Chucks?

[Charlie Adams]

I have a Nova G3 Chuck.

Saw a thread recently about the angle needed for the dovetail.

My Question is:

If you were going to buy a new Chuck what would you buy?

Why?


Charlie

[Benjamin Dahl]

Charlie, are you having a difficult time with your chuck holding? There are scrapers specifically made for cutting the recess if you are having a problem with the dovetail. The oneway chucks do not require a dovetail.
Since you already have a nova, the supernova 2 could be a good choice if you want a bigger chuck since the jaws are compatible. if your main problem is the dovetail, either get a scraper or go with a oneway or other chuck that takes a square tenon. you probably have the manual, but here is the link with information on forming the dovetail.
http://www.teknatool.com/products/Chucks/Super_Nova/downloads/Supernova%20manual_120603.pdf
Ben

[Dick Strauss]

Charlie,
You may want to look at other Nova jaw sets since they are supposed to work with your chuck. You might want to try the powergrip or spigot jaws to see if they will suit your needs since they are much cheaper (~$50) than buying a new chuck.

[Ron McKinley]

Oneway Talon is my pick. I believe they come in straight or dovetail jaws and I have the straight ones. But, there's nothing wrong with the Novas. I have 2 of them but don't particularly like the dovetails.....Ron

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Charlie..........Since you already have a Nova chuck, I'd go with a SN2. The jaws should be interchangeable so in the long run it'll be cheaper. I'm transferring my SN2 from my Jet VS Mini to my PM3520B this coming weekend.

[Gordon Seto]

Saw a thread recently about the angle needed for the dovetail.


Charlie

Charlie,

Matching that angle is not critical. We are turning wood here, the fiber would be compressed to the metal jaw.

No matter what jaw shapes you are using, a close tight fitting shoulder is the most important part.

With serrated jaw, you have to remove the chewed up spigot. With dovetail jaw, sometimes you may leave the recess if you want to.

Since you already have the G3, I would go with SN2. With Nova chucks, all jaws (except 1) are interchangeable. You can save a lot of money.

Gordon

[Alex Elias]

Charlie,

Matching that angle is not critical. We are turning wood here, the fiber would be compressed to the metal jaw.

No matter what jaw shapes you are using, a close tight fitting shoulder is the most important part.

With serrated jaw, you have to remove the chewed up spigot. With dovetail jaw, sometimes you may leave the recess if you want to.

Since you already have the G3, I would go with SN2. With Nova chucks, all jaws (except 1) are interchangeable. You can save a lot of money.

Gordon

I have the SN2 and agree whith the statement. We are not worknig with metal the wood will conform to the jaws profile granted that you use enough pressure.
Aside from that how do you like the chuck. I'm thinking about a second chuck and that is on my whish list.

[Charlie Adams]

Thanks for the suggestions...

My problem is my pieces keep coming loose from the chuck.
I am cutting the dove tail pretty close to the correct angle.
And the shoulders are large and flat.

Charlie

[Charlie Adams]

My pieces keep coming out of the chuck.
My angle is pretty close to being correct.
My shoulder is large and flat.

???????????

Charlie

[Gordon Seto]

If you already own a SN2, the choice is simple. Stick with Nova chucks. I like the SN2; the hex key is a big improvement over the pivoting key of the original SN.
I also like the long nose jaw, it allows me access to the rear side of turning. Their bowl jaw has very wide shoulder, that gives a lot of leverage on holding the bowl.
I also like their faceplate rings. Unlike regular faceplate which you have to remove when you reverse turn. I can leave the ring on and still use the live tail center for support on the initial reversing. That allows me to flip back and forth to reshape my piece.
When you want to add a smaller G3 or the jumbo Titan chuck down the road, all the jaw sets can be interchangeable. That would save a lot of money on jaws.
If I have to do it all over, most likely I would pick Nova again for economic reasons. The only thing different would be the G3 instead of the Midi (at its current price close to $100 vs $70 at introductory). For $35 more, I would get the G3 for its flexibility.

