# HARBOR FREIGHT LATHE



## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Had any one found a source for a higher quality chuck for a Harbor Freight lathe?

It is a 7x10

JJ


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## chuckger (Jan 2, 2008)

JJ

Check the Enco catalog, they should have one.

Chuck


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By chuckger on 20 Aug 2011 12:43 PM 
JJ

Check the Enco catalog, they should have one.

Chuck

Got a Link?

JJ


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

You will need to find out the thread for the spindle. Either look for a chuck that had the proper thread or get a threaded chuck plate that you bolt on any plain back chuck. That is what I did on my 6" Atlas. That way you can get a decent chuck instead of all the chinese junk that fits the lathe. You can then look for a 3-4" buck chuck

Enco Tools


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

LittleMachineShop.com carries a lot of stuff specifically for small lathes.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/default.php 

Jason's point about the back plate is the way to go. Get a threaded back plate, put it on the lathe, turn it to fit the chuck. Then you can use any plain back chuck. I did that on my Atlas 6" 3 jaw. 


Grizzly also carries pretty decent chucks for not too much coin. I see they carry South Bend to, but don't know if they are that small.


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## hawkeye2 (Jan 6, 2008)

I'm positive that there are better chucks out there than the ons that come on any of the imported lathes but have you considered reworking the one you have? Even a better quality chuck can benifit from some tuning and can probably be done for about the same ammount of work as fitting a new chuck. Here is a link to a page on improving a 3 jaw chuck and if you do some searching you can find instructions for doing even more to improve a chuck.

http://www.varmintal.com/alath.htm#Truing


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## Cap'nBill (Dec 27, 2008)

Ditto, on LittleMachineShop stuff. Got a lot of stuff for my little 7 X. I think mine is a 'Shop Fox', but I read somewhere they're alll made by the same factory .......in China, of course.


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