Pennstate Industries - LA341018 3/4 x 10 tpi Headstock Spindle Adapter (Rating: 5)

A friend of mine gave me a Harbor Freight last year to help support my interest in turning. It isn't a bad beginner lathe and I am definitely not one to complain about such a thoughtful gift, but I did find the mounting and remounting of turned pieces on a faceplate frustrating over time. The lathe has a proprietary 3/4 inch x 10tpi spindle which makes purchasing 3rd party vendor chucks nearly impossible. I recently discovered, though, that Penn State Industries manufactures adapters for these strange spindle sizes and my Harbor Freight lathe is one of them.

I ordered the adapter as well as the CUG3418CCX 4 jaw lathe chuck (right now it includes a free set of jumbo jaws making it a pretty complete chuck package) and both arrived today. I can only speak for the adapter at present as I still have to put the chuck through some turnings.

The adapter came boxed and well packaged and the internal and external threads were clean cut. There were no abnormalities and the unit was very solid and had some heft. I had no trouble attaching the adapter to the lathe, nor to the chuck. When I turned the lathe on, the whole unit looked well balance. There was no visible wobble, even though the chuck had some substantial weight to it. The unit retails for around 17 bucks at the penn state site but can be purchased from Amazon for under 14 dollars with free shipping on an order over 25 dollars.