Longworth Chuck Choices

[Glen Blanchard]

One of these days I may purchase a Longworth chuck. The only one I have seen commercially is the one sold by Ron Brown. Are there others I should consider?

[BILL DONAHUE]

I have one, bought it about two years ago, and have never been all that happy with it. I doesn't seem to hold as well as the jumbo jaws and you must use a tailstock with it. I thought the big advantage would be in saving time to adjust it versus the jumbo but found that not to be the case. The two plates stick together and are difficult to move. Therefore, it takes easily as much time as the jumbo to set up and I find the grip is not as tight. I asked Ron Brown about this last year at a symposium and he said that they have changed the type of plates (or disks) and that the newer ones don't stick together. My self made donut chuck works better.

[Justin Stephen]

Pretty much agree with Bill. I have had one of the "modern" longworth chucks, like the one that is sold at Craft Supply, for a couple of years now. I have never found that it holds very well. I still use it sometimes but secure the piece to the chuck with several pieces of painters tape after the chuck itself is tightened down and also use the tail stock as long as possible.

[Michelle Rich]

they are not nearly as strong as jumbo jaws, but I have found them useful on a few occasions when nothing else would work. Not a "must have"

[Eric Gourieux]

I agree that they are helpful in some situations. If you have a router, you can make one easily. Many posts on SMC speak to the process of making your own.

[gary jarvis]

I have the one craft supplies sells and love it. It holds much better than the jumbo jaws. When I had had trouble with the plates sticking it was caused by the nuts being too loose. Took a while to figure out.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I made my own, and waxed the mating surfaces of the plates, so they don't stick at all. I agree that it does not hold as well as jumbo jaws, but I've had good luck with it. I found that drilling the plates in from the edge and using tommy bars got me a much better hold than using figure holes through the face. The key to their hold is finding good bumpers.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I got one from e-bay. It's not from Ron. It works easily. Don't know how many buttons Ron's has, but the one I have has 8. Works pretty good. What everyone else said is true, you must use your tailstock for most of the finishing.

Depending on the price of the LW you may want, consider the Holdfast Vacuum chuck. It's NOT as good as a "real" vacuum system, but it works better than the LW IMO. You still need the tail stock. Considering the whole system is less than a vacuum pump alone, I'm happy. Maybe someday I'll happen on a real vacuum pump and can easily convert all the Holdfast products.