Dusty, the G3's jaws will hold square stock, but they can't hold rectangular work securely because the jaws move in and out together via a scroll. If you wanted to turn something rectangular, you could glue a square block to the bottom of your work and secure that in the chuck. Using a layer of newspaper or brown craft paper/grocery bag between the two pieces of wood will enable you to remove the block easily after you've finished the turning.
If you want to hold rectangular stock in a chuck, you'll need an "independent" four-jaw chuck. The Grizzly H8047 (mentioned yesterday in -- http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showpos ... ostcount=2 -- ) is an independent four jaw, but I don't know if it can be secured to the Shopsmith spindle. Then there is the Grizzly H8049, also mentioned yesterday, which you could mount to the Shopsmith via the Penn State Industries 1" x 8 TPI to 5/8" smooth bore adapter.
I don't know the answer to your question about holding soft metal in the G3, as I've never tried it. The chuck looks like it will hold round aluminum, but I don't know what will happen if you have a catch. Let us know how it works out.
Over on the yahoo 10ER group, Skip Campbell mounted a small metal working chuck onto a cast iron Shopsmith faceplate using a metal lathe to get the chuck centered and aligned with the faceplate -- http://mkctools.com/mvc-136c.jpg
Nova G3
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