Been using the lathe for making some 120mm dia nylon rollers for hanging blocks for fishing boats. Normally they are a real PITA as the nylon gets wrapped round things and if not careful the part can be pulled out of the spindle in the manual chuck. You tighten the manual chuck and its tight but with all the forces acting on the part the nylon gets compressed a bit and the part then becomes loose in the chuck so can easily get pulled out with the nylon streamers wrapping around it. With the Hydraulic chuck the  pressure is much greater for a start but if the nylon compresses then the jaws grip more.
Very happy today

Hood

Looks you're having great time, Hood Only drawback is setting up the jaws for each diameter is a PITA on a hydraulic chuck

Dan

Its not that bad Dan, 6 cap screws to loosen approx 1/2 to 1 turn, slide to where you want then tighten them. Certainly easier on a manual if the dia difference is smallish but it takes quite a bit of winding on a 250mm dia chuck if you are going small to large or vice versa and even more if changing external/internal jaws, mix in some swarf to the manual chucks scroll and its a real PITA. The Hyd chuck beats it hands down for both these then you have the big advantage of a button press to open and another to close
Hood

Looks great Hood.  As always I enjoy your post!

Thanks J and likewise, the Dyna is coming along nicely
Hood

Got another chuck on eBay for a decent price the last day. It is a 250mm dia Forkardt FNC chuck. The Pratt Burnerd I have on is an excellent chuck but the Forkardt has a very nice feature in that you can slide the jaws or remove them totally just by 1/4 turn with a screwdriver. The video below shows how it works, its not the best as it was awkward to hold the camera and work the jaw at the same time but hopefully you will see how easy it is.
 The good thing also is this chuck has the same dia register and bolt hole spacing as the pratt Burnerd so the only thing I will have to do is machine up an adapter for it to thread onto my drawtube.
Some pics below.
Hood

http://youtu.be/iZ4Qfom8enc

This is a very nice feature!

Dan