Nova jaw to jawslide mounting positions

One of the threads here prompted me to look at the Nova site.I was a little surprised to see this statement:

"We have also removed the numbering on the jawslides. After years of research and taking user input, we have found our method of aligning jaws to jawslide numbers outdated! Now, simply set your NOVA jaws on your NOVA LITE chuck at any starting position with your NOVA jaws in clockwise fashion by the jaw markings 1-4, it’s that easy!"

Is there a consensus that as long as you keep the jaws in the 1-4 sequence, it doesn't matter where you start? It seems to make sense but I've always mounted each jaw on the corresponding body location. The language seems to indicate this applies to all their chucks but the only reference I found was for the NOVA LITE chuck. What gives?

https://www.teknatool.com/products/c...nly-sku-23269/

Richard

Dunno. I've always matched the numbers. I have a set of 5" Nova jaws that came with the Titan chuck. They have no markings at all. I've only used them once so for. Seem to work OK though.

In years past, the jaws were made by cutting a circle into 4 equal quarters. These were numbered as you would expect and kept together as a set. Keeping them in the same orientation as they were when they were cut from the same blank, insured that you always got a perfect circle.

I don't know if jaws are done the same way, keeping the 4 matched pieces together as a set. I can only guess that they are all cut and dumped into a bin for a large scale tumble/de-burring process and any 4 pieces should be the same as any other 4. This would make it pointless to number them or worry about orientation when mounting.


In fairness, there is enough side-to-side play in the jaw slides that it probably doesn't matter.
All mine are numbered and I mount them to the corresponding slide out of habit.

Thanks for the replies.

Since the Nova jaws almost always come with the 50mm jaws I'll compare different sets. I guess I'll just play around with them and see if everything runs true. They do stipulate to put the jaws in order 1-4 moving clockwise.

So far I've not been able the contact Nova tech support for clarification.

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Originally Posted by Richard Dooling

They do stipulate to put the jaws in order 1-4 moving clockwise.

So far I've not been able the contact Nova tech support for clarification.

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I'd like to hear some clarification on that as well. If they're not numbered, what difference does it make?

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Originally Posted by Edward Weber

... If they're not numbered, what difference does it make?

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I think it said the slides were not numbered but the jaws were numbered. If the slides are removed from the chuck body (for cleaning, lubrication, etc) the slides themselves have to engage in the correct order or they won't be on the right place on the scroll spiral, the mounting holes won't be concentric, and the slides won't meet correctly in the center. If they've removed all numbers on the slides it may require trial and error to place the slides correctly on the scroll. (or simply turn them upside down and it's obvious which one would engage with the spiral first, which second, etc.) Maybe they have hidden number for reassembly. As long as the slides are inserted into the chuck body in the right order and are machined correctly the jaw mounting holes should be precisely at the same radius and the #1 jaw can be fastened to any slide. I have four types of Nova jaws and they are all like this.

Some of my jaws show clear signs of being machined as a circle and then sawn into quarters. If the jaws were attached to the set of slides in the wrong order any slight misalignment of the saw cuts (and I've seen some like that) they should still run true but they could be prevented from closing completely. If you push the jaws together on the table and swap the order of some you can see how precisely they were sawn.

Note that some jaws aren't marked with actual numbers but small dimples indicating the jaw number, ".", "..", etc.

Thanks John, this makes sense. Since the slides should all be matched in their movement relative to the diameter of the chuck body, the jaws should be able to be mounted at any beginning position as long as their relative positions (1-4) remain constant.

Well of course the slides have to be put back in the correct orientation, anyone using a chuck with a scroll ring should know that.

I may have misunderstood this ridiculous statement

"We have also removed the numbering on the jawslides. After years of research and taking user input, we have found our method of aligning jaws to jawslide numbers outdated! Now, simply set your NOVA jaws on your NOVA LITE chuck at any starting position with your NOVA jaws in clockwise fashion by the jaw markings 1-4, it’s that easy!"

So we have no numbering system on the slides where it matters (for assembly/disassembly) but we want you to put the jaws on the slides in order.

The jaws are still numbered and should be installed in proper order, we just don't care which slide you consider to be number one.
So, in actuality, they changed nothing at all. This has always been the case, now we just removed the numbers so it looks better?

Years of research and user input led them to change nothing, except to confuse some folks who will no doubt, will mark the chuck themselves to register #1 in the same place every time.

Having a numbering system is outdated, who are these people?
If their "improvement' didn't actually change anything, what is the point?

Someone with such a chuck could take out the slides and examine them. As I mentioned, maybe they have the slide order identified by markings hidden under the slides. Regardless, using the chuck should be no problem assuming the instructions are in the manual (and the owner reads it).

Edit: I see the chuck maintenance manual says to mark each slide with a permanent marker before removing from the chuck body.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Edward Weber

Well of course the slides have to be put back in the correct orientation, anyone using a chuck with a scroll ring should know that.

I may have misunderstood this ridiculous statement

"We have also removed the numbering on the jawslides. After years of research and taking user input, we have found our method of aligning jaws to jawslide numbers outdated! Now, simply set your NOVA jaws on your NOVA LITE chuck at any starting position with your NOVA jaws in clockwise fashion by the jaw markings 1-4, it’s that easy!"

So we have no numbering system on the slides where it matters (for assembly/disassembly) but we want you to put the jaws on the slides in order.

The jaws are still numbered and should be installed in proper order, we just don't care which slide you consider to be number one.
So, in actuality, they changed nothing at all. This has always been the case, now we just removed the numbers so it looks better?

Years of research and user input led them to change nothing, except to confuse some folks who will no doubt, will mark the chuck themselves to register #1 in the same place every time.

Having a numbering system is outdated, who are these people?
If their "improvement' didn't actually change anything, what is the point?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by John K Jordan

Someone with such a chuck could take out the slides and examine them. As I mentioned, maybe they have the slide order identified by markings hidden under the slides. Regardless, using the chuck should be no problem assuming the instructions are in the manual (and the owner reads it).

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Jaw slides are physically different in where the thread is cut. They are very easy to align properly IMO (numbered or not)
Why they would bother to change the outward appearance by removing the numbers is a mystery.

The Teknatool rep told me the jaws can start on any slide as long as long as their relative positions (1-4) clockwise remain constant. He also does not recommend mixing jaws from different sets but wasn't sure if that would e a problem. I do think the jaws are circles that are quartered, so there could be some difference in the exact shape of each jaw but I don't see where that matters since the are always open a little when in use.

I'm sticking a fork in this one and calling it done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Richard Dooling

The Teknatool rep told me the jaws can start on any slide as long as long as their relative positions (1-4) clockwise remain constant. He also does not recommend mixing jaws from different sets but wasn't sure if that would e a problem. I do think the jaws are circles that are quartered, so there could be some difference in the exact shape of each jaw but I don't see where that matters since the are always open a little when in use.

I'm sticking a fork in this one and calling it done.

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Yep, they just removed the numbers and don't really know or want to tell us why