Each their own, but for me, making a dovetail is much simpler than a straight tenon. The actual cut is a simple push cut that takes no more than 2 or 3 seconds. Comes out perfect every time. You just need to grind a 3/4" or 1", scraper with the angle of the dovetail, and keep that for making your cut, which is just an extremely simple push cut. I would never want to use a straight cut unless I had to for some special needs, as the dovetail will always pull your chuck up to the flat. Also, after rough turning, it is just as simple to clean up the dovetail for the final turning.I have sk114's with the O'Donnell and others. I try to keep a set of small medium and large jaws on the chucks. It usually ends up being a "H" gripper, a "C" jaw so I can use face plate rings that I have set up for my vacuum plate and then the "G" gripper for larger bowls. I also have the colossus jaws for the "why am I doing this?" times.
I prefer the gripper jaws because it's just easier for me to make a tenon with 90 degree sides instead of putting the correct angle for a dovetail.
The main reason I went with the axminster was because of the stainless steel construction that was mentioned before. At the time I was turning a bunch of green wood and all I had was a grizzly chuck I had bought with the lathe so I figured no rust was better.
I would think it would be such a waste of wood to use a straight tenon as to get any meaningful grip for most projects, your tenon length would have to be much longer than the 1/4" or less needed for a dovetail one.
I can go out to the shop later to take a photo if you would like to see better.
As to what chucks? I only have experience with Oneway, and Vicmarc. Started with Oneway as that was the lathe I briefly had. I probably had about 6 or so of them. Then started buying Vicmarc's and sold off a couple of my Oneways. I have 10 or 12 chucks now and never have to change jaws. Both chucks were fine, but prefer the Vicmarc's.
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