Woodcraft drill chuck, any good?

[David C. Roseman]

I'd highly suggest a threaded-end Morse taper for the chuck, so you can add a drawbar to keep it from coming out during lathe operation. Drawbars are easy to make using allthread. I even added a piece of aluminum tubing over mine to keep the threads from scraping the bore in both the headstock and tailstock, although this is probably overkill on my part. You'll probably need to add a washer so that the nut used to tighten seats OK in the headstock or tailstock. You can use a simple hex nut or a small star knob to improve grip for thightening and removal.

Lee makes a very good point. Important to use a drawbar if the chuck is in the headstock and there's no tail stock pressure on the workpiece. As, for example, turning bottle stoppers on a mandrel. I don't know if the HF keyed chuck is threaded for a drawbar. Anyone?

The Woodcraft chuck Morse taper is threaded for 7/16" Allthread, the PSI for 1/4, fyi.

David