Ok guys I see I will have to order a chuck seperate, so can you tell me what you guys have and like?
I guess I will need to buy a drill chuck as well.

"The early bird gets the worm,.. but the second mouse gets the cheese!"

I have a full compliment of wood turning equipment. One of my hobbies it turning bowls. (another addiction!) There are no chucks better than the Oneway chucks in my opinion. The Nova would be a step down. That being said, If you are just going to be turning handles and such, you don't need one of these. A drill chuck (any) do many things. YOu can do this with jam chucks which are nothing more than pieces of wood that you turn and bore which allows you to wedge the blank inside of it. (works best for 2 piece or telescopic rods). The drill chuck will allow you to use mandrels or again, you can use a jam chuck and the tail stock with these also. There are some great places on the internet to learn advanced woodturning techniques.

I'm sure someone will weigh in on the el-cheapo chucks, but I know nothing about them.

I use a One-Way Talon and a One-Way StrongHold on my two better woodworking lathes. Penn State offers a far less expensive but similar chuck that would probably be more than adequate for what you're wanting to do. Their PSI Mini Grip is 4-jaw self centering and comes with several accessory jaw sets for just $80. The PSI Barracuda is similar but beefier and runs just $90. Either of these handle the chores at hand and will hold up for many years.

The standard Taig 3-jaw self centering chuck that you see on the Renzetti and Custom Power Wrap machines can also be had from Penn State Industries for just $59. It's not half bad even for use on a woodworking machine. Make sure to order the correct thread number to fit the headstock on your lathe.

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You will find that one chuck will probably not be enough because it will not do everything you want. I think you can get by with a Psi selfcentering and a drill chuck if you turn the blank to a round before drilling. By the way it is not as easy as it looks to drill holes on a lathe. The travel just is not there so it takes a lot longer to complete. If you have several holes to drill it can take a long time. Also wood chucks are limited in how small they will grab.

I also posted re the lathe selection below.

I have the 3 jaw self centering chuck on a 36" 1980 Sears lathe with the ball bearing tail stock and it does everything I've wanted it to do concerning rod building. I use it just about every day if nothing more than rounding the edges on grips as I cannot stand sharp edges on a grip. This lathe sells in the 3-4 hundred dollar range so with the chuck and ball bearing tail stock you are looking at about 5 hundred total. You say,"Why not the mini lathe?" You can't use a 24" reamer in a mini for one but that's up to you. Jesse

The mini lathes all have available bed extensions for very little money. Most will easily push out to 40" if needed.

Most chucks allow you to change jaws so you can do a multitude of tasks with the same chuck. A 4-jaw self centering will allow you to chuck square stock as easily as round stock.

Just some things to consider. You don't have to spend a fortune to get started in this.

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HEere's what I got: the 3-jaw standard mentioned above from PSI for $60. Works great holding items from about 1/4" up to 1 1/4". I had mine modified by a Machinist to be able to hold items up to 1 1/2. I have a 3-Jaw PSI Mini, which I find much more useful than the larger one. It holds Mandrels much better, there is no way for the Mandrel to slide inside the headstock as it spins since the inside of teh chuck is solid. Andy Dear pointed this out to me, and I've had MUCH better results using this with teh MAndrels. It WILL hold everything down to 0", it closes all teh way down tight. Most arbors fit in this chuck better as well, sanding disks, etc.

TEh only problem with te mini chuck is I do not see it when it is spinning, which is great for tool clearance, but I'm not the careful-est person in teh world, and twice have put my hand too close and taken a chunk out of my left hand & my left pointer finger. Be careful, obviously.

A cheap-o Jacobs from PSI which holds up to 1/2" is perfect for most drill bits.

One problem I have experiances with teh hardened steel Mandrels & the standard 3-Jaw chuck, is that the Jaw are made from Aluminum, and they are pretty well chewed up from chatter & another issue I'll outline below.

Just make sure everythign fits the specs on your lathe prior to ordering. Call the company you are ordering from, and ask them, PSI has been very helpful when I've had to call them in the past. Also make sure the tail stock is PERFECTLY aligned with the HEad Stock, there's a post from early this year or late last year where my HEadstock was seemingly in-line with teh tail stock, until I moved it 18" away. Then I noticed the MAndrel was not 100% spinning on a flat axis, but when I put the live center into the end, it "was". Waht ended up happeneing is the mandrel would wobble & the jaws got beat up pretty good.

One solution that I have adopted from watching others using some of the larger lathe chucks, due the disappearing act that ensues when spinning at a high speed, as Billy has experienced, is to wrap a colored athletic wrist band over the chuck. I can pull it toward the head while chucking up a piece of wood, then pull it over the chuck head and jaws before start up. The colored band lets me know where the jaws are at all times.

Dinged a few myself, and trying not to due it again.

Tim

Another chuck possibility.

I bought a 3-jaw from Harbour Freight for under $30. Comes with a screw off #2 taper shaft. I use it mainly on my homemade rod wrapper but it's a nice addition to the big hogger sears 3-jaw on my wood lathe. The only problem I found on the rod wrapper application is you can't tell how tight it gets and it can crush the blank. To solve this I made slip on solid rubber grippers and can tighten it all I want. Nice chuck for the money.

larry

Good tips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!