buying another chuck

[paul ashman]

Been a long time since posts, but I am needing another chuck. I am looking at a number of the mid sized ones, the Nova G3, barracuda2, apprentice, and talon. I have a nova midi, so the g3 is attractive because the jaws interchange, but the barracuda comes with everything at an attractive price, same for the apprentice. Does anyone have any experience with these? how do they stack up to the nova and oneway models?
Thanks!

Paul Ashman

"1st of November and I had to mow the lawn this morning, I love Florida"

[Mark Hubl]

I have two G3's and like them. I picked up the SN2 and like it even more. It was on sale at Woodcraft, not much more than a G3. I would also check a couple of the vendors on ebay. They run some attractive specials on the SN2 and G3.

[ROY DICK]

I have an apprentice chuck among others and I really like it.
The others are strong holds and talons.

Roy

[Tom Giacomo]

I have the barracuda 2 and am very happy with it, sometimes it goes on sale with the jumbo jaws included.

[Nathan Hawkes]

I started turning on a rockwell/delta 46-111 and a barracuda 2 chuck. For the money, they are great chucks, but there are better chucks out there. When I got my PM3520, I got a couple of stronghold chucks, and the hold is not comparable. You can just get a much much tighter hold on the wood with the OneWay chucks. But, oneways are more expensive by far. If you're a turning club member, often times Hartville tool gives discounts (my club does). Check them out!

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Since you have the Midi, I'd get the G3. Like you said, the jaws all interchange, a nice plus. I have both of them. Check e-bay, there's a guy that sells them for 125 shipped.

[Mike Minto]

the only chucks i've ever used are both by Teknatool, the SN2 and G3. I like them both very much, and will be buying a couple more of each in the future (i really hate changing jaws). :o mike

[Brian Brown]

I had a Barracuda 2 chuck, and thought it would make sense to get a second chuck with jaws that interchange with the Barracuda. I bought an apprentice chuck from Craft Supply, because I really like Craft Supply, and in the catalog it looked like the jaws were the same. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box, and realized immediately that this chuck is not the same as my Barracuda 2. The apprentice has a larger body. It is the same as a Barracuda 4, and the jaws do interchange with the Barracuda 2. The difference is that the Apprentice has the old style chuck key (much better IMO) and it has a back plate to keep the dust out. I have read that the Barracuda does not have the back plate, but in the PSI catalog pic, it looks to me like it is there. Oh, the other difference... the Barracuda 4 was $220.00, and the Apprentice was $165.00. I am sure that there are some shortcomings on the cheaper chucks, but since I have never tried another chuck brand, I am not aware of them. If you’re looking for bang for your buck, the apprentice is a great way to go. By the way, It comes with all the jaws that the Barracuda 2 comes with, for the same price.

[Thom Sturgill]

I bought the Barracuda 2 as my first chuck, and was NOT happy with the hold. I then bought some deep jaws thinking that might help. My second chuck was a B2 w/o jaws and a set of PSI's dovetail jaws which are sold separately. The difference in hold is considerable, and the dovetail jaws are by far my favorites. The B2 serrated jaws just do not have a large enough serration even on the extended jaws. The OneWay jaws do, and the 'wave' design seems to help also.

While I like the idea of a sealed unit, I have not had a problem with the B2's because of the open back. Just blow it out once in a while.

[Ern Reeders]

Do a web search on Nova chucks. There have been some manufacturing problems recently.

[Dan Forman]

If it's within your budget, go for the Talon. You won't be sorry.

Dan

[Alan Trout]

I have both New Zealand made Nova G3 chuck and a Chinese made Super Nova 2 Virtually no noticeable difference in quality. My Chinese Super Nova 2 has less runout. Neither have much but the Chinese made chuck has about .001 and the New Zealand made chuck has about .0015.

I would not hesitate to buy another Nova chuck. They are of good quality and value and I really appreciate the interchangeability of jaws across their entire line of chucks.

Alan

[Chris Stolicky]

If it's within your budget, go for the Talon. You won't be sorry.

Dan

+1

I like my talons.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Do a web search on Nova chucks. There have been some manufacturing problems recently.

Got a link? I did a "nova chuck manufacturing problems" and found nothing. This site came up.....

[Ern Reeders]

Others have had different experiences Alan, unfortunately. These days you may or may not get a trouble-free chuck (or jaws without burrs).

Or lathe; my recently acquired Nova DVR XP has a number of design and manufacturing faults. Simple stuff that a bit of care could have avoided. So while I'd recommend Vicmarc or Vermec stuff to students and friends without qualification, not Teknatool/Nova any more.

