dovetailed jaws or non-dovetailed jaws? That is the question....

[Tony Kahn]

Save your money (for a while) and spend it wisely. I have 2 talons, 1 strong hold and a nova G3 i like them all. The G3 actually isnt, too bad price wise and has a variety of jaws available. i think it comes with #2 dovetail. I ussually keep a set of their bowl jaws on it which is kind of a hybrid it seems, it is dovetail on outside and inside is dovetail shape with serrations.Woodcraft has them for 144.99 with insert. and to make your dovetails more precise you can get the dovetail chisel. My next best suggestion would be the talon, I have #1, #2, #3 and step jaws for my 2 talons, and have turned pieces that my Jet 1642 could just handle.

[Dave Halter]

I have a Talon and a Stronghold and like them both. Hartville tool has a sale on them until the end of April.

Dave

[Richard Madison]

This is as bad as a "chainsaw" thread. Maybe worse.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Bernie,

Where do you buy your Vic jaws at? CraftSupplies?

Joshua

Yes I bought them there Joshua. One Vic with 3 sets of jaws would be around $402 and I bought 3 Griz's with 3 different Vic jaws for $472.

[Gordon Seto]

Reed,

Why would it make any difference if the thread adapters are in your chucks or on the headstock spindle? This does not make sense to me.

If you would clear this up I would appreciate it.

Toney

Toney,

This is not Reed. I hope I can help.
Converting a larger spindle to a smaller thread spindle size has to be longer than a smaller spindle size to a larger thread size.
In the picture converting a Mustard 1-1/4" x 8 to a 1" X 8 spindle is 5/8" longer. That is a lot longer than a chuck insert (thread adapter in chuck). A chuck insert is normally 3/8 to 1/2" protruding, which is far less leverage than the 2"+ spindle adapter.



Both adpaters are from the same manufacturer. Because my 1-1/4" lathe has reversing, therefore it has grub screws for locking on the spindle.
The spindle adapter is something I would avoid if I can.

[Toney Robertson]

Thanks Gordon.

Toney

[William Payer]

Joshua,
I have two Talons and one Supernova 2 (recent purchase). The Talons are capable of holding very tightly on to a tenon, but I find that when using short tenons, they too often tear out from the grip of the serrated jaws if you get a good catch. This probably is more a problem of my getting a little too aggressive in taking big cuts. IF you take small cuts, or go with a longer tenon, the Talon holds very well.
I bought a Supernova 2 recently since Craft Supplies was running a sale with 4 sets of jaws. It also gave me a chance to get some smooth dovetail jaws for situations where I do not want marks on the tenon and want to incorporate the tenon into the foot of the piece. (The supernova jaws also fit on the Talon).
Since your budget is an issue right now, you might want to consider the Grizzly clone of the Vicmarc for $99 ( and $20 for extra jaw sets) Bernie W has these and speaks favorably of them. Later when you have more cash for additional chucks you can make other purchases.
As to tommy bar vs keyed scroll chucks, I see keyed chucks having one large advantage. tommy bar chucks require both hands to operate hte two tommy bars leaving the need for a third had to hold the piece while chucking! It seems to me that keyed chucks are therefore more "user friendly". I find the need to hold and position the piece when chucking, and the one handed tightening of the chuck works very well.
Enjoy the Mustard!

[Burt Alcantara]

As I am an inexperienced turner I've run into problems rechucking with my profiled Talons jaws. Note that this is my problem, not the chuck/jaws.

Often, I will do something that causes me to rechuck a piece already on the lathe. Either a catch, wood compression, or act of God. In these cases, getting the chuck back dead center is virtually impossible for me. I know there are some of you out there that can do this eyes closed, but not me (yes, I mark the jaw position).

After reading numerous threads about pros and cons of dovetails vs serrated, I decided to try the dovetail. I bought a Vicmarc 120. Still haven't used it as I got caught up with making blanks along with a massive HDL (honey-do-list).

Joshua, perhaps, as a novice turner you should try both methods to see which works best for you. If you go that route, get a chuck that will offer jaws with these features. I dont have this option with my Talons and Stronghold because I bought the profiled jaws at that time. Note that while OneWay offers dovetailed jaws, they strongly recommends profiled jaws.

Burt

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Do the Grizzly inserted have the grub screw for reversing the direction of the lathe for sanding etc? Also since this was the reason I asked in the first place. What jaws have you chosen to use with your chucks?

Ken mentioned in an earlier post in this thread the the Grizzly body will also support Nova jaws. Have you ever tried any of those on yours? I have read more often than not that each manufacturer does it there own way and all are different. But then the apprentice and the PSI chucks share the exact same format. So I was wondering. After all it opens up a great many... possibilities.

Thanks,
Joshua

[Tim Cleveland]

As to tommy bar vs keyed scroll chucks, I see keyed chucks having one large advantage. tommy bar chucks require both hands to operate hte two tommy bars leaving the need for a third had to hold the piece while chucking! It seems to me that keyed chucks are therefore more "user friendly". I find the need to hold and position the piece when chucking, and the one handed tightening of the chuck works very well.
Enjoy the Mustard![/QUOTE]

If you lock the spindle, you only need one hand to tighten the chuck. I know some full time turners (Mike Mahoney among them) that only use tommy bar chucks and actually say that they are faster to use.

The problem with serrated jaws (especially OW's) is that even though they provide an incredible grip, they can crush the tenon so much that it can be very difficult to remount your work accurately, even if you do mark the placement of the jaws. Dovetail jaws grip very well and don't have this problem.

You said that you got the PSI spindle adapter, they are alot more expensive (around $60-$70) but you might have more succes with the spindle adaptors that Craft Supplies carries (I think they are made by Vicmarc).

Tim

[Nathan Hawkes]

Reed,

Why would it make any difference if the thread adapters are in your chucks or on the headstock spindle? This does not make sense to me.

If you would clear this up I would appreciate it.

Toney

Because if the adapter is from a small to larger thread--i.e. from 1" to 1.25", the adapter is likely 3" long or so.If there is any teeny tiny amount of slop in the thread, at 3" from the spindle, there will be some runout, and thus not spin true.

Even with the large to small scenario, the tiny runout would be multiplied by the length.

[Steve Arnold]

I realize that this is a very old thread and that's why I'm confused by it. I was searching online for info on the new Jet 1640EVS wood lathe, and came across the the first post of this thread. The OP mentions that he has this lathe (which was just introduced in March), but his post is over 7 years old. How can that be?

[Dwight Rutherford]

I think the OP made a typo and meant to refer to the older Jet 1642.

[Thom Sturgill]

I realize that this is a very old thread and that's why I'm confused by it. I was searching online for info on the new Jet 1640EVS wood lathe, and came across the the first post of this thread. The OP mentions that he has this lathe (which was just introduced in March), but his post is over 7 years old. How can that be?

His Jet 1642 was new-to-him in 2009. Jet recently (2016) updated the machine but did not change the model name like they did with the Powermatic (A and B models) or when they replaced the 1014 with the 1015 and the 1220 with the 1221. I wish they had called it the 1642B-EVS, it would have saved a bunch of confusion. The old model was available both as EVS and manual speed change with either 1 1/2hp and 2hp motors. I own the 1642-EVS with 1 1/2hp that I bought about the same time as Joshua.

[Steve Arnold]

I think the OP made a typo and meant to refer to the older Jet 1642.

Thanks, I should have thought of that myself.