Gordon

[Jason Clark2]

Whichever chuck you go with it's critical that the tenon is the correct size and shape. The tenon must not bottom out in the chuck and the tenon must shaped so the top of the jaws sit flat on the bottom of the piece. It's the intersection between the jaws and the bottom of the piece in combination with the grip of the jaws on the tenon (or recess) that will prevent the blank from being ripped free.

Jason

[Gordon Seto]

My pieces keep coming out of the chuck.
My angle is pretty close to being correct.
My shoulder is large and flat.

???????????

Charlie

Charlie,

Can you take a close up picture of how your blank attached to your chuck jaws?

Do you have any gaps between the shoulder and top of jaws? Do you have a sharp corner for the shoulder to register on?
Is your tenon bottoming?
Did you match the dots to the number on jaw insert?
Does your jaw form a circle when closed?
Are you sure the jaw sits tight against the insert? There are no foreign objects or burrs.

Unless you have a defective chuck (in this regard, Teknatool has very good service), a straight jaw won't fix your problem with pieces coming off the chuck.

Gordon

[joe greiner]

My pieces keep coming out of the chuck.
My angle is pretty close to being correct.
My shoulder is large and flat.

???????????

Charlie

Charlie, I'm not familiar with the Nova G3. But how are you tightening it? In most chucks, there are two locations for the chuck key; similar to the three locations on a Jacobs drill chuck. None of these are entirely friction-free in their innards. It's best to use both (or all three) locations when tightening to assure uniform purchase on the wood or the drill, as the case may be. There's a similar construction and advice for chucks using tommy bars.

Joe

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with Joe. Tighten all sides. If you have 3 tighten all 3 and if two tighten both. Don't be afraid to really clamp down. I had the same problem with my apprentice and they told me to give it everything I had.

[John Hart]

....I'm transferring my SN2 from my Jet VS Mini to my PM3520B this coming weekend.


Hmmm....can't do that unless the mustard is out of the box....

....hmmm....could it be? :eek: :)

[chris harvey]

Thanks for the suggestions...

My problem is my pieces keep coming loose from the chuck.
I am cutting the dove tail pretty close to the correct angle.
And the shoulders are large and flat.

Charlie
Charlie
I've got a one-way talon with straight jaws and the pieces never come out. are you cutting the shoulders deep enough?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Charlie...others brought up a very important point....don't make your tenon so long that it bottoms out in the chuck.......

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Hmmm....can't do that unless the mustard is out of the box....

....hmmm....could it be? :eek: :)

Uh....John...it hasn't seen daylight or the lights in my shop yet but Friday morning...I'm thinking a run to the local rental shop is in order....get a engine hoist....I'm not as your or as strong as I used to be and a $25 rental fee is cheaper than an ER deductible....:D

[Reed Gray]

I thought I had already responded to this, but don't see my post, so......

Well, the primary thing to getting a good grip on what you are turning is the fit of your recess or tenon to the jaws of your chuck. Either way, you want a dead flat surface for the jaws of your chuck to seat on. Also, the closer the fit to the jaws is the better. This includes angle matching the dovetail, or the sides being flat, depending on which style of jaws you have. This also includes diameter. If your jaws are 2 inches wide and you are using a recess, you want a recess that is about 2 1/16 to 2 1/8 inch wide. If you have 2 inch jaws, and use a 3 inch diameter recess, there is very little metal actually contacting the wood. The same thing with a tenon. If the inside of the jaws measures 2 inches, then you need a tenon about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches wide. You won't get nearly as good of a grip if you would have a 4 inch tenon, again because of the amount of metal actually contacting the wood. Actual depth required varies according to the wood and size of bowl you are turning. On 16 by 6 inch bowls, my recess is about 3/16 inch deep. This holds well enough for agressive turning and coring, without the need for a tailstock. I won't recomend that you just go out and do this. You need to experiment around and find out what works for you. I expand my chuck into a recess for turning the bottom of the bowls, rather than using a face plate. I use a big forstner bit to drill the recess. I do like this recess to be about 3/8 inch deep, as it is straight sided, and not dovetailed. When I drill them shallower, it is okay on smaller bowls, but not on the larger ones, and after reversing, I will use the dove tail tool on this recess also. I don't really know how high of a tenon you want. It will probably depend on the style of jaws you have. You don't want them to bottom out on the inside of your chuck, so probably not more than about 3/8 inches. Again, you need to experiment.

