I see how you manage it...do as much roughing as possible on the
faceplate before going to the chuck to do the final cutting. I think
I'm going to make my recesses deeper from now on...my problem has
always been with the wood cracking and failing at the chuck contact
point, and I assumed it was from insufficient tailstock support (maybe
partly true) but it's also partly due to turning pieces that have voids
and are therefore unbalanced, and now I have concluded that making a
deeper recess for the chuck contact stress will also help.

Thanks for the pictures, that's quite a collection! I have as much wood
still in log form and am doing triage now on the wood pile to find out
which pieces are still sound, which ones are ready to turn with
spalting and which ones are just firewood from too much rot, so I've
been thinking about my chuck more this week, looking at the ones I
still have drying and trying to determine how and when it's safe to use
the chuck.

I still think when I have voids and they're unbalanced I need to keep
the tailstock up tight until there's just a post left.