Are these chucks as lousy as their low price leads me to believe?

DZ,

Thank you for the review on the chuck. It seems as though you got your moneys worth, and probably more. It turned out better than I thought.

As far as the grit mixed with the grease inside of the chuck is concerned, it doesn't only happen on Chinese goods. My wife bought a new Kimber 1911 pistol for almost $1100. It came with grit that was mixed in the lube all throughout the pistol. I wrote to Kimber and never heard a word back. It's not only Chinese companies that don't care.
 
WOW!! Thanks for the post Will. I just stumbled across this thread after I sent you a message asking about chucks. You have mentioned the Gator/Fuerda, that is the one I was looking at, Part # 1-103-0600. This is their PA series Tech-Tru forged chuck. What is your opinion of this one? I was also looking at Buck but quite a bit further out of my price range.

Mike.
 
Mike, you may want to include the Kalamazoo Chuck Manufacturing offerings in your search.
These are 100% American made chucks and from what I've read they are equal to if not a little better than Buck chucks.
I'd expect the pricing to be similar to Buck.
 
zmotorsports said:
WOW!! Thanks for the post Will. I just stumbled across this thread after I sent you a message asking about chucks. You have mentioned the Gator/Fuerda, that is the one I was looking at, Part # 1-103-0600. This is their PA series Tech-Tru forged chuck. What is your opinion of this one? I was also looking at Buck but quite a bit further out of my price range.

Mike.
Click to expand...

I can't say much. I have a Fuerda 4 jaw & I'm happy with it but comes no where near the quality of my Bison. Fuerda is made in China & it shows that but they are better than any other China chuck I have seen. It's good enough for me.

I think Fuerda is good bang for the buck though. They offer lower cost chucks for those like hobbyists without having to spend the amount for the higher dollar chucks. Like for example the 6-jaw Bison Set-Tru that I have, Bison makes these with forged (all steel) bodies only. Fuerda also makes a similar chuck with forged body for lower cost but they also offer the same type of chuck with a semi steel body for even less. You can tell the Fuerdas apart, the forged has 3 pinions & the semi steel has only 1 pinion.

I have the 6-jaw for specific reasons, having a 5" Bison 6-jaw Set Tru before, I was spoiled & couldn't have any less on my current lathe. I love that chuck. The price keeps going up on them but the same goes for the Fuerda 4 jaw I got too. Not very affordable for hobbyists, I am a hobbyists too but I just had to save for it & have no regrets spending the money on it. Before I got my current Bison I had my eyes on an Pratt Burnerd (made in England) 6-jaw Set-Rite chuck for a while but that was a bit way too expensive for me.
 
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Nice cleanup job! Good luck with it. FWIW, before I'd buy anything off Ebay like that I'd see what Jeff at Tools4cheap has. MOF, IIRC last time I was over there he sells Fuerda chucks. Still, if you can make that chuck work for you then you dun did good. :)
 
Looks like its cleaned up nicely now.

i've just bought a new 4 jaw independant (quite cheep) the general finnish was a bit better than the one you have and no philips screws but the jaws all neaded burs taken off. I think its made in India.

the most hilarious fault on mine is the beval at the base(where it meets the back plate) is very un even so it looks like the chuck has about a 1/4 inch of runout when its spinning :-0

i may have to do somthing about that as its quite disconcerting.


Stuart
 
Thanks for this great information. I was looking at that same ebay listing and now have decided I don't want a "chuck kit". I will look elsewhere, heavens i got the time. I was particularly concerned about your photo of the poor jaw fit when closed although it may not be a problem. Any way, thank you for helping me decide what to do.

mark
 
Good review! I was looking at a 16" three jaw. I think I will pass after reading this.
 
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