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Buying first chuck

Bill Boehme

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Personally, I would not buy a chuck that didn't match the threads of my lathe. Spindle adaptors add manufacturing machining operations between your spindle, and the attachment point to your wood, as well as adding distance. All these things add to the possibility of changing concentricity, and exacerbating any vibration issues.

Adaptors, and inserts are not the same thing. Although my Stronghold chucks have inserts, this Record Power chuck is direct threaded. That's an advantage, in that it has fewer machining operations, and therefore less possibility of throwing off concentricity. You can test the concentricity of spindle, and chuck if you have a dial indicator and base. A couple thousandths runout at the chuck is good, and considered normal.......although, obviously, less is better.

It should be understood that a piece of wood will turn concentric to the spindle, not the chuck. This is not a problem for turning your work, but means that if there is any runout at the chuck, then remounting will have to be keyed specifically to the placement of the chuck jaws in exactly the same place as before.

-----odie-----

I suspect that Lawrence really meant "insert" rather than "adapter" compared to direct thread chucks. Inserts are high-precision parts whereas adapters are limited by the cumulative tolerance build-up of two times the spindle threads and registration face. All of my chucks except for one use inserts mostly because that's what is available. If you look at the number of different inserts that Oneway sells it becomes obvious why the great majority of chucks use insets. I can't tell the difference between my direct thread Vicmarc 120 chuck and the Vicmarc 120 that has an insert.

An adapter isn't a substitute for an insert ... it is used as a go-between the insert threads and the spindle threads. It would typically be used when temporarily using your chuck on a lathe with different threads than the lathe that you normally use. Unless you're a teacher or demonstrator you might not ever have a need for an adapter.

The importance of Odie's last paragraph might not be fully appreciated if you are new to turning, but its significance can't be overstated.
 
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About a year ago I upgraded to the Powermatic 3520C from the Jet 1221vs my first lathe. Since buying the Jet lathe I've accumulated 3- PMI chucks w/1" female threaded arbors and one Nova with an 1-1/4" female threaded arbor. I have an adapter mounted to the Powermatic that allows me to use the PMI chucks, however, on the Nova I use an insert so I dont need to remove the adapter just to use the Nova chuck.
I'm attaching a photo so you can see all the unnecessary mechanical connections when using the NNova,..look how far out I'm extended from the bearing.

DD5D6D37-4BA9-4244-A216-4CF231C90759_1_201_a.jpeg

:) Does it matter...probably not :)
 
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Lawrence, If I were you, I would thread the Nova onto your spindle without 2 additional contraptions which might add inaccuracy and certainly will move your work piece farther from the headstock.

Doing it that way, you would have to remove your 1X8 adapter to use the Nova, but IMHO, it's worth it. If you wanted, you could buy a couple more adapters, fit each 1X8 chuck with one and just leave them on. Or sell a couple 1X8 chucks and get another 1 1/4X8 chuck.
 
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You could always use the 1x8" chucks on your tailstock if you have a live center adapter with the 1x8" thread which are very common. I have turned many pieces over the years that required holding the piece firmly at both ends using (2) bowl chucks and (1) live center adapter in the tailstock..
 
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So, as for buying your first chuck...
if I had it to do over I would have bought 1-1/4" chucks and used inserts that way the chucks would work on a future upgrade/bigger lathe,
the only downside might be the weight of the bigger chuck on a mini lathe.

some Christmas chucks? ;)
 
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My first chuck was for a insert-type G3 for a mini lathe. I soon moved to larger lathes, so all I had to do was change the insert. I still use the mini for demos, so I just change the insert. I currently have that original G3 on my 25" swing lathe for a spindle project.
 
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You can never have too many chucks, to prove that point go ahead and list any chuck you have and it will most likely be sold within the week of the listing.
 
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I think at one time I had about 12 chucks. I sold all my Novas and Record chucks. I kept my Hurricane HTC 125 and bought 3 Axminister chucks. I have the O’Donnell jaws that I use a lot, 6” gripper jaws, 4” dovetail jaws, 2 1/2” C jaws and one special set of jaws. To change jaws using the Axminister you buy slides for the jaws and just crank one set out and another set in. I only had two Axminister chucks for a long time, but Lee Valley closed out their Axminister line and I just couldn’t pass up the savings. I really didn’t need it. When you have so many chucks you need a place to keep them. I am much happier not having a bunch of chucks just because I bought a set of jaws that were used maybe once or twice.
 
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