titan chuck

[Alex Elias]

Is this chuck being discontinued? I seem to have a hard time finding it on places they use to have it such as CSUSA. I'm contemplating getting a larger size chuck, and since I own the supernova 2 I thought the logical thing to do is to the Titan therefore I could use the jaws on either one.
I like the Vicmark as well but I doubt I can switch jaws between them. Too late now, but I think I should have got the Vicmark back then.
Thanks for the feed back.

[Bill Blasic]

It has been mentioned to me that the Titan may get a rework to upgrade it. The Nova Chuck operation has been moved to China. I am currently waiting on a Chinese made SN2 for comparison to the New Zealand version. I will post my findings. Craft Supplies had the Titan on their closeout page and I ordered one and the paperwork went through but I never heard from them?

[robert hainstock]

Gee Bill, I've been waiting for them to outsource my morning evacuation to China; wish they'd hurry.

Quality control might always be a problem with the manufacturing process there as it was after WWII the big one with Japenese goods. :rolleyes:
Bob

[Ralph Lindberg]

I just checked the 2008 Catalog (available at their web-site) and the Titan is still listed

I did see a swing away bed extension, I know I haven't seen before....

[John Peck]

I have a Nova Titan, which I purchased to use with my collection of Nova jaws for several SuperNova2's, and it wobbles. I've tried 3 different Teknatool-made spindle adapters (all 1-1/4 tpi) and it wobbles with all 3, although the amount of wobble differs from just a little to a lot depending on the adapter. I've since purchased 2 Vicmarc 120 chucks. They are superb and run true. After using the Vicmarcs, I would never go back to buying Nova chucks.

[Allen Neighbors]

Alex, I ordered the Nova Titan chuck from CSUSA, back in November, when they had the bare chuck for $164, and the Titan Powergrip Jaws, separately for $69. I received the chuck, and it's wonderful, and runs true! When I got it, still in November 07, they had backordered the jaws. After about 2 weeks of waiting, I emailed them, and they told me they were backordered by their supplier to January 30... today.
I have two SN2s, and when you use the SN2 jaws on the Titan, there is a lot more expansion/contraction distance, so that makes it nice.
Since outsourcing their manufacturing to China, there have been some pretty raunchy jaws getting past their quality control, but they've been replaced pretty quickly when the purchaser sent pictures, complaining about it.
Teknatool is giving it their all, trying to keep the quality up to their standards, but as with everything else, there are some 'learning curves' to get past... especially with the Chinese.

[Alex Elias]

Thanks for the responses. I'll get the titan. I might wait to see the upgrated one.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Alex, Bob Gadd (a Canadian distributor) has Titan kits listed on his eBay site, look for Woodworker Specialties

It used to be (before the slide of the US dollar) that you could get Teknatool chuck kits and systems from him for a lot less then any US distributor. I few years ago I got an SN2 chuck, four jaw sets, spare parts, tools, etc from him as a package for lots less then any US seller

[Martin Braun]

I have a Titan. I wouldn't get it again, for the following reasons:

1.) The jaws I received were mismatched. Had to have the dealer send replacements, and I ended up paying for postage (one of the perils of doing business online).

2.) The adaptor has to be seated extremely well in the chuck, or you get wobble. I have gotten mine 'good enough', but it still took a lot of playing around.

3.) The adaptor threads don't match my powermatic threads well, so the spindle shoulder & adaptor shoulder have to be very clean before you mount the chuck.

4.) The adaptor tends to unwind out of the chuck, and you have to have the worm screw really torqued down to keep the adaptor in the chuck.

For all this tinkering around, I should have just gotten a Vicmarc and saved myself the time.

[Barry Elder]

You gotta remember that Nova sets the standards on what they will accept as tolerance on anything manufactured in China. If they set up a zero tolerance, then they will get good machining. Maybe more Chinese workers will die as punishment for not being perfect, but they can turn out whatever products to whatever standards are ordered. Whether it's a toy company or a machinery company it is always and forever about squeezing out an extra nickel of profit.

[Hilel Salomon]

I can't speak about the Titan but I have strongholds, supernova 2's and a vicmarc. Last fall, when I wanted to get some chucks to accomodate my vicmarc, I bought some Grizzly chucks and found that they couldn't accomodate the larger (120) vicmarcs. I did find that they would take my supernova jaws quite easily and I believe that they will also take the vicmarc 100 jaws. Bottom line is that if you get a vicmarc 100, it will most probably accept your supernova jaws. It isn't the big one, but the quality on the big one is superb.
As a former professor of Chinese History and Philosophy, I love Chinese culture, but I've found that quality control in China is incredibly uneven. It reminds me of Taiwan in the 1960's. One batch of stuff would come out great and the next one would be worse than junk. I saw the earlier post which suggested that if Teknatools oversaw quality control everything would be all right, but my guess is that the company may not be able to do that.
If the new supernovas are being made there, I would stick to Oneway (great stuff and fantastic tech support) or Vicmarc. Ultimately with tools you get what you pay for it.
Luck, Hilel.