Small 4 jaw independant chuck?

Grizzly is probably the cheapest place to find non-scroll jaw chucks. Not the highest quality, but some of their stuff isn't bad either.

Without seeing what it is you're trying to turn, it's hard to really offer advice. In the past I've use my jumbo jaws (like the Nova Cole jaws) for oddly shaped pieces although I usually bring up the tailstock until I can turn a tenon that I can grab w/my scroll chuck. Another thing I've done is used double sided tape. Very good gripper if you clamp the piece to it for a few minutes. Of course, you need a flat face on the piece you're working...

I wonder if you were looking in the right place?

are a company highly regarded in hobbyist machinists circles, though you don't say what size you are looking for. In my experience chucks for woodwork can be quite pricey too

That could well be true but a request on

would probably find someone who do the work for you. LMS do stock a range of readymade adapters if you know the fitting

I have the pin chuck jaws on one of my Nova chucks. This would work on the dowel, but on irregular shaped pieces it would not "center" it. Then, again, how do you decide what is the center of an irregular shape? If the piece was 2" or larger I might drill a hole in it and use the woodworm screw.

Since you already have Teknatool, take a look at their plastic jaws. Those can be machined to fit. Of course it doesn't make each jaw adjustable, other then machining each jaw different.

You could take something like 1-1/2 MDF and make your own machinable jaws

Back to the 5/8 dowel

Have you looked into Collet Chucks?

uck___beall_chuck?Args=

Thanks everyone, there were some good ideas, all of them.

The woodworm screw is cool, I tried it and it has merit!

"littlemachineshop" had some chucks that certainly would fill the bill, but did have to have some minor machine shop work to adapt to my 1" X 8 TPI spindle.

I started a homemade "Cole" jaw (about a year ago) that one of this group had on his website. It could solve more than one problem!

Grizzly had two independant jaw chucks that had adapters for my spindle...... both looked kind of cheap, and were not, in fact, very expensive. I think I'll drive up to Bellingham and look at both of them close-up.=20

Thanks again! Old Chief Lynn

After many years of turning without a chuck of any type I located the ones at Grizzly - bought both a cheap and inexpensive

1 jaw and 3 jaw. Used both for a while and then later as well.

I was lucky to buy some of the good chucks early on - so I am flush in chucks and jaws. Not to find time to turn again.

Mart> Thanks everyone, there were some good ideas, all of them.

Thanks, Martin!

I know the problem. Slaved away for 70 years, waiting for the "Golden Years" when I would have time for turning and such. Now, ten years after that, there is hardly time to clear off the bench or rough out a bowl blank or two....

Old Chief Lynn

I did go to the Bellingham Grizzly showroom this afternoon to look at the two, 4 independent jaw, woodworking chucks they offer.

The first one:

. for $30.95, looked very much like the more expensive: @ $61.95 . Holding them side by side, it looked like they were almost exactly the same except the more expensive G1062 had to use an adapter to fit one's lathe spindle. (they offered adapters for $8.95 each, none came with the chuck) 22 different adapters were listed. The less expensive one, H8047, H8048, or H8049, didn't use an adapter as it's body was threaded for one's choice of 3 different spindle thread sizes.

Oh, yes, there were plenty of machine grade 4 jaw chucks offered as well, but I think all required a backing plate to be attached and fitted to your lathe spindle. Much more money of course, but would provide the potential precision necessary for most machine work.

I bought the less expensive (cheap) one, as one of the spindle sizes was 1" X 8tpi, which is just what I could use.

Now if I can just keep my Jet lathe from jumping up and down, or tearing up the shop while spinning modestly unbalanced work.........DUUUUCK!...........

Why? You ask! Good question.

Old Chief Lynn

Remember metal lathe and mill chucks are made for metal. Wood chucks are tight fitting. Dust and splinters /fiber will get into the metal chucks and foil the gears on the jaws.

Cleaning of the chucks fixes that, just keep it in mind.

Mart> >> Sure, there were lots of metal working chucks that would certainly