Straka chuck

Fred Holder gives details of the Longworth Chuck at

Without seeing it, it sounds similar to the one Bill Grumbine has on his web site.

"JD snipped-for-privacy@wku.edu" Without seeing it, it sounds similar to the one Bill Grumbine has on his

These have been around for decades, if not longer. They are cheap and easy to make and use, but you'll need several variations to accomodate different bowl sizes and shapes.

B.

Rather than buy a 2nd chuck and jaws, it's less expensive to buy a used vacuum pump and make a vacuum chuck, IMO..

I've tried several variations of the ringed-jam chuck or whatever, and very few worked well or were easy to use/center the work in..

mac

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Made one a couple of years ago and found the value of a face shield (that sucker still hurt). Mac is right, a vaccum chuck is a much better idea.

Deb

aren't these problematic with natural edges?

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IMO, they're problematic with anything that doesn't have a flat, even top or isn't the exact size and taper of the jam ring..

BTW: I'm still very happy with the vacuum setup you found for me... thanks again!

mac

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An excellent system (although I like the six point design better). The only problem with the Longworth style is the same as the Cole, it doesn't hold it as tightly as a Straka chuck. Although I have yet to build a Straka, I can see me running my fingers into the bolts/ring at some point

I was bothered by that article, which gave someone credit for inventing this chuck that has been called a Donut chuck for many years. A fellow near where I live, Vernon Librant, has been using this form of chuck to turn the bottoms of his very large bowls for many years. Vernon uses rings made of unbreakable plastic and for the most part uses only two bolts to hold the bowl to a flat board of about 8" width. He cuts a groove in the board to fit the bowl rim then mounts the bowl and holds it in place with one of his plastic disks with a hole in the middle for the bowl bottom and two bolts to hold the plate to the backing board. He turns some very large bowls this way.

I have personally used the process a number of years ago before I got some chucks that hold bowls well enough to suit me and I don't have to mess with the bolting on of a donut disk. The vacuum chuck, the Longworth Chuck, the Rim chuck by Richard Benham are all in my inventory for holding the bowl to turn the foot. Actually the Rim Chuck has become one of my favorites for this operation. However, all of these methods, I'm describing still need the tailstock most of the time while turning the foot. The Donut chuck does not need the tailstock to hold the bowl on to the chuck.

Fred Holder