Steelex D1089 Chuck for Wood Lathe, 4-Jaw

My experience with this chuck has been far different from this first reviewer's. But, then, I am an ex-machinist with a lot more experience on this type of thing. As one commenter pointed out, this is not your typical wood lathe chuck but then, most wood turning is done either between centers or attached to a backing plate. But I find myself frequently wanting to drill into the center of a round part and there's little better for doing that on a lathe.A 4 jaw chuck has be adjusted and tightened 1 jaw at a time and it does take practice to get a workpiece properly centered and tightened. Failure to get proper pressure on all jaws can let a part exit the machine for sure.The best way to use this is to get a grip on a larger piece you are going to turn down. You can center that sufficiently with a pencil, an indicator normally isn't needed for this. One week thing about this chuck is the way the jaws are fastened to the chuck. They are just keyed to a slot and held in place by bolt tension. However, good clamping pressure aids in holding them. I did two things with them. First of all, you lose a little jaw travel to the big washers on the jaw bolts. I ground a flat onto those washers and that has worked fine. I also put a lock washer on them. That way I can keep a set constant resistance to the jaws allowing me to use the chuck key to slide the jaws up and down w/out having them flopping loosely around.This is how I center a workpiece... (Chucking on the OD but, the principle is the same and works as well on the ID) I open the jaws and hold my work piece to the chuck face and center it by referring to the circular lines on the chuck face. Then I put down the work piece and move the jaws in close to where the workpiece will set and work around the chuck one jaw at a time in order until the work piece is lightly gripped. Then if necessary, I increase clamping pressure moving the jaws in tighter by first eye-balling the run-out and then measuring in from the chuck od. Working one jaw at a time, by the time I have it centered, I have reasonably firm grip on my work piece. Using a slower speed setting, I turn on the machine and ease in a pencil until it just touches. The workpiece will be (usually) running out, swinging further to one side more than another. The pencil will mark the high side. Turn in that jaw a bit and do the pencil mark again. After doing this a few times, your workpiece should be pretty centered and tightened both. If centered, the part will have a nice penciled line all around it. If the jaws are just too tight to move against another, then back off the opposite jaw. IMPORTANT!!! when backing off a clamp screw, back it past the point it needs then turn back into the part. This keeps slack out of the tensioning. Then go around the chuck once more to verify the tightness of it's jaws gripping. Also, make sure your workpiece is tight against the chuck face.Another thing this chuck can do is to give a good grip on square stock for turning. Gotta have one of these to do eccentric turning. That's turning on a center/line different from the long axis line of the part. Think "Crank for an (extreme) example of eccentric turning.A final note for this chuck. You can clamp this chuck down to a drill press plate and hold round pieces for drilling.Keeping in mind that this fixture is an el-cheapo, within that limitation, it's great.

I am fairly new to woodturning, and I have a lathe from Harbor Freight. Granted, it's very inexpensive, but as far as getting to know the craft, it's excellent for the task. I have been using a faceplate and glue-block to mount my stock, and finally decided to get a chuck with jaws. I read many reviews on many chucks, including this one, before I decided. This chuck is pretty decent! The jaws are easy to reverse, and it really holds the stock well. Words to the wise: these jaws are independent, so each must be tightened in turn. Getting the stock piece centered takes a little extra time (mere minutes, using the pencil-mark method) but after that it holds pretty darned tightly, which is something I was concerned about. No troubles so far, and will update if I discover any. Also caveat- this chuck must have an adapter, as it is not threaded. The adapters are also easy to find on Amazon, and if you couldn't tell by the image, the adapter is attached with three screws. This is pretty heavy duty, so make sure it is tightly screwed onto your lathe. My only complaint is that the t-bar wrench I received was rusted. It still works, I just expect when buying something new, it LOOK new.

Very handy to have a four jaw independent chuck to mount odd shaped or for off center turning. Not auto centering so you have to do a fiddly setup every time but if you have ever used a metal lathe this is a routine procedure and allows precise alignment of the chuck end of your part. A handy chuck to have in your arsenal for those things that can't be chucked in a scroll chuck that centers the jaws automatically. You must purchase an adapter to fit the headstock thread on your lathe, be sure to order the correct one.

When I first got this out of the box I had good hopes. It was defiantly made in the USA. I do not think that this could ever break. I had to wait a few days to use it because I ordered the most common fitting attachment which did not fit my lathe. When I was finally ready to turn I realized that it is impossible to center a pice of wood on the chuck. In order the center it you have to find the stair on the chuck that would fit your project and then try to center it. The thing that annoyed me the most was it did not hold all sizes of wood in between the minimum and maximum sizes it say that it could hold. The maximum size on one stair is just a little bit bigger than the minimum size on the stair above. After trying to center for 30 minuets i got it very close and then put it on my lathe. The wood flew right off just by turing it on. I tightened it and turned the speed down, right when i put the chisel on the wood the same thing happened. Now this one is back in the mail and i ordered the PSI woodturning scroll chuck.

CAUTION! most (if not all) lathes will need an adapter (part numbers D2092 through D1113) in order to attach the chuck. This is not stated in the description of the part and will add about $12 to the cost of the chuck.Reasonable quality 4-jaw chuck although there was some minor rust.Please note that this chuck has four independently moving jaws; allowing off-center turning.

I was worried at first because this essentially looks just like a cheap Chinese version of this that I have. The Chinese version had a very small shoulder on the screws that pushes the jaws in. After a VERY few uses the shoulders wore off and the entire chuck was useless. This has a very robust shoulder on the screws. Should last a long time.

I did in fact return this product. It is very well made. I have no doubts about its ability to perform. I did however purchase the PSI CSC2000C Barracuda Wood Lathe Chuck Instead. It suited my needs better and gave me many more options.

This is great for turning large diameter, but short items such as bowls or cones! Even on a cheap lathe, this works better thanthe original base plate!

I use this on small tabletop latheIt is difficult to centre your work piece due to the separately adjustable jaws.Once it's centred , your good to go on short stock only I find.Forces on longer stock make your work piece fall out of the lathe sometimes and you will never be able to re-centre the work piece as it was before. Now you have to re-turn the piece until centred and re-start shapingHave to also admit I'm a beginner which might add to the problem. :-)

I appears to be functional and I like it, however I did not use it yet.