Nova vs Talon Chuck

Apples and oranges

John Trant (Baltimore/DC area)

>A comparison of the Nova midi and the Oneway Talon (price or preformance) is not fair. The Nova midi is a fine chuck for what it is designed for but it is not nearly as good as the Talon. An appropriate comoarison is the Talon vs the SuperNova2 for which I say the SuperNova is a better value (but also much more expensive than its little brother).

John

Emphatically YES...

Peter Teubel

>...but the new Nova Midi (which looks suspiciously like a chrome plated original Nova) isn't bad.

Re: Nova vs Talon Chuck *LINK*

Heather A

>There was a very thorough thread on this in December (search nova midi). A link to Lyn's review is below. Look at the bottom of his articles page.

Heather


F. Holder's website with Lyn's reviews

Re: Nova vs Talon Chuck

MT

>I was looking at getting the supernova2 but the price was the drawback. Most places I looked sold it for $225-250 after the insert. My lathe has only a 9" swing so I really don't need a large chuck, only a quality one. I saw the midi chuck was on sale at woodcraft for $99 and decided to try it. The jaws that come with it are the same jaws that come with the supernova2. I figured if it didn't work out down the road I could just order the supernova2 body and move the jaws over or try to get it with different jaws.

I received that midi chuck last night so I haven't even had it for 24 hours yet, but here are my impressions so far. It seems to be very solid and well made. It operates smoothly and with just the chuck on the lathe it runs as smooth as without it on. I didn't have much time so I put a small blank on using the screw insert and turned the outside and a small tenon. Then I took off the screw and flipped the piece around gripping it with the jaws and started on the inside. It was getting late so I had to stop for the night at that point. I should also mention this is the first chuck I've ever used or even seen. It worked pretty well, I had reservations about the tommy bars but they are fine. My lathe is a small one so I could put one bar in and spin the chuck around so that bar was braced against the lathe bed and use one hand to use the other bar and one to hold the piece. You don't have to move the bars all that far to tighten it on the piece. I haven't removed the piece yet but don't expect any trouble.

So far I am happy with it, but I only have an hour or two with it. I think it will fit my needs for my current lathe and will get a lot of use out of it. The really cool thing though is I had the okay to spend the money on the supernova2 from the boss but felt this was a better value for me and got to spend the remainder on lathe tools :)

Mike

Re: Nova vs Talon Chuck

Barry Irby

>Mike,

May I make a few suggestions? I have that chuck and was a little disappointed in it. Maybe I was expectiong too much and pushed it too hard, so to get off to a better start than I did, try some of these things.

Cut the tenons to match the dovetail angle on the jaws as closely as you can.

Use tenons near the small diamer of the jwas on dry wood, but near the larger (open) diamter on green wood.

Tighten the jaws frequently when you mount the blank. The vibration of just running a rough blank or starting to turn it will seem to loosen the blank, so snug it up until it stays snug and then check it now and then.

Work up to large pieces until you have a feel for the chuck and jaws.

Use larger jaws rather than smaller ones, if you have a choice.

I bought a steel rod At a big box store that exactly fit in the holes on the jaws (5/16"?) and cut ten inch long tommy bars. Rounded and smoothed the ends on a grinder. They are much better than the loose fitting smaller bars that came with the chuck. (I had noticed that friend's chucks had wallowed out holes in them from the use of small bars.) The holes in mine are holding up much better.

Mine is semi retired. I stepped up to a super nova and put the cole jaws on the smaller chuck and just leave them on there. Now when I reverse a bowl, I just change chucks. A great use for the lighter duty chuck.

Wear your face shield.

Barry Irby

Re: Nova vs Talon Chuck

Dennis Taylor

>I have the Talon and have been really satisfied with it, it is a great chuck..I have only used the compact and it seemed to work well..the small size was a big of a challenge, in that I do beleive the jaws would loosen during vibration, the tommy bars were C--P..I used the compact on a mini, and they worked...I still wouldn't trade my talon, but the compact is cheaper..Dennis