebay for 470
 
Zirroe said:
thanks for all the comments, I ended up winning a Buck 6 Jaw adjust tru chuck on ebay for 470
Click to expand...

That is a great deal if the chuck was in good condition.
Have actually forgotten to check for pics :eek:
 
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