I have quite a few Bison, TOS, a TMX, a Pratt & Burnerd (English made), Rohm (German made), Cushman, Buck, Yama, Gator and a few other brands of chucks most of which are forged steel.
Buck used to be a really good chuck. However, I believe the current crop is made in China, and since I haven’t used any of those, I can’t comment on them.
I have a Gator 6” 6-jaw set-true with a forged steel chuck and backplate which I use on a 10EE. I also have a 12.5” set-true Gator that I run on an American Pacemaker. Plus one other 6” direct mount Gator forged steel chuck. The forged chucks have all been quite good. I did have one of their 3-jaw cast iron chucks that I thought the fit of the jaws was sloppy although it had a decent run out. I ended up returning it. Its replacement (another cast iron 3-jaw Gator) was fine. I use it on a Southbend Heavy 10.
I also worked on a Gator 3-jaw cast iron for a friend whose backplate was a less-than-ideal fit on the spindle. It contacted the back face register before the taper on a D1-3, and this caused some chatter issues. Ideally it should contact the taper first and then seat on the back flat requiring a light tap to break free. I had to regrind the backplate on that one.
If you have questions about any of them, I encourage you to contact Ajax Tools and talk to Gary as he seems to be up on the current level of quality of the various chucks.
