Help selecting table mounted 3 jaw chuck. Size and brand for 7" round stock.

Hey All,

I currently have a old clapped out (free to me) Bison 3 jaw chuck mounted to a 1" thick piece of Mic-6. I bolt it to the table, or clamp in my vise. It's pretty crunchy in operation and TIR repeatabillity when flipping the part for a second operation it's off > .007".

I would like to get a larger new one that could hold a 7" piece of bar stock. I've never run a lathe and don't know jack about chucks, so looking for advise on brand and size. A lot of my parts are one-offs, doing both ops in the chuck (as opposed to soft jaws in a vise) speeds thing up. It appears Bison and Toolmex are pretty common. I see some are made of cast iron and other are forged steel. I'm just not sure what would be ideal for a table mounted chuck VS use on a lathe. It looks like and 8" would be the minimum size to hold a 7" round, and still be manageable @ ~40lbs. I'm open to any brand and would like to keep the cost around the $1000.00 range.

Thanks in Advance,
Matt

When’s the last time you took it apart and cleaned the scroll? IME that’s what makes it crunchy.
Are you using hard top jaws or soft?
Mill some soft jaws out to your clamping dia. just like you would on a lathe. Use the same “master” jaw to chuck and unchuck. ( I use the one by the label)
You might not even need a new chuck.