Which chuck to buy for a beginner?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I've now got my Perform lathe (see 'mini' review), and now wish to purchase a reasonably priced chuck. The two I'm considering are:
1. The Axminster Woodturners chuck - about £110 or
2. The Record RP3000 Chuck set - about £60

Anyone got any experience of either of these or advice on something different. Basically, I am looking for something that will be easy to use and not too expensive. Look forward to the advice!

Cheers

Keith :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Keith

Dont know about the axminster, but I wouldnt touch the record. The gice a lot of vibration. Plus I dont think they make one with a thread for your lathe. They only used to make them with 3/4"x16tpi threads, I dont know if this has changed.

Personally I prefer scroll chucks to collet-type chuck, you get a much wider useage from one set of jaws, and better holding power.

I managed to pick up a nova scroll for £100, a couple of years ago, the only thing wrong, it had a tommy-bar missing. Since then I have lost about five in piles of shavings anyway.

Cheers
Doughnut

 

[Anonymous]

Dear woodturner check Ebay youll find what your looking for ED

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I too have the perform lathe, which generally i have been pleased with. I got the super nova chuck which fitted well and seems easy to use.

Aidan.

 

[blurk99]

i've got a supernova aswell, turners retreat with a screw chuck, dovetail jaws and 'shark' type grip jaws for £125 and i'm dead impressed with it, i've not been hit in the face by anything since christmas....

 

[Cutting Crew]

Hi Keith,

For the price, the Axminster is a good buy, they have a series of new chucks out now as well. They offer lots of different jaw sets for work holding and best of all you only need one hand to tighten the chuck. Their whole range offers good value for the money.

I am sent a whole variety of woodturning tools for testing by many companies, both from british and overseas manufacturers and most offer good chucks, the latest Record chuck is made by Vicmarc in Australia and is excellent but comes with a price tag to match.

The RP3000 is a different kind of chuck to the Axminster, most of the chucks the other members mention are scroll chucks, where turning a single key offers a fair amount of jaw movement. One member mentioned that Record only made chucks with a 3/4" x 16 thread, this is true but then Record only make lathes that require that thread.

The best advice I can offer is spend as much as you can afford on a decent chuck that will take many different jaws and then take care of it.

CC

 

[WOLF]

the super nova chuck is very definatly worth the vote... extremely well engineered, well balanced(very important) and the host of accessories is pretty damned good folks
regards matt

 

[woodshavings]

Hi CC,

The RP3000 system is available from Record with other spindle thread types. I spoke to them recently and they offered to supply the body only with the Delta/Perform thread. However, the dealers dont seem to know this!

John