1. This doesn't come with the mounting studs, so make sure you order a set. (Otherwise you'll be constantly swapping the studs between this and your 3-jaw chuck.)

2. The registration is perfect on my Micromark (a.k.a. Microlux) mini-lathe. It makes it a little hard to get on and off, but I have no doubt that its going to be dead center every time I mount it.

3. This comes with the spanner, which saves you ten bucks.

4. The collet nut doesn't retain the collets. Instead of snapping into place they keep falling out. This is a problem not just for setup, but because the collet nut is supposed to pull the collet out of the chuck when your done.

This chuck fits perfectly on the HF Mini Lathe by simply removing the three studded bolts and transferring them over to this chuck. I grabbed a set of ER-32 collets in a separate order and they snap into the collar with ease. Even a light 1/2 turn to tighten the collar, once the work is inserted in the collet, locks the work down with a vengeance.

There is a supplied span-wrench to help tighten the collet within the chuck.The fit & finish of this tool is flawless, really happy I took the plunge to upgrade to a collet chuck for the HF mini lathe.

Excellent, high-quality, high-precision lathe chucks for desktop machines. I have a Taig. But the backplate (HHIP 3900-3107) for mounting on the spindle from the same manufacturer is bad. Be careful with the faceplate.

Since I have a Sherline lathe and mill, this chuck will not mount directly onto the spindles which have both (internal) #1 Morse Taper and (external) 3/4-16 threads. I think that this chuck would be a lot better if the baseplate weren't so massive. As it is, you need an additional adapter in order to mount it to a spindle. I used an HHIP adapter for this purpose HHIP 3" Backplate. However, these two are not ready to fit together. The insert on the small end of the adapter is too large to fit into the recess on the chuck so it has to be machined down by about 1mm. After doing this they fit together snuggly (see photo). The backplate on the adapter is also overkill and is too massive in my opinion to be ideal for its purpose. When you do join the adapter and chuck together they make one big hunk of steel. They take up over an inch of additional X-Axis to accommodate the bulk beyond what would be necessary for an ideal chuck. But on the plus side, the chuck looks like it is made out of good stainless steel and has a good smooth feel to it when turning the ER-32 Chuck Nut. I wish I could say the same about the adapter. Its 3/4-16 threads look pretty ragged and I have a tough time mounting it straight on the spindle without some very bad runout. That is not the fault of this chuck.

If you have a mini lathe and don't have a collet chuck you are missing out on the added benefit to be able to chuck down accurately on round stock. The standard 3 jaw check that came with my lathe works, but like all the standard self centering chucks the material is not trully centered. Using collets instead can minimise runout and for practical purposes center round material.

One might think that because of the low price that this chuck is low quality, but I was pleasently surprised to find my dial indicator measured no runout on this chuck that I mounted on my Grizzly 7X12 mini lathe. I picked the E32 size chuck and a set of collets form 2-20 mm in one mm increments. Larger material and you will need to go back to the standard chuck, but it only takes three bolts to change back. If you have a mini lathe chances are you are only working on small stuff anyway.