opinions of this chuck *LINK*

Re: opinions of this chuck

Peter Teubel

>Mike wrote:

"I'm just not sure if the extra price for the Vicmarc ($220 at packards) or even the Oneway Talon ($210 at woodcraft) is worth it."

=======================================

In one word: YES.

Those are top quality chucks. If nothing else wait until there are some reviews on the new Nova chuck. It replaced the Nova Compac chuck which had serious shortcomings.

Re: opinions of this chuck

John Leonard

>The Nova chuck tightens with Tommy bars. I found I could not get tight enough to be secure. The Vicmark or Talon are much better in my opinion and worth the difference. You won't regret buying either. John L.

Re: opinions of this chuck *LINK*

Mark Kauder. Phenix City, AL

>Mike,

The answer really depends on what you plan to do in the future. If you honestly have no plans to go to a bigger lathe in the future, this lathe will work just fine. I have a Jet Mini, and I have this chuck, as well as a Supernova. This chuck works fine, though it can be tough to tighten it and still work the tommy bars.

Now that I have a bigger lathe, and this chuck is only useful with an expensive adapter. My SuperNova is useful with a less expensive insert. I now use this chuck for a dedicated Vacuum chuck.

All the other chuck you mentioned are fine chucks. If you plan on a bigger lathe in the future, the extra money spent now, will pay for itself in the future. If monitary considerations make you choose this chuck, you can always use the jaws you buy for it in the new SuperNova-2, or the big 5" Nova Titan.

Feel free to ask more questions until you are absolutly certain what you should do.

Mark


http://www.teknatool.com/products/Chucks/Titan/titan_chuck.htm

Ihave three...

BubbaBob

>...Vicarc VM 100's, and my next chuck purchase will be...another VM 100.

BubbaBob

I just acquired this chuck....

Lyn J. Mangiameli

>but, alas, my screwed up hand has prevented me from trying it out yet.

This chuck is best considered a smaller update of the original Nova, and actually has very little in common with the Compac chuck they eventually withdrew from production (and I must say I've had a Compac for many years and it has always worked well for me).

Given my limited hands on experience, I can say little definitive, but overall the chuck appears to be the only quality chuck in the under $200 range, and offers a lot of performance for its very modest price.

The up side of the chuck is that:

- it will take almost all of the very large family of Teknatool jaw sets

- it is small in size, allowing a lot of clearance on the headstock end when working with small scale turnings.

- the body itself is threaded, keeping the cost and size down, the latter giving you about an extra inch of between centers length compared to my Talon.

The down side of the chuck is:

- the body itself is threaded, which limits its ability to be mounted to other larger lathes (of course in such cases one is likely to keep their mini-lathe and keep the chuck dedicated for use with it).

- it uses the Tommy bar style of adjustment, which is not as convenient as a key style and won't generate as much force as that style of chuck (of course, for smaller work, one can more easily support the work while actuating the bars, and most smaller turnings aren't going to need or benefit from super clamping force).

There will be more to add to these lists, such as smoothness of operation, reliability, etc. that will only be revealed over some extended use. Still, right now, it offers the small size I prefer with a mini-lathe and the price is so modest that it will be hard for it not to rate highly on a cost/performance basis.

If you have more money, and don't mind giving up a little between centers space, the Talon, the Vicmark and the SuperNova 2 are all excellent chucks, but if price is an issue, I think the Precision Midi is likely to prove a very credible alternative.

More later when I can get back to turning

Re: opinions of this chuck

Dick Parr

>Check out Ebay, they have these and other Nova chucks for a bit less.

Re: opinions of this chuck

Dick Parr

>Forgot the link.

http://stores.ebay.com/Woodworker-Specialties_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQdptZ0QQsclZallQQsotimedisplayZ2QQtZkm

Re:correction relative to price

Lyn J. Mangiameli

>Above I said, "overall the chuck appears to be the only quality chuck in the under $200 range."

Well, I wasn't thinking of the new smaller Axminsters (that I haven't used, but I'm confident are quality chucks) nor the older versions of the Nova and SuperNova that are still in the pipeline and remain available from several retailers. What I was thinking of when I made the statement was the original Oneway, Supernova (now superceded by the slightly more expensive SuperNova 2) etc, that may sometimes seem to show for less, but require the addition of an adaptor insert that pushes them over the $200 mark, and the small Vicmarks that break that figure when purchased through the main US retailers.

I should know better than to make such statements without doing some research to check against memory), and I hope these comments help correct my oversight. That said, it still looks that the new Nova Precision Midi is apt to be a real leader with respect to a quality/price ratio.

Re: opinions of this chuck *LINK*

John

>see this ebay listing, but its only for the 1 x 8 spindle option, not the 3/4 x 16.


Ebay listing

Thanks everyone!

Mike in Mystic

>Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and information.

Lyn: I will eagerly wait to hear your impressions of the Nova midi chuck - I'm in no rush and your opinion would carry much weight with me. Hope your recuperation is going quickly.

I'm still not sure what to do, but I'm leaning more towards getting a bigger/heavier chuck (meaning, the vicmarc vm100 or similar) that has a bit more user-friendly features.

I'm still not sure if I am patient enough to be a good turner. Setting to work on a piece and then setting it aside to dry for a year just seems tortuous. But, I'm determined to make my wife a nice salad bowl set - something she would really enjoy. I'm almost sure I'll get hooked along the way, so getting a "better" chuck probably will be wise.

Thanks again,

Mike

Have patience...

Peter Teubel

>Mike wrote:

"I'm still not sure if I am patient enough to be a good turner. Setting to work on a piece and then setting it aside to dry for a year just seems tortuous."

==========================

Not really. For every 3 bowls you make, rough out one for drying. Before you know it you'll have a good stock of dried blanks. Since I started doing that, I now have well over 100 dried bowls ready for final turning.

Peter speaks the truth

Mike Schwing from Md.

>16 months ago I felt the same. A recent delivery of lumber caused me to consolidate my drying shelves and I was shocked to see how many things I had drying - almost 100! A lot of them are things I'll probably never get to, as they're small bits of less than choice lumber and really small bowls that when I started was still a rare find and all I could turn. (nothing wrong with small bowls!)

I'm thinking I'll just keep them till they're bone dry and give them to new turners that come to my house for some instruction or at club meetings that are dying to finish some things.

Some woods dry out much faster than others. If you can get your hands on some silver maple I find the roughs are dry in just a few months. Not the easiest wood to tool but sandpaper helps in that area.

Over the past winter I spent several weeks just roughing out stuff and setting them on the shelves, figuring this winter they'd be ready. And guess what - I managed to keep myself busy in the mean time.

You can usually find dry, ready to turn and finish blanks on ebay relatively cheap. That satisfied my lack of patience quite a bit.

And you could always work on segmented stuff....