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Best chuck for a Oneway 2436

M

Mithra Neuman

Joined
Jan 1, 2026
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Lesa, Italy
I am sure there are a million views on this subject. I am playing 'chuck jockey' when I have have two or more projects on the go. And of course there is always the recentring difficulted when changing back and forth. I do have the Oneway stronghold with various adaptors. But it would be good to have another 1 or two all around chuck. Usually the best quality is the least expensive long term!

Any suggestions?

thanks for sharing
 
If you're happy with the Stronghold, another one will allow you to use the same jaws on both. If you want jaw styles that Oneway doesn't make (?), Vicmarc makes great chucks that use a hex key instead of a geared key.
 
thanks will look at Vicmarc and do a comparison. As I have various jaws with the stronghold it might make sense to just get another chuck. Although somewhere I spotted a cone shaped chuck which would allow you to get behind the piece a bit more!
 
When I got serious about turning 12 years ago I took a week long class at a craft school. In the class they had Oneway, Vicmarc, and other chucks. I tried them all, and Oneway, along with Vicmarc ended up at the top at my list with a very slight edge going to Vicmarc. I went with Vicmarc and have added a few more chucks and accessories. I've been happy with my choice.

One thing that I did not think about. Oneway is a lot more prevalent on the used market, sometimes with great prices. I just did a eBay search for "Oneway chucks", and it came back with 269 results. When I searched for "Vicmarc chucks" it came back with 12 results. By going used, if one buys multiple chucks, I think there could be some huge savings $$$$$'s. If I had known this upfront, I may have gone with Oneway.
 
If you insist to know the best instead of what people like, it is Oneway. Both the Stronghold and Talon. Take it from a guy who was turning before anyone invented a 4 jaw scroll chuck for wood.
 
VM120 and it isn't even worth debating. Best chuck made and best selection of jaws. I am a satisfied owner of a 2436 and have used many other Oneway products for 25 years and have more Talons and Strongholds than VM chucks, but that was my mistake because the VM chucks are the better investment path. As compared with the Stronghold, the VM120 is heavier, has a smoother scroll action, and has less play in the jaws. The more significant differences are the chuck key and available jaw selection. The VM120 accepts a 10mm hex key, so you can use the standard L-shaped hex key that you already own to mount the chuck deep inside a rough bowl where the Oneway chuck key would be unusable. Where Oneway really stumbles is in the lack of jaw size options, lack of shark jaws, and lack of big steel dovetail jaws. Oneway tower jaws are ok, but not as versatile as shark jaws and not available in as many sizes. Availability of jaws sizes is important if you are interested in perfect circle mounting. For big work, the biggest Oneway jaws are considerably smaller than the biggest VM jaws, made of aluminum rather than steel, and only availabe as serrated. Serrated jaws are inferior to even profiled and create endless mounting headaches. The only drawback of the VMs other than price is that they do not thread onto the 2436 spindle (at least on my machine) as smoothly as the Oneway chucks. Maybe M33x3.5 is different in Australia than Canada. The one plus for Oneway is that the profiled jaws are more versatile if you can only afford a couple of jaw sets. I was once where you are, I went down the Oneway chuck path, and I have some regretzkys. Nothing is better than the 2436 though.
 
Larry Copas said:
When I got serious about turning 12 years ago I took a week long class at a craft school. In the class they had Oneway, Vicmarc, and other chucks. I tried them all, and Oneway, along with Vicmarc ended up at the top at my list with a very slight edge going to Vicmarc. I went with Vicmarc and have added a few more chucks and accessories. I've been happy with my choice.

One thing that I did not think about. Oneway is a lot more prevalent on the used market, sometimes with great prices. I just did a eBay search for "Oneway chucks", and it came back with 269 results. When I searched for "Vicmarc chucks" it came back with 12 results. By going used, if one buys multiple chucks, I think there could be some huge savings $$$$$'s. If I had known this upfront, I may have gone with Oneway.
Click to expand...
Just thinking why there are so many Oneway chucks on eBay as opposed to so few Vicmarc chuck.
 
Way back when, just about the time that chucks were becoming available for woodturners, I went to a AAW Symposium and saw Ray Key do a demo on his box making. He showed up with a briefcase that held an Axminster chuck and a number of different sets of jaws.
Figured that if the Axminster chuck was good enough for Ray Key.....it would be good enough for me. I went out and bought one, and a couple of sets of jaws. Then I bought another one........and along the way a couple more. I do not like to change jaws. I actually like the old Axminster chucks better than the new ones. But, am getting used to the new ones.
 
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