Major Gloat- My New Friend Chuck

[Ben Gastfriend]

Chuck (or Charlie, his given name) arrived today.
I've been saving up for him for about a year now and the addition of a holiday gift certificate allowed me to squeak by and buy him.

And yes, Dennis, I know the rule. No pictures= no chuck, lathe, or shop.
So here they are all ya'll (or all y'all, Nancy Laird). Also there is the first piece to come out of Chuck, a pine goblet bottle stopper.

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If you have any advice for a first time chuck owner, please let me know. It'll probably prevent me from spending a night in the ER. Thanks.

[Tom Sherman]

Congratulations Ben, looks like doors are opening up for you.

[Nancy Laird]

So here they are all ya'll (or all y'all, Nancy Laird).

Thanks, Ben. Nice gloat!! And nice stopper.

Nancy

[robert hainstock]

yours is prettier than mine.
Bob

[Pete Jordan]

Congrats Ben!

It will certainly make your life easier!

[Richard Madison]

Ben,
What a dandy stopper. Love it!

[Brian Brown]

Your really gonna love having a chuck. As for advice, Keep your fingers away from the sharp edges (obvious right?). I'll spend the next three months growing back the thumbnail I lost to mine last week. Now I can't even type responsed to threads: eek:

Brian

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congrats Ben! You are going to love it! Remember, when you turn a tenon, the piece rides on the shoulder not the tenon. Don't make the tenon too long. You don't want the tenon to bottom out in your chuck. I've turned bottlestoppers and knobs with just 1/8-3/16" long tenon. The shoulder where the tenon meets the rest of the wood is the surface that bears the load.

Enjoy And congrats on having the patience to wait so long!

[Tim A. Mitchell]

If you have any advice for a first time chuck owner, please let me know. It'll probably prevent me from spending a night in the ER. Thanks.

Take your wedding ring off before you turn with it. Well, it may be a few years before you can use that one.

I normally take min off for all sorts of work, but had it on one night, and in the blink of an eye, I had about 5 ticks in a very expensive ring. The wife was POed, but not as much as I was for hurting it. I would have rather had the scrapes on the finger, but considering things could be much worse, I can live with the outcome.

[Allen Neighbors]

Glad you finally got your friend in the shop!
My only suggestion: Take a small, fine file, and ease the outer edges of the jaws (the parts that could possibly make contact with your hand while spinning) just a tad. Then sand them with 320 grit just a mite. It'll save a nasty nick at a later date.
(mite and tad are measurements in NW Texas)
Have fun!

[TYLER WOOD]

Allen you forgot smidgeon and frogs hair. I agree with Allen though, do sand the sharpness down. It might not look very sharp, but it will still give a nasty bite. Congrats on the gloat (I need to gloat about one too, but no pictures of mine yet, so can't) Your better than me, you took pictures.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats Ben. You just opened a whole bunch of doors. Enjoy.

[David Fried]

Getting a chuck made my lathe a whole new machine!

Have fun!

I don't turn wearing jewelry but I've had some folks comment on how clever I was to file off the corner of my tool rest so I could position it closer to the chuck. I've never admitted to them how that corner disappeared!
(Hint: I'm not that clever )