I picked up a 2nd hand Pratt Bernard 4 jaw chuck on ebay. Got it for half the price (paid 350) of a brand new one. Very happy with it.

There are plenty of good 2nd hand chucks. Depends on your budget

What is the spindle nose on your lathe? Does it take Myford chucks?

If so our club has a 4 jaw and a three jaw griptru for sale from an estate clearance.

I will be at the ME show in October all week.

Keeping it simple, I’ve found Arc Euro to be a good source of mid-range sensibly priced tools.   This, I think, because Ketan has a good understanding of how much hobbyists are prepared to pay and what hobbyists mean by ‘quality’.  He’s been to China to discuss our needs with manufacturers and probably endeavoured to build meaningful relationships : partnering, not just ordering stuff.   This contrasts sharply with the box-shifters found on ebay and aliexpress etc.  They usually buy and sell cheap without understanding the products. How well-made an item from them is varies, anything from genuine bargain to cheap and nasty.   The box-shifters name does not guarantee quality!   Fairly low risk though, because UK bought lemons can usually be returned.   Buying direct from abroad is delightfully cheap, but high-risk if the purchase goes wrong.

Get in quick though because Arc Euro are closing down, unless a buyer is found.   I’m sure other UK vendors build relationships too, it’s just that Ketan is top of the class.  My chucks came from Warco and RDG, no complaints!

I hope Steve won’t mind if I pick his post apart as an example of a poorly expressed requirement.   Not cos Steve is a bad boy, but because I believe engineers should strive to do better, including how we target our spending.

Reading between the lines, Steve wants:

1. a 3-jaw chuck with both internal and external jaws  (easily ordered, but, just in case, check the existing jaws aren’t the reversible type.  Are the teeth curved to fit a scroll, or not?)
2. a 4-jaw chuck that ‘seems less slack in the slides’ than the one he has  (could be unusually loose, or normal)
3. a 4-jaw that doesn’t take a lot of time to dial in.  (Is the problem insufficient practice, using two keys.  There’s a knack to it.)
4. both new chucks to be ‘better quality’ (Compared with what?  In engineering, the word ‘quality’ is meaningless without a specification)
5. ‘Nothing outrageously expensive please’ (Don’t be coy, what’s the budget!)
6. a known brand-name (May not be necessary and brand names are a minefield!  I suggest the vendor is more important.)
7. to pick up at the ME Show in October (May be an unhelpful restriction)

It’s a tough list, and has a few meaningless words like ‘seems less’, ‘quality’, ‘lot of time’, ‘outrageously’ and ‘expensive’.

I can’t tell whether or not Steve has particularly bad chucks.  Before rushing to replace better to measure them, especially the run-out, and to explain how they underperform?  What he has being too cheap is possible but so is the risk of wasting good money by ordering expensive replacements only to find they aren’t any better!

Is the idea of buying at the ME Show to haggle the price down?  Not impossible, but don’t rely on it.   Shows aren’t what they were, and if vendors turn up at all, it’s with a limited range of gear to be sold profitably!  Also, best not to constrain purchases to a particular location unnecessarily, because that eliminates alternatives.  I’ve given up buying new tools at shows: quicker and easier to buy online, and consumer protection is much stronger.  Eyeballing and buying items in person at a show transfers a lot of responsibility to the buyer.

Brand names are unreliable, at least in the low to mid-price range.   Bison, Pratt-Bernerd and other top-end brands are at least 4 times as expensive as a hobby chuck, sometimes much more.   Vertex are slightly more affordable, but beyond my budget.   Two of my chucks are labelled HBM, the others unmarked.  Despite a slightly gritty clunky feel, they work well enough and 3-jaw run-out measured 50mm away from the jaws is better than 0.03mm.

I don’t think my limited experience of HBM is sufficient to guarantee the brand!  In statistics, at least a 1000 samples are needed before results are meaningful, and not always then…

Steve asks a really good question:  “I have looked at the Vertex chucks, for instance and they are double the cost of many I have looked at, but are they twice as good?”   The answer is probably no, though much depends on the requirement.  Are you a genteel hobbyist or a cut-throat business?   A few examples:

• As a general rule, the cost of improving performance above average rises exponentially.  A top-end lathe chuck that meets tough industrial requirements costs several times as much as a chuck sufficiently well-made to meet my hobby requirements.  I don’t need a chuck that meets industrial requirements, others might.
• When time is money, smooth tools that reduce set-up time soon pay their way.   Also easier to use, and pride of ownership may be a factor.
• It’s a myth that good work can only be done with the best tools.   But they make it more pleasurable.  How much are you prepared to pay for pleasure?
• Looking at the specification of top-end ER collet chucks often reveals they’re rated to run faster than 20,000rpm, essential on an industrial machine centre.  Paying extra to fit one on a milling machine with a top speed of 2500rpm is foolish.  Similarly, cast-steel lathe chucks can be spun faster than cheaper types, but the capability is a waste of money on most hobby machines.
• Better often means more robust.   An industrial chuck might be thrashed round the clock for 3 years and then replaced.  Little point in a home-worker spending extra on industrial robustness, when a lightly loaded ordinary chuck lasts decades.  The extra rigidity allows heavier cuts, but rigidity is limited by the lathe.  No point in paying extra for rigidity unless the machine can cope too.

Many new Model Engineers are keen to buy only the best until they see the prices!  Those who insist on the best are much more likely to buy second-hand than new, but that’s a gamble.   How good or bad a pre-loved item is depends on it’s history, not the brand-name or how wonderful it was when new.  Brand names do not guarantee condition.

My views are based on a long career in and around procurement.   Been trained!   Engineers have a reputation for wanting their employer to buy the best equipment, often arguing subjectively about quality and how may years the gear will last.   Becoming  budget holder sharpened my ideas up considerably!  I soon learned to insist on business cases that made financial sense. Basically,  separate needs from wants, because wants are wasteful.   This being a hobby though, we can buy whatever we want, but recommend focusing on needs first.   Saving money is vital when one is on a budget, and there are many things to spend money on.  When a metre of 50mm diameter Brass Rod costs £365 I’d rather buy metal than unnecessary tooling!

🙁

Dave

If it was my own chuck I’d gamble on these fitting;

https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/product/set-of-3-soft-jaws-for-k11100-100mm-3-jaw-chuck/

agree/disagree comments welcome.

I recently bought a new 100mm 3 jaw chuck with reverse jaw set included from Arc EuroTrade. Looks a quality chuck to me, very smooth in operation and a million miles better than my old one. All I needed was to make a back plate for it.

I thought the chuck was a bargin at 30% off, it will do for me. It is possible to get obsessed with equipment old or new with a “name”. Just gets in the way of actually making stuff with tools. Although I do understand a poor quality piece of kit or tool can be frustrating to use, but everything I bought from Arc was perfect for my use, just a terrible shame they are closing…

Have no fear in ordering very reasonably priced Chinese chucks of the San-Ou brand, available on eBay. I bought an 8″ 4-jaw self-centring chuck for such a low price that I initially thought that it must be a scam. I wasn’t expecting much but I am so pleased that I took the risk because the accuracy and quality of this chuck cannot be faulted. It now very rarely leaves my lathe.

I ordered a 6-jaw self-centring chuck of the same brand in error (wrong size, entirely my own fault) which had to be returned, but I inspected it whilst it was in my possession and was very satisfied with the apparent quality. Although I couldn’t test its accuracy, I have every confidence it would be of the same standard of the San-Ou chuck I already have.

I know there is still a prejudice towards Chinese manufactured tooling, although may be not so prevalent as it once was because the days of ‘far-eastern crap’ have long gone, IMO.