I’ve had a four jaw chuck for my lathe since I’ve had the lathe, but have never used it. I kept it in a protective plastic bag, but still wood shavings found their way in, and the protective oil polymerized, making the surface of the chuck a sticky mess. So it was time to disassemble and clean it! (And see how it works.)

I removed the jaws and gave everything a good rub down with liquid wrench and a rag. I needed to let some of the jaws soak, then give them a right whack to loosen the bolt so they could rotate. Once all the old lubricant was removed, I reassembled it.

The chuck itself does not have a maker’s mark and the instruction manual is not with my other manuals. So I had to look up some videos on how to use it (and found some really poorly translated instructions). I tried setting it up as pictured, but wasn’t comfortable with the security of the grip, so flipped all the jaws around to hold smaller stock, which does work well.

Today my favorite tool is my pin vice. It has many tiny drill bits stored inside and is just right for making small holes to start tiny screws in precious material. My youngest’s guitar needed a new tuning mechanism (a washer broke on the old one), and although the new part fit everywhere else, one hole was way off. Ten seconds with my pin vise and the last screw had a new pilot hole so I could smoothly screw it in. Now she can tune the guitar without the third string being squirrelly.

I bought a splash guard for keeping the oil splatter down when I was pan cooking. I use it more as a strainer to drain my rice when I make it! (I can never get the ratio of water to rice right, so I go traditional and use a lot of water, cook for 12 minutes, then drain off the excess and rinse in hot water.) I have recently discovered that it also makes a good pizza peel for lifting the pizza on and off the pizza stone (once it is mostly cooked). I really like multi-use utensils.