Mark the newer ones in my opinion are as good or better than the old. The new are made from stainless steel. The chucks are machined from a solid block of steel. They do not have a skirt with a hole which allows for a much easier insertion of the chuck key. My only dislike is the chuck key that comes with the SK 80 and SK 100 is very short I bought the longer chuck key which makes them easier to use. They are priced fairly and are a good value.
A different value has the Nova G3 on sale for $100 at Woodcraft, roughly $126 with insert. I have several and use them on all my lathes, big and small and they come complete with jaws and wood screw.
I have an Axminister and find the handle of the wrench to tighten about 4inches too short for my liking and as a result can never get enough Q(torque) on the work. One of these days I am going to find a welder to put an extension on the handle and that may solve my problem.
why not stick with either Vicmarc, Grizzly or the Chucks plus copy of the vicmarc. Then all the jaws and inserts would work. I have all 3. The Vicmarc is still hands down the best. The chucks plus is a little better than the Grizzly but not by a whole lot.
I had not looked at the chucks plus, although the price is about the same as the axminister ( jaws would cost more ). Better fit&finish might be worth the extra dollars
The axminister lacks the threaded adapter, which I have had a small bit of trouble on the grizzly.
No thread lock, which I suppose I would have to use on the bulldog too.
As far as other chucks go, I don't want to go down the Nova path. Just cuz.
Over the years I have been quite happy with the Axminster line of chucks and accessories. My first lathe came with one, so I added to my selection of jaws and chucks over time. To my knowledge they have never changed the jaw slides, so if you find older sets of slides and jaws they should still work with the newer chucks. Another nice feature is that one can remove the jaws simply by rotating them completely out of the body. Of course this only works if you have invested in multiple sets of slides for your jaws. To me there is nothing more tiresome than fiddling with screws to change jaws!
John, the issued handle should be up to the task for which the chuck is designed and it is Not. $30 to fix their problem is not my idea of " fair market value"!!
With Vicmarc the key is simply a 10mm allen. You can buy longer allens or in my case I simply welded a shorter one onto a long bar and can now use my cole jaws. Or you can use a ball end allen that will go into the chuck at an angle.
The first one I bought was great right out of the package. About a year latter, ordered a second. It was a mess. Very tough to open the jaws, and felt a little grinding in it, so sent it back. The replacement had jaws that did not all line up to make a perfectly flat face. I took it to work and machined them flat. So like other Grizzly experiences, you get some good ones, or you get some bad ones. If you don't know any better, Grizzly gets by on the cheap!
