• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Chucks

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Stuart

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I’m about to dip my toes back into the spinny world after a number of years away. Having flogged all my gear I’m starting from scratch and the world of chucks has changed quite a lot.

Is there any one make that’s better than the others? The axminster ones look pretty good and as I’ll be getting my lathe from there it makes a degree of sense to match the chuck (but not imperative).

Any suggestions please?
 
Stuart said:
I’m about to dip my toes back into the spinny world after a number of years away. Having flogged all my gear I’m starting from scratch and the world of chucks has changed quite a lot.

Is there any one make that’s better than the others? The axminster ones look pretty good and as I’ll be getting my lathe from there it makes a degree of sense to match the chuck (but not imperative).

Any suggestions please?
Click to expand...
Biased of course, but the Ax chucks are extremely good and imported into Canadia by Lee Valley (or were the last time I looked). I use the Evolution SK114 available with different threads to suit your lathe headstock. Essential also to have the extra long chuck key for turning big stuff - Rob
 
Lee Valley stopped selling the Axminster chucks a few years back, possibly as far back as during Covid.

Pete
 
I have 3 Axminster chicks. I like the large selection of jaws that are available, the newer jaws are now stainless steel which I think is better when turning green wood.
If i was starting again I would buy them again, they have.never let me down.
 
My second chuck was a Versachuck & I’ve never looked back, most brands of jaws will fit on it with the appropriate jaw carriers so you aren’t stuck with buying only jaws that fit your chuck.
Plus there’s no fiddling about with screws when changing jaws just wind one set out then another set of jaws in, no fuss.
 
I think that if I was starting out again with a lathe and the kit for it I'd be asking the staff at the place I was buying from.

Are you visiting an Axminster store for the lathe? It may help knowing such for what I'm about to say...

As you're buying from Axminster why not discuss the merits or otherwise of the chucks they sell that would work best for the lathe you're getting (all depends if going to a store!)... You may be thinking they'd be a bit biased but any/all information you get from them may help you to decide going for theirs or another make. As well as being able to handle the chucks also... get a feel for them.

It's about 36 years ago that I got my lathe, Tyme SL750 lathe, and a chuck. Couldn't tell you which one it was as so long ago. It's also been many years since I last used it - other life commitments took over.

Sorry if above comments aren't helpful - offered as helpful 🙏.
 
Thank you for helpful comments.

I did talk to the Axminster staff but they are clearly biased towards their equipment and I was looking for a more rounded view.

For what I will be doing the versachuck is a bit spendy Doug.

I’ll look in more detail at the axminster chucks. There is the added benefit of not being that far away to be able to physically go and play as well.
 
Stuart said:
Thank you for helpful comments.

I did talk to the Axminster staff but they are clearly biased towards their equipment and I was looking for a more rounded view.

For what I will be doing the versachuck is a bit spendy Doug.

I’ll look in more detail at the axminster chucks. There is the added benefit of not being that far away to be able to physically go and play as well.
Click to expand...
That's natural Stuart 'cos they want your dosh! If you can get to AxHQ and see/hold/play with the kit you'll probably be impressed. I've had my Ax lathe and chuck for years with no complaints. In fact the lathe (newer version) was newish at the time and was recommended to me personally by Mark Sangar when I did a short course with him. Unfortunately he's now suffering (last time I checked) from MS so I'm not sure if he's still active. This is one of his:

images.jpeg
...creations so he definitely knows a thing or twelve about spinning wood - Rob
 
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