Another consideration is the size of the foot of your bowl. Generally, but bottom of your bowl is from 1/2 to 1/3 the size of your bowl. A 12 inch bowl should have a foot of 4 to 6 inches wide. This gives you the approximate size of your tenon, or the foot to cut a recess into. If you are turning a 12 inch bowl and only have a 2 inch wide tenon, unless you are VERY gentle, it will come off. There just isn't enough wood to get a grip on. If you are turning a 12 inch bowl, using a recess, and have 2 inch wide jaws, and have a base that is 3 inches wide (leaving less than 1/2 inch of wood between the jaws of the chuck and where the sides of the bowl start to go up, again, it is likely to fail.

You can also over tighten your chuck. I am one of those 'when all else fails, it is nice to be able to rely on brute strengh' guys. It took me a little while to figure out that you don't tighten it as tight as you can. Get it snug, then move your key to the next hole, and snug it up again. Some times I will go around a few times. I have broken a number of recesses and a few tenons by getting a death grip on them. Also if you have it really tight, if you do have a catch (only when some one is watching me) where you are gripping too tightly with the chuck is already under stress, and it will fail there.

I do have dedicated calipers for measuring the size of my recess, They are super glued in place. If you don't glue it, it keeps getting wider and wider as the day goes by. I also use a dovetailed scraper to cut the recess. I ground it to exactly match the jaw angle of my chuck when the scraper is parallel to the ways of the lathe. I do relieve the flat (part that cuts and smooths the bottom of the recess) a bit to the inside so the bottom of the recess can be slightly rounded (convex). The final cut with this scraper, is a 'whisper cut' on the edge, with the scraper just barely contacting the wood. This takes out some of the bumping that you get as the cutter goes from end grail to flat grain. This gives a little better result when you reverse the bowl for turning and coring.

robo hippy

[Ralph Lindberg]

...
My Question is:

If you were going to buy a new Chuck what would you buy?
....

My standard advice, if you are planning to stay with Teknatool, look at the Titan
All of the jaw sets fit the Titan
Only the Titan Power Jaw's fit the Titan
The Titan has the largest range of operation (ie small to large) of the Teknatool jaw sets
If you use the ColeJaws, the SN, SN2, G3, etc do not have a large enough range of motion to reverse chuck all bowls (the step size between the screws is larger then the adjustment range of the chuck). This is not true for the Titan, it has a large enough range of motion that this doesn't occur (or why my Coles live on the TitanBTW, I own two SN2's also

[Dean Thomas]

Charlie & Ken gave you good advice, as have several others.

I've played with lots of chucks, new, not so new, and some that have been in use for 10 years or more. Older Novas were great. There have been some recently that qualify as fishing weights. Shoddy workmanship, many returns. Raggedy jaws and gears, flaking plating and more. If you get a good one, you get a winner. If not, keep trying until you do!

Consistently, the Vicmark and Oneway chucks seem to be the ones that are the Energizers in the crowd. Keep on going and going. Beat 'em up beyond belief and they ask for more. The jaws still come together correctly and the inserts still pop in and out as needed.

Buy enough chuck for your lathe, but don't go into overkill, IMHO. Oneway is careful to tell you that the Talon is designed for lathes up to and including 16". I know a guy that bought a Oneway Stronghold for his Jet Mini!! Heck, that chuck weighs in at 8 pounds! The chuck alone was almost enough to stall the motor. He figured that if it got going, the inertia would actually help him avoid stalls! And like so many of us, he is still hoping to grow his lathe into his chuck. :) 7 years later and the Mini rolls on...

I'm honestly not up on the latest models that Nova puts out. I have an older Nova that I still use on my CarbaTech. Dandy chuck with tommy bars. Works great. I have no ill will toward Nova at all, only toward bad machining and poor craftsmanship attributed to a good name.