Axminster Woodturning Essential Chuck
Over the years, much of the development of our tools has come from the feedback and input of woodturners themselves. So, when you asked for a woodturning chuck that offers the same great precision, and design features you’ve come to love from our chucks, but at a price to love too, we couldn’t resist the challenge. Our Essential Chucks are made from EN1A steel which make them a cheaper alternative than our stainless steel chucks and a great entry level option for those who are starting out in woodturning.
Buy with confidence
The Axminster 5 year guarantee is available on Axminster Woodturning Essential Chucks, provided the chuck has been properly maintained. Find out more
Made in Axminster
Made by us in Axminster using the latest CNC production techniques, our world class chucks were not born overnight. They are the result of over three decades of experience in production and design. Thirty-five years ago Axminster first produced and marketed one of the world’s first four jaw self centering chucks for woodturners.
- Same tried and tested design as our stainless steel Axminster Woodturning Clubman SK100 Chuck.
- The 88mm EN1A steel chuck body, including the thread, is a single piece, maximising concentricity and minimising vibration during use.
- A range of compatible steel jaws available, specifically designed for the Essential SK88 Chuck.
- Our CNC production technology ensures your chuck is as accurate and reliable as possible.
Dovetail jaws
The package includes a set of steel Dovetail Jaws Type E. These feature an internal and external grip, allowing you to safely hold a variety of workpieces of different shapes and sizes.
Faceplate ring
A faceplate ring enables you to easily mount bowl blanks, platters and the like to ensure a firm grip of your blank whilst you turn. Simply screw the ring to the chosen blank with woodscrews and expand the dovetail jaws into the recess in the centre of the ring.
Screw chuck
The screw chuck is compatible with the Dovetail Jaws Type E. Using a screw chuck is a quick and convenient method for mounting a turning blank on your lathe. The central screw has a deep sharp thread for a positive and secure hold.
Soft grip chuck key
Three hardened pinions ensure the chuck is always accessible, from any angle, to tighten with the key. The key has special grips to avoid slippage and has a warm tactile feel. It is always good practice to tighten all three pinions when securing a large piece of work on the lathe.
Finely machined SafetyJaw
Manufactured in our own machine shop in Axminster, these long accessory mounting jaws are unrivalled for quality and precision. We like to call them SafetyJaws because a unique feature of these jaws is that if extended beyond the body of the chuck, the edges have been modified with a slight radius to minimise the chance of injury should hands get too close to the rotating chuck during use. Added safety features also help to ensure the jaws correctly mounted safely to the chuck.
Chuck Maintenance
As the Essential SK88 Chuck and Jaws are made from EN1A steel, instead of stainless steel like our Clubman and Evolution premium chuck offerings, we recommend spraying it lightly with a dry lubricant on a regular basis to prevent tarnishing. You should do this more frequently if you are working in a damp workshop or turning wet timber.
Axminster 5 Year Chuck Guarantee
The Axminster 5 year guarantee is available on Axminster Woodturning Essential Chucks, provided the chuck has been properly maintained.
Together with Axminster’s 3 year guarantee on Machinery, it’s probably the most comprehensive free guarantee ever – buy with confidence from Axminster! So sure are we of the quality, we cover all parts and labour free of charge for five years!
History
Back in 1984 we produced our very first woodturner’s chuck having thought long and hard about what would be an ideal chuck for a woodturning lathe. As engineers, we automatically preferred a scroll chuck and as three jaws were totally out of the question for woodturners (cutting triangular stock is just not that easy), the four jaw chuck system was born.
It wasn’t long before we explored all manner of different accessories for the chuck as engineering style jaws were a little limited if not dangerous. We devised a style of mounting four quadrants of a profiled disc that we called jaws, these jaws are still to this day compatible with all the chucks we have made. It is important to us to ensure that the accessories you purchased yesterday will still work with the chucks we make and sell today.
Something we never anticipated was that our chucks would be copied so much and that the market would be so large. Our design was based around interchangeable sets of jaws where the accessory jaws were interchangeable from set to set, whereas other makers relied upon just the one set of jaws, changing eight screws every time you change the profiled quadrants.
