With the lathe pretty much done per Gingery’s Lathe Book, I was fully capable of turning stock between centers, but that can leave a lot to be desired. A chuck is really needed for drilling and boring on the lathe, and it also seemed like a convenient way to machine stock quickly. I wasn’t really ready to purchase a 3-jaw chuck and try and cast / machine a backplate for the lathe, and thus Gingery’s 2-Jaw Chuck from Book #6 seemed like a quick and easy way to make a chuck for the lathe.

Step by Step Video of Making The 2-Jaw Chuck:
How To Make a 2-Jaw Chuck Video

Photo of the 2-Jaw Chuck:

Overall I’m fairly pleased with how the chuck turned out. If I true up a piece of stock between centers, and use that with the chuck I can easily get the chuck mounted to the faceplate on center to do the work. I can then do work on that piece of stock until I take the chuck off the faceplate. Before removing the chuck if I ensure there is a center hole on both ends of the workpiece, I can easily get it back on center using the headstock & tailstock centers. This can be achieved by drilling a small hole through the center of the piece using the tailstock drill chuck before removing the chuck from the faceplate… It is extremely nice to be able to drill using the tailstock, and bore holes at the end of a workpiece – it seems to me that Gingery should have included this chuck in book #2 as those seem like fairly standard capabilities…

Even though the chuck has worked out thus far, I will probably purchase a 4″ – 3-Jaw Chuck for the lathe, and will cast / machine a custom backplate for it. I would love to be able to simply chuck up a piece of stock without having to fiddle around trying to get the chuck itself on center.

Cheers,
Morgan