The worst 3 jaw chuck ever made?

I was sent this chuck from China and it proved to be so bad that it was unusable. See the detail. It was just appalling and should never have been sold.

[@Rolingmetal]

Wow that's bad! My 10 year old lathe came with chucks with plastic backs. I see no problem in that.

[@davidharper4289]

Hey John, What price did you pay for it? Cheers from Aus.

[@Xynudu]

Hi John, That's horrible even after a bit of TLC is attempted. What brand is it ? Reminds me of a Fuerda I bought and reviewed a while back. Total rubbish. At least I bought it locally and could take it back for a refund. Similar terrible finish issues, but the pinions were so loose they jumped teeth on the scroll plate. A supposedly good brand that has now gone to hell since they moved production to China. I just don't trust buying an expensive item like a chuck from the internet. The chances of a good one are slim. Some Chinese chucks are actually very good. But it's difficult to pin down a brand name as they seem to not mark them. That chuck jaw angle looks like something you would have in a four jaw unit. I wonder if they mixed up the blanks before machining ? The plastic plate is the final straw on this. What a POS. Never seen that before. Thanks for posting. Pity you have to do this but it's a sign of the times. Check out the Fuerda review on my channel if you're interested. It might make you feel better ;) Cheers Rob

[@john2478]

Hi rob The make was Vevor but it was not marked anywhere that I could see. I bought from a Czech wholesaler but must have been a simple warehouse to sell into the EU. Yours was the luxury mode as it had a printed box. Mine came with almost no protective wrapping in a plain brown box. Yes the Chinese can and do make good quality stuff and so far this by far the worst I have had. John

[@gangleweed]

@@john2478 I would agree with you as to the apparent quality of that chuck but to say it is unusable is probably going too far.........a 3 jaw chuck holds raw material and that gets turned so any runout is of no consequence and the chuck can be made to run dead true by making the register a slack fit..........just .025mm slack is all it takes. This will allow you to get the work piece running true on all diams by slackening the holding screws and tapping the chuck body with a soft hammer etc......oldest quick fix chuck trick in the book. When you deal with cheap tools you have to compromise to a degree. BTW....you said that it was sent from China????.....where does the Czech seller come into that statement......so it is a Chinese chuck after all?......they do make some crap too if you go down the price scale........I would recommend chucks made by Sanou.......at least in my experience.

[@dsfs17987]

few other points, not defending the quality standards Chinese make the cheap tools to, but pointing out issues with your criticism: 1) the meeting angle on the jaws doesn't matter the slightest, the narrower angle may actually provide a bit holding power in some situations, but the flats don't need to meet in the middle, they are just a relief so you can close down the chuck to smaller diameters - these allow for it - so the criticism is baseless, 2) the pinions, I can't make out in the video, but the holding screws are (should be) slightly conical - that is to adjust the clearance angle between the pinion and the ring gear - so when you demonstrated them being tight - you back out the holding screw a turn and - voila! no binding! AND when the gears do wear in - you can take the slop out with the same adjustment screw! this is by design! 3) for this class of tools, it doesn't matter which jaw sits in which slot - they simply need to be inserted in the right order so the scroll catches and pulls them in correctly, so it is perfectly fine not to mark the body of the chuck, just the jaws so basically all your criticism has no base, buy a 1500eur chuck next time, it will be perfect right out of the box, though I don't guarantee that the relief lands on the jaws will meet in the middle...

[@john2478]

I have previously bought Chinese made chucks that were perfectly fine and needed little more than dismantling and cleaning out all the grit inside. However this chuck was truly terrible. The pinions just didn't mate properly with the ring gear. I even made an attempt to ease them but despite this they just didn't mate properly. The pinions are held in place with long screws that locate on a ring in the pinion. They are not tapered. John

[@dsfs17987]

​@@john2478 I have few different sizes of this exact chuck design from Soviet era, and they all have tapered pins and can be adjusted that way, if that was a German made chuck, they'd probably do the fitting at the factory, and price the chuck accordingly, but since this came from far east, then that is where this particular Chinese manufacturer cut the corner, probably even the original cylindrical pin screws could be filed, sanded or ground down to fix the problem (they don't need to be perfect), and slightly sanding the spiral side of the ring gear to fix the section where the ring gear is high think of these cheap Chinese "products" as parts kits that you then need to put final finish on and hand fit, they aren't as bad as you make them out to be, there are some lemons out there of course, but I doubt this is the case here

[@john2478]

​@@dsfs17987 Unlike your chucks this chuck is non adjustable as most are from China. John