Quality of Grizzly vs Shars Chucks

CJ5Dave said:
Not sure if this is clear, threaded collar, 4.6 inch hub, bolted to chuck with 6 cap screws. Want to take this off, true it, bore hole for hub in center of back plate I buy, true the new plate, turn boss and mount to new chuck.
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I did exactly what you are talking about with the stub adapter that came off an old Skinner 4 jaw I got ripped off on (Ebay). I just used a big enough piece of 3/8 hot rolled to adapt the stub to the new chuck, but certainly cast iron would be better. I bored a tight fitting socket in the adapter plate, and drilled it for cap screws. I have it on a 4" 4 jaw so i only use it for small diameter work, but it sure seems perfectly solid.

Hopefully CME has some quality controls on Sanou. The Chinese 6" chuck I got from Shars seems ok. The 4" Sanou referenced above only has 1 of 4 jaws that fit right in their slot. 1 is too loose and 2 are really tight.
 
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Makintrax73 said:
Hopefully CME has some quality controls on Sanou. The Chinese 6" chuck I got from Shars seems ok. The 4" Sanou referenced above only has 1 of 4 jaws that fit right in their slot. 1 is too loose and 2 are really tight.
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I didn't want to write a book earlier about the SanOu chucks, but I'll try the short version. So far I've handled their standard 3-jaw chucks, adjustable structure 3-jaw chucks and independent 4-jaw chucks. The 3-jaw chucks, both versions, seem to be similar quality from a fit and finish standpoint and are quite nice. They have a nice surface finish and the jaws are tight, but not too tight. I haven't found any excess swarf/dust/chips in them when I've opened them up. When I was picking up the second adjustable structure chuck I mentioned to the guy helping me that I was really happy with the first adjustable structure chuck I bought from them. It was easy to get it to a couple of tenths runout and I had zero issue repeating under .001 when removing something, rotating it and reinstalling it. He said "well, they're made by the biggest chuck manufacturer in China, so they've got a pretty good handle on it."

The 4-jaw chucks (I've only seen two, both were 6") weren't to the same level of quality as the 3-jaw chucks. I haven't had any problem getting parts zeroed in them, but the fit and finish is definitely worse. The first one I had I returned because one of the jaws had a crack running through two of the teeth...probably a casting flaw. They didn't even balk and just grabbed another for me. They actually said they often simply have people keep chucks with issues because the shipping costs are too high to make it worthwhile. This has me wondering if the 4-jaw chucks are made at another facility. In fairness, a cheap independent 4-jaw doesn't have to be made well to produce good work since they don't have to repeat like a scroll chuck, so maybe that's what they're thinking to keep costs down.

Maybe, maybe not, but I have yet to see a SanOu 3-jaw that was made poorly.
 
yota said:
why not look on ebay for a beautiful older US made quality chuck? usually lots of them listed. this is one of mine for my previous lathe.
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I would definitely search the used market before making an investment. Last year I came across a 10” Skinner 4 jaw model in like new condition for $100.00. I had to purchase an L00 back plate for another $80.00. It’s now one of my go to chucks.
 
I have looked a lot on used market and forums like this, for over a year. Would like some old metal. Got a machinist friend asking around this week. There are a couple of crusty old guys I know here with piles of tooling that they are just not ready to part with. One has about 10 chucks piled up under one of his lathes. Maybe I will call him back.
 
Wonder IF I can bore the first recess in the blank back plate with a boring head on my new to me Bridgeport? Lathe chuck is too small and too screwed to hold a back plate for turning. Or my neighbor has a big lathe (probably 24inch) that I might get to do it, when I find something.
 
GeneT45 said:
Between the two I'd go with the Shars chuck. Grizzly is a minefield of uneven quality. They have some good stuff, and some complete garbage. It's often, but not always, true that the bigger ticket items from Grizzly are higher quality, but there are exceptions. Shars seems fairly consistent. Pretty decent stuff and a few real gems. I haven't gotten anything from them that was just junk.

GsT
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I was under the impression there were bad, ok, better with some of this Chinese stuff.
The same manufacturer churns out the same chucks and sells them to Shars, Grizzly and other retailers.
I was under the impression the better production runs went to Shars and Grizzly??
Maybe not.
I do know that Grizzly will work with you just like Precision Mathews.

There have been some great reviews for the Shars six jaw.
 
I ordered a 10 inch CME plain back chuck, a 3 inch boring head, some parallels and other stuff from CME. Also ordered a backing plate with 1 1/2 inch thread from Lost Creek Machine. You can see my old 8 inch chuck with missing pinions and sprung jaws. Also the mounting collar off the old chuck, 2 1/8 x 8 TPI. I plan to bore the threads out of the Lost Creek backing plate, bore a boss into it, mount it to the collar, then mount 5his on the lathe and fit it to the new CME chuck. The new chuck came with no documentation of fitting diameter or hole pattern to mount.
 

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CJ5Dave said:
I ordered a 10 inch CME plain back chuck, a 3 inch boring head, some parallels and other stuff from CME. Also ordered a backing plate with 1 1/2 inch thread from Lost Creek Machine. You can see my old 8 inch chuck with missing pinions and sprung jaws. Also the mounting collar off the old chuck, 2 1/8 x 8 TPI. I plan to bore the threads out of the Lost Creek backing plate, bore a boss into it, mount it to the collar, then mount 5his on the lathe and fit it to the new CME chuck. The new chuck came with no documentation of fitting diameter or hole pattern to mount.
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I noticed that with a CME chuck previously as well. Funny thing is they list the specs in their eBay listing, but I didn't see it on their website. I was planning to stop by there and pick up a MT4 keyless drill chuck soon so I'll mention it to them. Honestly, their eBay listing descriptions and pictures are better than on their website in many cases...which makes no sense other than maybe who there knows how to work on their website pages, while eBay listings are easy.

www.ebay.com

10" 3-JAW SELF-CENTERING LATHE CHUCK top&bottom jaws 0.0015" TIR #1003F0- NEW | eBay

10" - 3 JAWS Self-Centering T.I.R.----0.0015". TWO PCS TONGUE AND GROOVE REVERSIBLE HARDENED top & bottom reversible JAWS. SPINDLE MOUNTING. STRAIGHT RECESS OR PLAIN BACK. Body height: 80mm. Overall height: 136mm.
www.ebay.com
 
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