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I have access to a center lathe where I work and which I use in my own time. It would be pretty quick for me to put a straight non morse taper ER32 collet into the 3 jaw chuck with a 19mm collet holding an Acrylic 19mm rod to turn the tenon / drill etc.

I am trying to get my set up working for me as I have limited lathe time. I can't remove the 8" 3jaw chuck so have to work around this and in the future plan on buying a 2 jaw from Rawkrafted that tightens into the chuck for turning briar.

Any comments or ideas appreciated

I use my ER32 collet chuck pretty much daily. It's very accurate, almost no runout, and very secure. Mine is direct thread to my spindle, but if you can get a straight shank setup in your 3-jaw, and the 3-jaw is setup well, I imagine it would be just as good. The only thing you won't have, and I don't know if this is important to you, is the ability to pass long rods through the spindle. If your lathe/chuck can handle it though, you could get something similar to the Beall collet chuck and just hold that in your 3-jaw - that way you get the benefit of using longer rods without cutting them down first.

Why can't you just turn the stock in the chuck? Why do you need, or think you need, a collet?

Thanks for the replies.
The Jaws on the 8" chuck aren't ideal for small acrylic rods.... and I also turn quite small brass.... so I could change the collet size (I already have loads) and hold the work better.
Ideally I would also like a small 4 jaw so I could cast then turn square acrylic.

Ah ok, that's fair enough.

Depending on the size of course square stock fits well in a collet, I use mine all the time to turn square stock into round.

My word for some reason I hadn't thought of that.......that sort of decides it....I can use square stock as well.

My only concern was the straight shank, as usually I would use the collet chuck with an MT shank.

thanks for the replies.....I have another question regarding a drill press that I will post later when I have taken a photograph!

The straight shank will be fine but you have to accept your accuracy is dictated by the 3jaw rather than the collet chuck. If you can clock it in you may find there is one position that is more accurate than others and if so mark it and use this. Otherwise if you do all your operations without removing the stock you will be fine.

Good advice, thank you.....I will get the dial gauges out as well......might as well set up the chuck while I am it.

I think that Todd Bannard advocates chucking the shaft of smaller chucks in a larger metal turning chuck, like what I think you are recommending above.(I am not all that familiar with lathes and lathe terminology).
I turn square stock in 3 jaw chuck by grinding off the corners, using a live center on one end, and accepting a bit more material loss.
I also index (with a scribe) my round stock against one jaw of my chuck (also marked) for repeatability. This has worked well for removing and replacing work, even with an inexpensive OEM chuck on a small HF lathe.
DocAitch

DocAitch wrote: ↑Sun Jan 24, 2021 3:12 pm I think that Todd Bannard advocates chucking the shaft of smaller chucks in a larger metal turning chuck, like what I think you are recommending above.(I am not all that familiar with lathes and lathe terminology).
I turn square stock in 3 jaw chuck by grinding off the corners, using a live center on one end, and accepting a bit more material loss.
I also index (with a scribe) my round stock against one jaw of my chuck (also marked) for repeatability. This has worked well for removing and replacing work, even with an inexpensive OEM chuck on a small HF lathe.
DocAitch

There are plenty of ways to turn square stock with a 3 jaw that won't waste extra material. Once you get one end round you can flip it and hold it securely. If you have a metal lathe you can also make a set of homemade collets, very useful if your square stock generally comes in just a few sizes like pen blanks.

I basically do that- knock off the corners at one end, center the other end with the live center- turn enough to grasp in the chuck and reverse the piece. I may lose a millimeter or so because the alignment is not exact, but that rarely if ever is a problem.
I don’t use enough square stock to bother with other methods.
DocAitch

Look on eBay for a ER32 collet block. It is like a chuck, and you can mount it in the 3 jaw chuck.

I've just had a look at a hex block..... Does this go straight into the 3 jaw chuck and can material therefore pass through the center?.... If so it looks better than the parallel shank....

Depends on the collet block. If it doesn't have a hole straight through, you can chuck it up in the 3-jaw and make that hole.

Just an update!

I bought a couple of Hex collet blocks from Amazon (different makes)

One is great and machined quite accurate....the other needed a bit of "fiddling" as it was slightly out!

I will use this one for holding Alli bar horizontally when drilling 3mm holes as the V in the small machine vices are quite worn (not my doing!)

Thanks for all of the help....problem solved.....
......until the next one.