[Al_The_Man]

I am looking to add a collet chuck for my manual lathe (L0 mount) and have a choice of either 5C or Jacobs Rubberflex, what are the recomendations of any users? and how much difference between the two?
Thanks.
Al

[HuFlungDung]

I would tend to favor the 5C. There are likely oodles of special deals for collet sets for 5C chucks.

I recently bought a manually operated 5C collet chuck from Yuasa. This chuck is relatively inexpensive, but you provide your own backplate and mount it. The advantage of the Yuasa chuck is the "dead-length" feature. This means that the collet does not shift endwise when tightened up. This is important if you want to do accurate, repetitive work that requires control of the Z axis (spindle axis) component.

The only bad feature of this chuck, is the fact that they use a male end square drive on the collet closer cam. This square end projects out of the side of the chuck and represents a safety concern: it could snag your sleeve or give your hand an awful thump if you are working near it in manual operations.

A person could machine a safety ring to mount on the body of the chuck to act as a guard for this square ended actuator.

Compare this chuck at about $400 US to other dead length chucks for $1200 or more. Thanks goes to WMS for pointing me in the right direction on this chuck.

[Al_The_Man]

Hu, Thanks, the ones I am looking at have a speed closer wheel (no projections).
Al

[723]

I would go with the 5C. Enco has the Bison 5C for $275, which is a great deal. It uses a key like a 3 chuck jaw. You could do a lot more with the 5C then the rubber flex. The rubber flex tends to slip and has a weaker grip, but it is great for delicate parts and very light machining or sanding-polishing. I perfer the keyed 5C collet chucks rather then the speed closer ones.