Art Ustby's Longworth Chuck

February, 2002

Art whipped up this chuck from plans published on Fred Holder's website, which can be seen here.

Art says:

The Internet instructions are easy to follow and are very complete. VERY easy 2 evening project (need to let some glue dry) - maybe all told 1.5 hrs (??) - depends on how fast you are with tools. The wood is scrap pieces I had around - all told I got maybe $48 in it ($35 of that is the dedicated faceplate and $10 for the fancy wing nuts). The only addition I'm planning on making to mine is 4 finger holds on the back piece of plywood (much like the front one has). It would give a little better grip when moving the stoppers in and out.

BE VERY careful of the bolts/wing nuts/stoppers spinning around - they really hurt the hands !!!!!

Materials:

• I used some 3/4" birch plywood for the back, and 1/4" birch plywood for the front
• some more 1/4" plywood to make a special base for router
• small piece of 2x6
• 4 - 3/8" x 3 1/2" bolts
• 12 - 3/8" washers
• small 1 1/2" wood screw with washer
• 4 wing nuts (I had some fancy 4 wing model sitting around)
• small face plate (I used a 3")
• 8 wood screws
• for the rubber feet, I found at Home Depot some 1" rubber feet for chairs - I then cut some1" PVC pipe to put inside the rubber feet to give them strength. Another thought would be to find some rubber test tube stopper
• a little wood glue and sandpaper

Take a look at larger images here