Gunsmithing Which 6 jaw chuck

[Bigrederic]

So, I thought before I pulled the trigger and bought a chuck for my newly acquired TBAS I would ask what is everyone's opinion on them. I am leaning towards a Bison, but I see allot of people using the Gator and TMX chucks. My buddy has a Gator on his setup and ot seems great. I just dont want to take a short cut now.

Seems like design wise they are all very similar.

Thanks for your time...

 

[Threadcutter308]

So, I thought before I pulled the trigger and bought a chuck for my newly acquired TBAS I would ask what is everyone's opinion on them. I am leaning towards a Bison, but I see allot of people using the Gator and TMX chucks. My buddy has a Gator on his setup and ot seems great. I just dont want to take a short cut now.

Seems like design wise they are all very similar.

Thanks for your time...

I have a Bison 4 jaw and it's just fine. I'd buy the Bison all over again. If you are going to be chambering barrels, I personally would try to wave you off of a 6 jaw. I don't think you would gain anything over a 4 jaw and a 6 jaw will just take longer to dial in.

Plus, chambering barrels doesn't heavily load a chuck, so in reality, just about any (4 jaw) jaw will do the job.

 

[Bigrederic]

I had a 4 jaw and rear spider on my previous lathe. And do think that setup was good for what it was. Threaded quite a few things on it and it was decent for what it was.

That being said, I haven't seen a 4 jaw ran on the True Bore Alignment setup... only ever seen the 6 jaws. I was hoping to find someone that could comment on the quality of the different ones out on the market as my exposure to them has only been the Gator. I want to know of the extra money spent on the other chucks provided a quantifiable improvement in any way.. working to make sure the new lathe is setup in the best way possible.

 

[Threadcutter308]

I had a 4 jaw and rear spider on my previous lathe. And do think that setup was good for what it was. Threaded quite a few things on it and it was decent for what it was.

That being said, I haven't seen a 4 jaw ran on the True Bore Alignment setup... only ever seen the 6 jaws. I was hoping to find someone that could comment on the quality of the different ones out on the market as my exposure to them has only been the Gator. I want to know of the extra money spent on the other chucks provided a quantifiable improvement in any way.. working to make sure the new lathe is setup in the best way possible.

I have to admit to being confused. If the jaws in a 4 jaw chuck are all independent of each other, then any mis-alignment/not "running true" is due to the operator not dialing everything in properly, is it not ? (this is assuming a rear spider is used and it is also dialed in properly/low to zero runout).

Ahhh, OK, I was not familiar with the True Bore system. Just watched a video of it. First reaction is that it's expensive (but, you get what you pay for) and it looks to be well made. Also, in their video, they show a 6 jaw scroll chuck (the jaws move together and are not independent). I'll admit, it looked like a nice setup.

If the 6 jaw chuck is accurate and the work piece can be clamped with negligible (or zero) runout, then I can see where this system makes sense to whomever wants to spend the coin on it. Compared to non scrolling/indepenent jaw chucks, just being able to drop the work piece into the chuck and not have to dial it in manually would be a huge time saver.

So anyway, I tend to think that the True Bore System (as nice as it is) primarily compensates for an out of alignment headstock and variable tolerances in the chuck mounting and the chuck itself.

I dunno, I guess that if you want to drop the coin on the True Bore System and you want a scrolling chuck, the Bison is probably as good as any. Having said that, why not just buy the scrolling 6 jaw from True Bore ? That way, if you have any problems, they can't point their finger at another manufacturer's/supplier's chuck.

As you can probably tell by now, I'm a knuckle dragging dinosaur and have been using a 4 jaw non scrolling chuck with a spider on the back end of the headstock and dialing everything in manually. Yes (particularly in comparison to a scrolling chuck) it's a lot of work. I originally decided to go this route because of the flexibility. Yep, it's a lot more work to dial everything in each time I use it. But, I can get everything dialed in to about 3 or 4 tenths on each end.

Best of luck to you and post up some pics if you go the True Bore route.

 

[Bigrederic]

I have to admit to being confused. If the jaws in a 4 jaw chuck are all independent of each other, then any mis-alignment/not "running true" is due to the operator not dialing everything in properly, is it not ? (this is assuming a rear spider is used and it is also dialed in properly/low to zero runout).

Ahhh, OK, I was not familiar with the True Bore system. Just watched a video of it. First reaction is that it's expensive (but, you get what you pay for) and it looks to be well made. Also, in their video, they show a 6 jaw scroll chuck (the jaws move together and are not independent). I'll admit, it looked like a nice setup.

If the 6 jaw chuck is accurate and the work piece can be clamped with negligible (or zero) runout, then I can see where this system makes sense to whomever wants to spend the coin on it. Compared to non scrolling/indepenent jaw chucks, just being able to drop the work piece into the chuck and not have to dial it in manually would be a huge time saver.

So anyway, I tend to think that the True Bore System (as nice as it is) primarily compensates for an out of alignment headstock and variable tolerances in the chuck mounting and the chuck itself.

I dunno, I guess that if you want to drop the coin on the True Bore System and you want a scrolling chuck, the Bison is probably as good as any. Having said that, why not just buy the scrolling 6 jaw from True Bore ? That way, if you have any problems, they can't point their finger at another manufacturer's/supplier's chuck.

As you can probably tell by now, I'm a knuckle dragging dinosaur and have been using a 4 jaw non scrolling chuck with a spider on the back end of the headstock and dialing everything in manually. Yes (particularly in comparison to a scrolling chuck) it's a lot of work. I originally decided to go this route because of the flexibility. Yep, it's a lot more work to dial everything in each time I use it. But, I can get everything dialed in to about 3 or 4 tenths on each end.

Best of luck to you and post up some pics if you go the True Bore route.

The lathe I have is a 90s era Jet that has not had the best life and after cleaning up the corrosion in the bore of the spindle and running my intrepid indicator in it and on my alignment test bar installed chuck the lathe seems to have a fair amount of deviation. Then add in my anal retentive OCD nature and I started looking at new lathes.. and that rabbit hole is DEEP. It was made worse after spending some time at my friends (gunsmiths) place and being exposed to his lathe. And all I can say is that this is a costly venture... but hell you only live once.

I have though about calling Straight Shot gunsmithing and talk with him about it as well if I manage to get the time. I bought the True Bore off here from a gentleman I know, but without a chuck. It is just a small piece of this project, I am looking at all new cutting tools right now as well and a custom reamer holder setup that still uses a JGS Floating holder but mounts it to the cross slide instead of running it through the tailstock or off the tool post.