[Alan Trout]

Sorry you have had your troubles. I to have a relatively new DVR and have had no troubles with it. It has been a great machine. My live center has been great and two chucks have been great. I purchased a $139 chuck that works as well as chucks that cost over $100 more and perfectly serves my purposes without breaking my budget. Have I found a burr or two on jaws. Yep I have but most of the jaws I have were purchased before they were made in Asia and a couple of touch up swipes with a mill file takes care of it.

I have an extensive background in the machine tool business along with setup of equipment. I guess I just take the extra steps to insure that I don't have troubles in my setup of my equipment and I rarely do.

I have used the Vicmarc's, Oneway's, and the PSI chucks. All have worked well. I just think the Nova line of chucks are a good value and deserve consideration.

One thing I watch is disparagement of a companies products because I have seen problems with all of them but positive experiences far exceed negative experiences with all of these chucks.

Good luck

Alan

[Ern Reeders]

I've concluded that there's two types of WW machines that come out of China: stuff that you are likely to have to tune and stuff that you won't. Partly it's down to the quality of the QC, and it roughly maps onto brands but not always. Nova has become one of the pot luck brands in my experience and from the posts of others on the 2 or 3 turning forums I read regularly.

The big plus with Nova chucks as you say is jaw interchangability. However, the jaw designs are a stretch behind Vicmarc (which are the two brands I have a lot of) so the margin means less these days. Eg. the bowl jaws have a rounded over outside edge on the dovetail (and inside) reducing the bite power considerably. A machinist friend of mine turned a bit off the face for me and that transformed them. This is an issue Lyn Mangiamelli raised in a review years ago and like other improvement suggestions from experienced turners hasn't been acted on.

The last chuck I bought was a Chinese made 110mm unit branded by a local retailer. It takes both Nova and Vicmarc jaws and is well made and cheaper by a good margin than the rest. That would be my recommendation for someone's first or 2nd chuck.

As for the DVR XP, for a unit described as laser-aligned (head and tailstock) it's unpardonable to have both vertical and horizontal misalignment. The latter can be corrected with the movable blocks on the tailstock, the former requires professional correction.

Partly one's judgement is formed by expectations of performance in relation to price. That lathe Down under is in the same market segment as a Vicmarc 175, but there's no comparison in terms of build quality (and I've owned both).

[Ryan Baker]

I have a number of Nova chucks that I use all the time and have never had any probelms with any of them. I actually prefer them to my Oneway most of the time (depending on the job). The Nova chucks are versatile and reliable at a very reasonable price. They do whatever you will ask of them. Occasionally some problems may slip through (like when manufacturing first moved to China) -- every company has those occasional problems. If you get a bad chuck, get it replaced and move on. That's what the customer service if there for.

Pretty much every set of Nova jaws I have ever gotten has rough casting edges. Two minutes with a file takes care of that just fine and you never have to do it again. Big deal. It takes longer to get the excessive grease off them. Given the price point, that's a pretty acceptable trade-off.

Most people would agree that the Vicmarc chucks are better quality. But comparing a Vicmarc to a chuck at one third the price point is pretty stupid. It better be better for the price. If you can afford the Vicmarc or have a particular need for it, so much the better. For the average hobbiest, the Nova will serve the need just fine, as will all of the other quality chucks on the market. Suggesting that a beginner needs a top-end professional chuck doesn't make much sense either.

[Ern Reeders]

Yes, it's sensible to compare like with like.

And Down under the SN2 and Vicmarc 100 are roughly in the same price bracket.

QC has diminished since the move to China. It's precisely because of that that I wouldn't recommend one to a beginner because they don't know what to expect and struggle to define and solve a run-out problem or mismatching jaws if they encounter them. And you can buy cheaper (and dearer) chucks here where the burrs are removed in the factory so why should you have to bother finish the job yourself?

Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist but I have wondered whether the North American market gets better gear out of Teknatool than other countries.

I know of two turning colleagues here who've had the live centre systems needing work or being sent back. That's out of a total of three - me being the third, with no problem.

And let's not start on the sharpening centre!

My NZ-made Nova chucks are fine. The Titan chuck with Titan Powergrips is particularly useful (but I'm told the Titan is no longer being made. Go figure).

Anyway, there's plenty of choice at the 4" level happily and the OPer should have plenty of info and views by now to make his decision.

[Dolan Brown]

I would not hesitate to buy another Nova chuck. They are of good quality and value and I really appreciate the interchangeability of jaws across their entire line of chucks.

Alan

They also fit the Oneway Talon.:)

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I don't know how long you have been turning, but Nova chuck problems have been "dime a dozen", and not just lately, there have been all kinds of problems, with the chuck key breaking (cheap pot metal) and jaws not lining up (wrong numbers and mixed up, etc, they did seem to have fixed these problems, and hen they go Chinese and new problems arise.
Just do a search at Wood central archive and you will find a long list of posts pertaining Nova chuck problems.
I guess you get what you pay for ;-((

"http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/archives_turning.pl?index"