On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 08:48:47 -0400, "Dave & Denise Kother"
wrote:

Hello All,

I did some word turning back in high school some 20 years ago, and am going
to be getting back into it with a midi sized lathe. I hope to be making
some small bowls and such, just working an old hobby that I loved so much.

When I turned in high school, we used a scrap block glued to the turned wood
and the faceplate was screwed to the scrap. The more I have been reading,
that doesn't seem too popular now, but chucks seem to be the better way to
do things. I am trying to do some reading on chucks to familiarize myself
with them.

What is a good chuck for a beginner that will serve a good range of
projects? I understand that some can clamp inside and outside, and there
are a lot of variations. Money is a bit of an issue, so I want to get a
good one that can do a variety of jobs.

I got this guy soon after I bought my Midi, and I'm still using it:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G8784

It's not the best chuck, might even be the worst (I haven't compared
it to anything else) but it works pretty well for everything I've
done, and I've got no real complaints about it. I intend to upgrade
one of these days, but for now it's fine, and with the two years or so
I've got out of it, I'd say it's more than paid for itself.

And yes, even a cheap chuck works better (for me, YMMV) than a
faceplate.