Nova Chuck Question

[Jay Michaels]

I recently purchased a Jet 1221VS that I'm setting up. I'm going to start by working some spindles and other basics, but am eager to move into bowl turning - that was the primary impetus for this purchase.

I do not yet have a 4-jaw chuck. Then I came across this on clearance via woodcraft.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/n...ova?sku=168035

My questions:

1. Is this chuck compatible with the Jet 1221VS? It appears to me it is, as the Jet has 1" x 8TPI threads.

2. Would this chuck be a good one for turning small bowls on the 1221?

[allen thunem]

good chucks.
only issue is being direct thread, (i.e. no insert) so if you up grade to a larger lathe with different size spindle you will have to buy a new chuck. more than likely you will not use the cole jaws. vacuum chucking is far more versatile.
were it me i would find a super nova II or stronghold chuck

[Patrick Morris IV]

Good chuck, good price.

Pat

[Dave Mount]

Not pushing you one way or another, but regarding different threads if you upgrade lathes later, I went through that and bought a 1.25" x 8 to 1" x 8 adapter when I bought my Powermatic and it has worked very well in allowing me to use my previous 1" x 8 TPI fixtures. You see reviews that mention these having excessive runout, but mine was cheap ($20 from PSI) and runs very true, very happy with it. Most of the time I just leave it attached to one of my old chucks. So if you have a good option on a direct threaded 1" x 8, I wouldn't pass it up just because of the upgrade issue.

Best,

Dave

[David M Peters]

Solid choice on the G3. I think that for spindle and bowl turning you'll get more use of of the TK-4824 bundle because it has two other jaw sizes, "large" and pin. The large jaws will be handle for larger bowls while the pin jaws will be good for holding oddball spindle stuff.

I used to have a set of mini cole jaws like those and I wound up only using them on occasion for reversing small stuff. I eventually moved to using a Donut Chuck for most reversing jobs.

[John K Jordan]

If you think you'll use the Cole jaws a lot that might be OK. (I have them and almost never use them.) I also do not like the direct thread version of Nova chucks, for several reasons.

I've bought G3 chucks for around $100 on sale. If you get the type with the insert to match your lathe it is about $20 or so extra but gives flexibility to keep the chuck when you get a new lathe with different threads or sell it - I changed the inserts on the two G3 chucks I had so I could loan them to a beginning turner.

I think the bundle Dave Peters pointed out would be far more useful.

JKJ

I recently purchased a Jet 1221VS that I'm setting up. I'm going to start by working some spindles and other basics, but am eager to move into bowl turning - that was the primary impetus for this purchase.

I do not yet have a 4-jaw chuck. Then I came across this on clearance via woodcraft.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/n...ova?sku=168035

My questions:

1. Is this chuck compatible with the Jet 1221VS? It appears to me it is, as the Jet has 1" x 8TPI threads.

2. Would this chuck be a good one for turning small bowls on the 1221?

[David Bassett]

Solid choice on the G3. I think that for spindle and bowl turning you'll get more use of of the TK-4824 bundle because it has two other jaw sizes, "large" and pin. The large jaws will be handle for larger bowls while the pin jaws will be good for holding oddball spindle stuff.

I used to have a set of mini cole jaws like those and I wound up only using them on occasion for reversing small stuff. I eventually moved to using a Donut Chuck for most reversing jobs.

I think that's the best deal, unless you know you'll use the Cole jaws in the Woodcraft package.

Rocker has just the direct thread Nova G3 chuck on sale for less, and the description says it'll work on the Jet 1221 VS, but extra jaws are nice and add up fast when bought a la carte:

https://www.rockler.com/nova-g3-come...versible-chuck

[Thomas Wilson80]

I've found this website to be the cheapest for nova chucks. I've ordered 6 from them at different times and they've always been top notch: https://www.tools-plus.com/nova-chucks.html
you get the direct thread or insert type for around $120 (would have to buy the insert too if you went that route).

I don't see that exact package so if you really want the cole jaws, probably best to go with what you found, but if you just want the chuck with different sized jaws, you can get a package for around $139 (https://www.tools-plus.com/nova-lathes-48246.html)

Tom

[Michael Mills]

The G3 should handle anything your lathe will. I have seven chucks, four are G3's.
For what I do I would suggest this package on Amazon ($155).
I do have the cole jaws as in your listing. Came with a package about four years ago and I have never taken them out of their wrapping. Used for cleaning up the bottom of the turning. To me a friction drive is much quicker and just as good.
The set on Amazon comes with the Pin (25mm), 50mm bowl, and 100mm bowl jaws.

https://www.amazon.com/NOVA-G3-Chuck...s%2C447&sr=8-3

[Jay Michaels]

Thank you all for the terrific input; I greatly appreciate it.

A follow-up question, in response to the many like-minded posts: why do people seem so opposed to using cole jaws? For holding a bowl the other way to finish up the outside, it looks to me (an outsider, remember! I've never turned *anything*) to be a nice and easy way to accomplish that task.

[David M Peters]

I don't have a vacuum chuck, if I did I would likely use that. So far reversing tasks I've used three things: Cole Jaws (both mini and large), my Donut Chuck, and homemade Longworth Jaws.

The shop-made Longworth jaws, no matter how carefully I made them, would always bind up when changing size. I eventually scrapped them.
Cole Jaws do a decent job of holding a bowl but can be very tedious to reconfigure. Also, the stock bumpers only work well for bowls with outward-flaring rims.
I've settled on using a Donut Chuck most of the time because of they will never throw your bowl at the wall and are a bit less fussy to reconfigure than cole jaws.

As you can see from this thread there are a lot of ways to skin this cat! I'd recommend trying out all the shop-made solutions before dropping money on commercial products.

[Michael Mills]

Only my perspective...
Remove the standard jaws on the chuck and replace with the cole jaws. Then probably have to move the bumpers on the cole jaws to fit the item.
Some folks do use painters tape with the cole jaws to make sure the item does not orbit.
Yes you can finish the item completely using the cole jaws.
Or,
Make sure you leave a dimple from the tailstock in prior mounting between centers. Place the bowl over a friction drive, bring up the tailstock, turn to about 1/4" nub. Remove from the lathe, cut off the nub, sand, add finish.

I would probably have the item finished using a friction drive & tailstock before I could get the jaws swapped and adjusted for the cole jaws.

Some folks really like the cole jaws. To me the set with small, medium, and large jaws would be more useful.

[Thomas Wilson80]

I've only tried my cole jaws once and as Michael said, it took longer to install/adjust the jaws than it does for my usual method (I put 2 layers of shelf foam over my chuck jaws and bring up tailstock to hold in place, then when just a little nub is left, I remove it by hand and sand away any marks). Plus, in my case, the cole jaws didn't fit perfectly with the shape of my bowl and so I ended up needing tailstock support anyway.

Tom

[Thomas Canfield]

I agree with Michael and have the 3 jaw set as an Anniversary Package from Amazon about 6 months back. I like the direct thread G3 being a little shorter than the G3 needing adapter, and have both. I often will use 1" thread chucks on my 1 -1/4" drive Powermatic by using an adapter and likewise use 1-1/4" thread on my 1" drive by using an adapter. Life is too short to change out the threads on a chuck to switch between lathes. I have a set of Cole jaws on a Super Nova Chuck that gets used about 1 time in 8 years recently since I either use a jam block or vacuum chuck as normal practice now.