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Info On Gator by Fuerda Chucks

Scott R

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 8, 2005
Location
NE Ohio
Hi
Anyone here have any first hand knowledge of these chucks? I know it's Chinese. Is it the usual junk or a bit better? I have a SouthBend heavy 10 that I don't use much and when I do I usually use collets. But, It might be nice to have a 3 jaw. I allready have a 4 jaw. This chuck is around $300 and a Bison is near $600. I hate to buy junk but my use might not justify the higher priced chuck.

Scott
 
This is a late reply to your question. Gator is new to the US market but the manufacturer has been producing chucks for over 30 years. Gator is produced to a DIN/ANSI standard (like Bison) and the quality is excellent. If you put the Gator and Bison side by side you can't tell the difference and you'll find the same once the chuck is installed. One big difference, Gator offers a two year warranty on steel body scroll chucks while Bison offers only a one year warranty.
 
I just received a 10" 4-jaw and it is NOT good quality. It is on par with the other chinese chucks, NO better. I have even seen better quality chinese chucks.
- The threads are not cleaned out/up.
- The chuck is full of dirt. Not sure what it is but it seems like it wasn't cleaned up properly after machining.
- It seems to work, but we'll see when it is put to some heavy work..

For the future I will buy something more expensive, not made in C.... Probably Bison.
 
I bought a Fuerda 10" 4-jaw, D1-4 for my Graziano SAG 12 about a year ago. It came out of the box looking well-made, clean, threads lubricated with white grease. Operates smoothly. I like it. Now, if only 4-jaw chucks came with TWO chuck wrenches (how I was taught to center the work...)
 
Bison Chuck is, I believe, in the hands of the Polish Government. It was at one time owned by a Polish expatriate from Italy, however he failed to make payments and it has returned to the banks and is heavily government subsidized. No one wants to buy it as it is all unionized up, (thirteen different unions?) and the equipment is old. Toolmex owns a minority share I believe. It will be interesting to see what happens to this Brand over the next few years as their is some doubt if they can overcome their antiquated manufacturing facilities, or if they will go the way of Cushman?
 
The new 16" 4 jaw independent I received was full of grit and burrs and took 1/2 day of clean up before using. It still isn't smooth and pretty much sucks! I had better chucks from Grizzly!





I just received a 10" 4-jaw and it is NOT good quality. It is on par with the other chinese chucks, NO better. I have even seen better quality chinese chucks.
- The threads are not cleaned out/up.
- The chuck is full of dirt. Not sure what it is but it seems like it wasn't cleaned up properly after machining.
- It seems to work, but we'll see when it is put to some heavy work..

For the future I will buy something more expensive, not made in C.... Probably Bison.
 
no idea about gator, but fuerda are one of the lowest price chucks you can get around here.
 
I have got a 10" Gator 4-jaw. It is junk. As others have said: not properly finished, but the main thing for me it was bellmouth within a month of receiving it and I only use the puny wrench supplied with the chuck and I didn't abuse it otherwise.
 
I have got a 10" Gator 4-jaw. It is junk. As others have said: not properly finished, but the main thing for me it was bellmouth within a month of receiving it and I only use the puny wrench supplied with the chuck and I didn't abuse it otherwise.

Somewhere.. in PM's own extensive DB, is the vignette about the FORMER Bison munchkin with a hard-on for his prior employer who was on the ground, under-roof, kicking ass and taking names at the production facility in Asia to turn Feurda/Gator in a new direction.

His plan was to meet and BEAT Bison.

Going by the approx 2-year-old forged body, forged steel set-tru backplate 6-jaw 6" Gator in MY hands, he is doing exactly that.

And I DO HAVE a 6" 4-J Bison as reference, and another Bison forged-steel D1-3 backplate. Also a Yuasa 6" 4-J, NOS, and two SCA (Sweden) 170 mm (7 1/4"?) 4-J bought as NOS, two brand-new and not-great-but-decent-enough smaller San Ou 4-J, a more crudely made Chinese no-name 8" 4-J, and several older Cushman Skinner-Horton and Union, 6" US measure diameters.

The only 3-Jaw as has ever been under THIS roof is an unused accident. A two-piece-jaw French "Handy" that sneaked-in already mounted on the Cazeneuve HBX-360-BC. No sweat. I can use the backplate for a REAL AKA "4 jaw" chuck, and get the iron value for the 3-J body & jaws same place my old guttering, dishwasher, and beverage cans are recycled.

As said - "stale" information old necrotized threads can carry in a fast-moving world - AKA when did the chuck you found wanting actually leave the production line?

Newer PM threads - SEVERAL of them - have been keeping up with these changes all along.

et tu?

:)
 
Stale thread maybe, but searching Gator Chucks on this site only returned a couple of threads, both which are old. My Chuck was purchased in Dec. 2017 and it wasn't cheap, nor is it stale, its just crap. Two piece jaws are loose fitting, each time you screw the jaws in and out they make more shavings. Pretty difficult to dial something in because the jaws start locking up when you start tightening up on the work. Reached out to them and got no response.

The entire reason I bought it is because the thread where the guy was bragging about the superior QC of the chucks and then the recent reviews on youtube from some of the gang. (They must have received hand picked chucks or got them free).

Every once in awhile, you have to put the bad with the good to keep others from getting burned. BTW, MSC had some Bison chucks on sale during that week and the Bison semi-steel was within a couple hundred bucks of this chuck, but the Gator had 2 piece jaws and seemed to have good reviews so I bought one.





Somewhere.. in PM's own extensive DB, is the vignette about the FORMER Bison munchkin with a hard-on for his prior employer who was on the ground, under-roof, kicking ass and taking names at the production facility in Asia to turn Feurda/Gator in a new direction.

His plan was to meet and BEAT Bison.

Going by the approx 2-year-old forged body, forged steel set-tru backplate 6-jaw 6" Gator in MY hands, he is doing exactly that.

As said "stale" information old necrotized threads can be in a fast-moving world.

Keep up in the back, willyah?

:)
 








 
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