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Vicmarc Chuck

Paul M. Kaplowitz

Paul M. Kaplowitz

Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
402
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270
Location
North Charleston, SC
I've decided to invest in a Vicmarc 150 chuck with dovetail jaws. I have Oneway's Stronghold , but need larger capacity jaws for large bowls. I understand Vicmarc goes up to 9" compression. Can anyone recommend the best deal and source of purchase? Thanks
 
You used to be able to buy Vicmarc chucks from a dealer down under. With shipping the cost was a full 25% less than the Craft Supplies price. Vicmarc put a stop to that and dealers are limited to the range that they can sell Vicmarc products. This is a good thing for us woodturners and a bad thing. The good part is that more dealers can afford to sell Vicmarc products so the products are more widely available. Of course the bad thing is that the products cost more and price shopping becomes less promising.

Good luck with your quest. You are going to love that chuck!
 
Gynia said:
You used to be able to buy Vicmarc chucks from a dealer down under. With shipping the cost was a full 25% less than the Craft Supplies price. Vicmarc put a stop to that and dealers are limited to the range that they can sell Vicmarc products. This is a good thing for us woodturners and a bad thing. The good part is that more dealers can afford to sell Vicmarc products so the products are more widely available. Of course the bad thing is that the products cost more and price shopping becomes less promising.

Good luck with your quest. You are going to love that chuck!
Click to expand...

Not wanting to take away from your local dealers but the above statement is a bit false.
We sell all of the vicmarc products to the USA for whoever wants it, we give a quote first so you know all the costs.

The one stumbling block is the lathes and accessories as this is where local is certainly better.

We also have the same problem here in Aus when we try to quote a product that we have but is also available in USA and sometimes they buy from over there so it does go both ways.

Vicmarc is very high quality goods in all of their range.
 
I can't say where the best deals are. I've purchased all of mine from either Craft Supplies or directly from the dealer at the AAW symposiums. They have a huge range of jaws but not all the jaw sets are carried over here. It depends on what that particular dealer sells. At least that's what I hear. I purchased 5" jaws at the last symposium for my VM100 but have never seen them in the US catalogs.
 
You can get dovetail jaws for the stronghold chucks a lot less than a new chuck.

I use the stronghold and the Vicmarc I like the Vic for large bowls. The only down side to The Vic is the large diameter restricts working from the back side. Usually this is only a concern on turning thin walled pieces when truing in the chuck is essential.

I bought my Vic Marc from woodworkers emporium. They provide Vic Marc lathes and chucks for the AAW symposium. Give them a few days to recover from the symposium and call them. Just google workers emporium and call the Los Vegas store. Ask for Christian Brespier ?? (my apologies for not having christian's name correctly spelled)

The Vicmarc is a great chuck.

Al
 
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