Chuck choice

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Douglasr

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If you could only have one, would you choose a 3" self centering or a 4" independent jaw chuck? I am just starting out and the lathe I bought has no tooling. Thanks for the advise
 
4 jaw, don't even think about anything else if you only have one choice.

And you will learn so much with a 4jaw you'll never learn with a 3jaw.
 
as a greenhorn in the lathe business, I would suggest the opposite. to me, a 4 jaw would discourage the hell out of me.
" how do I get stuff to be straight in the chuck, how do I get it to not wobble, etc etc."

the o/p should be able to make even useless chips in about 1/2 hour of learning how to sharpen a tool blank to firstly get the hang of the machine, a three jaw would serve him well.

I would like to see what he has to work with and what he would like to do with what he has.

but then, that's just my humble opinion. I have a couple different size 3 jaws and a fairly large 4 jaw and I rarely use it as I never take anything out of the chuck before its finished or I am making things that the .002=.003 error would not affect. . .

let see what others have to say and see what this gentleman has to work with. . . . .


davidh (the old guy)
 
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+1 on the independent chuck. I have one from LMS on my 8688 and love it. I could not get any repeatability out of the scroll chuck that came with it. So if I took work out and flipped it around the new cuts were not concentric with the old ones. What bs. Drove me nuts. If you look around there are several fairly handy methods for dialing in work on independent chucks. It sucked a bit at first, but I'm getting it. I love being able to plan more complex workpieces and methods with accurate results. I would also probably like a much more accurate scroll too. A decent 4" 4jaw, backplate, and mounting hardware set me back abt$110. I don't think you can touch any decent brand of scroll chuck for that. Chinese are a crap shoot and I got a bad one complete with a certificate that was a bold faced lie. You might get lucky the first time though. Best of luck whatever your decision.
 
as a greenhorn in the lathe business, I would suggest the opposite. to me, a 4 jaw would discourage the hell out of me.
" how do I get stuff to be straight in the chuck, how do I get it to not wobble, etc etc."

the o/p should be able to make even useless chips in about 1/2 hour of learning how to sharpen a tool blank to firstly get the hang of the machine, a three jaw would serve him well.

I would like to see what he has to work with and what he would like to do with what he has.

but then, that's just my humble opinion. I have a couple different size 3 jaws and a fairly large 4 jaw and I rarely use it as I never take anything out of the chuck before its finished or I am making things that the .002=.003 error would not affect. . .

let see what others have to say and see what this gentleman has to work with. . . . .


davidh (the old guy)
I agree with Dave. A 3 jaw will have you making chips in no time flat. A 4-jaw is a PITA if you just want to chuck it up and go. You can get more accuracy out of a 4 jaw, but for the most part, I don't need it that good.
 
Lets see what I can do. In my thinking the good thing is you are just starting out. Your mind knows nothing. My crazy example is like
two little boys, with their first bikes. One boy has a normal bike with training wheels call that a (3 Jaw) on the other side of the world
another boys first bike is a unicycle thats a (4 jaw). A little while both boys master bike riding. The boy with the unicycle never saw a
real normal bike, so he thinks thats what a bike should be. Meanwhile the boy with a normal bike is scarred to death of the unicycle (4jaw)
Now you put them boys together and the unicycle runs circles around the normal 3jaw bike. Got the idea?

Now suppose your lathe came with a 3jaw. In time you got good at the normal turning and threading etc. Now you wish to get into more
advanced projects, maybe a crankshaft, maybe an eccentric cam or something, or simply turning square stock round, or round stock square.
When that time comes, guess what? I think the word intiminating is like compairing the known with the unknown. So if you start with the
unknown (unicycle) and you never saw the known 3 jaw, now the 3 jaw is intiminating right.
Bottom line, I call a ind 4jaw a do all chuck..................................................................
 
Chucks and other work holding devices are an essential part of the game and I'd urge you to view the situation as "What kind of chuck is most appropriate under different circumstances". If you are only doing one kind of repetitive work then, you can get away with having just one or the other but, most likely, you'll need both -and eventually may need a collet chuck and dog drives to spin between centers.

A well tuned 3 jaw is a pleasure and for basic needs, is probably fine. Keep in mind though, it cannot hold a piece at an offset (which is needed to drill offset holes, make cams etc) nor can they hold a square or rectangular-sided pieces of stock. Similarly, a 4 jaw cannot hold a triangular sided piece.

There are many, many other reasons to need a 3 jaw vs 4 jaw so, possibly you can describe the kind of work you foresee doing. Also, since you're talking about 3 and 4" chucks, you must be working with a mini or micro lathe. If that's the case, tell us what model (showing pics is really helpful) and what the backplate/spindle requirements are.


Ray



If you could only have one, would you choose a 3" self centering or a 4" independent jaw chuck? I am just starting out and the lathe I bought has no tooling. Thanks for the advise
 
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I am fairly new to machining as well (6 - 8 months). A 3 jaw is easy to use, no doubt about it. But a 4 jaw will be easy to use, if you learn how.
Mess around with it a few times, watch youtube videos by Mrpete and Doubleboost. You will be confused at first, but with a bit of persistence you TOO will get the hang of it. Once you do, you will not have any doubt that learning the hard way, taught you so much more.
Hope this helps.
Larry
 
I am an active home hobbiest and use my lathe a lot and seldom use my two 4 jaws, and no way would I recommend a 4 jaw for a beginner. As already mentioned a 4 jaw is almost certain to cause frustration in getting the hang of one. Sure a 3 jaw isnt gonna run dead true, but when you put a 5"x3/4"round bar in and turn it down to 1/2" for 3" then its round despite the chuck being out 3-4 thou, and thats 99% of what the average guy is going to be doing. Use a 3 jaw, get familiar with your machine and later graduate to a 4 jaw.
 
I am a newbie too and my lathe came with only a 4jaw. After a while it was pretty easy to get pieces centered. I learned lots about how to setup the indicator, finding places to put it, making holders for it.

Having used that 4jaw so much it was easy when I finally did want to do off center things like the cam-lock pulley block for my drill press.

I now have a 3jaw and use it most of the time, but I do not regret the extra work it was learning on the 4jaw.
 
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