Chucks and jaws (rant)

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Bill Grumbine (Kutztown PA)

>Hi Carole

My Stronghold is the same way. There is a gap between the #2 and #3 jaws. Being the highly skilled turner that I am, I can hit that gap almost 100% of the time without even trying!

Exactly how are you trying to grip the bowls, with the regular jaws or the Cole jaws? If it is the regular jaws that are giving you the trouble, just pinch the bowl between centers and turn the tenon down a little (like that guy in the video shows how to do). Once you have the tenon so that it fits, turn the rest of the bowl to finish, and then use a friction chuck (again, like in that video). My Oneway jumbo jaws sat in the drawer without being used for so many years that I sold them to someone here on the forum last year, and I have not missed them yet.

Good luck with it.

Bill

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Keith Tompkins

>Hi Carole, this may solve your problem....I make a guage from thin plywood or masonite which resembles a large open-end wrench. One end coincides with the largest opening of a set of jaws, the other end covers the smallest size the jaws will hold.

While you are forming the tenon for the chuck, slip the big end of the guage over the tenon. when it slips over the tenon, the piece will fit the chuck without re-mounting the piece. If the small end of the guage slips over the tenon, the jaws won't hold the piece.

You can make one for each set of jaws. Hope this helps!

Chucks and jaws (rant)

Dennis J. Gooding

>Carol, regarding the Cole jaws, when I was using a Nova chuck with Cole jaws, I had the same problem. My solution was to make another set of the little rubber cones that grip the bowl, but of a larger diameter. (If I remember correctly I turned them from wood and wrapped them with electricians tape.) One or the other of the cones would fit any size bowl. (I have since upgraded to a large Oneway and have given away the Nova chuck.) Dennis

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Carole in VA

>Bill, the things that set me off on my general rant tonight were trying to round the tenons on some roughed out bowls and modify the base on a finished bowl. I figure, no problem, I'll just pop them into the Cole jaws. Hmmm...just a tad too big for compression, I'll try expansion...nope that doesn't work either - one bumper setting is too small, the next one is too big. Then I decided I would go ahead and make a donut. Got the thing made and found I did not have any bolts long enough to accomodate my finished bowl. Crap. No hardware stores open around here at night. I finally went with the friction chuck between centers for the rough bowls and left the finished bowl until I could get some longer bolts for the donut. That's when I started thinking about all the times I have managed, one way or another, to turn a tenon that just falls between the cracks on various jaws sets (or a bowl that falls between the nubs on the Cole) and I got aggravated because it shouldn't be this way...there should be some overlap between "adjacent" jaw sets. I figured it was just the lack of jaw travel on the Nova Midi, but from what you said, it it is a fact of life with other chucks as well. There must be a reason for it but I sure can't see it! Of course none of this has a thing to do with the fact that I can never remember the minimum and maximum jaw capacities and am too lazy to stop turning and go measure. :)

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Carole in VA

>Dennis, I was going to see if I could find or make some smaller bumpers, but hadn't thought of using wood to make them...good idea. Thanks!

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Carole in VA

>Good idea Keith. I will embed a little magnet in the gauge so It sticks to the lathe. Old people need all the help we can get when it comes to remembering sizes of stuff! LOL I still don't understand why on earth the jaw sets are not designed with a little overlap between sizes.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Fred in NC

>Turn a donut with the minimum and maximum size for each set of jaws . . . and mark it.

Excellent idea !!!

Fred in NC

>

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Keith Tompkins

>the engineer who designed the jaws probably never worked on a wood lathe.....

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Fog Tanner

>I have most of the jaw sets for the stronghold and have the same problem. So I bought a set of the Raffan stepped jaws (Vicmarc makes them for most of the chucks). That solved most of the problems, but there are still a few that slip through. The gauge is a good idea, a copule of buys in the club have them and I just keep foregtting to make one.

I have the Jumbo jaws, which at the time seemed like a good idea. Later I bought the "flat" jaws. Which are really just two metal plates with holes to mount the "jaws" counter sunk on the face side. There are other holes, countersunk on the backside, for mounting a sacricial pieces of MDF or wood. These can be turned to fit whatever you are turning and then opened and closed like your other jaws. Had I known about these first I would not have wasted money on the Jumbo jaws. You can do the same with the Cole jaws since you already have them. One turner I know did that with his jumbo jaws so he could chuck up bowls larger than the 15" limit.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Don Evans

>Carole:

Per Keiths post, here's a picture of the way I make them.

Here is an example of one way to do the gauges.

One with both ends cut is called a go no go gauge. In other words small end is to small for 50 mm and the other end is too large.

This gauge is good to use on precut pieces to see which jaw set to mount.

The other gauge is set for center travel of the 50 mm jaws and would be the one to use while cutting a tenon on one being made at present time.

Don

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Ace Foster in Ben Lomond 95005

>You might also consider making some wooden jaws, which you could turn to whatever size was necessary.

Ace

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Sam Dean

>One reason I love my vicmarc 120 chuck - there's tons of movement in the jaw sets, and they do overlap....

Sam

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

John Lucas

>I love the extended jaw set for the Vicmarc as well. They are really solid. I also bought the set of stepped jaws. These cover a wide range of sizes but your limited in the depth they will hold.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

ken chase

>I'm new. What is a donut please?

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Barry Irby

>Carole,

I think I have the same chuck, the one with the bars to tighten it?

There is a screw in it that limits the travel of the jaws, I think. I'm not sure, because my screw "went away" years ago. If you take it out, you have more freedom of motion, but if you are not careful the jaws will fall out if you open them too far.

On my Cole jaws, I made a set of hooks from flat steel I got at Lowes. They are an inch wide and about a 1/16 think. I bent them a little past ninety degrees. Rounded off all the corners and dipped the hooked end in that liquid rubber Lowes has for tool handles. I set up a little jig or stop block on my drill press and drilled a hole in them for the bolt on the Cole jaws. I made two rows of holes that are spaced to adjust for the over lap. I use the rubber bumpers to hole them on. They work much better than the bumpers. I got a bigger lathe and they allow me to grip bowls near the capacity of the new lathe. They only grip in compression.

I am also thinking of making some wooden blocks with an under cut angle on them that are either rectangular or triangular with an off center (eccentric) hole and dipping them in the rubber. By fastening them on I could rotate them to different positions without moving them from hole to hole and adjust for different size bowls. I'm trying to decide if the edges have to be concave as well as undercut.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Dick Hines

>MDF board, face plate, sheet cork,and tail sock will solve your tenon cleanup easily.

Put the sheet cork on the MDF with the face plate attaced to the oter side. Place bowl on the cork, open end to the cork. Bring the tail stock up and turn away

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

ben d.

>Carole''

I to had the problem with the cole jaws not being capable of getting a grip on anything that I turned. I contacted Teknatool through their website and was told that extra holes could be drilled to correct this and since it was new to send it to T.V. Geist Mfg. 225 Neale Rd., Parkersberg, Wv. 26105 and he would re-drill the holes at no chg. I have gotten them back and have not tried them out but there are twice as many holes to mount the buttons in.

Web site Tvgeistmfg@aol.com

What it amounted to is a hole being drilled and tapped between each existing hole was approved by Teknatool. Maybe you would want to persue this. Also the cole jaws are said to be able to chuck 10 in. but all I can get chucked is 9 1/2 in. which won't change.

Geist is Teknatool go to place in US.

Maybe this will help.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Ron in Drums PA

>A goldmine of articles

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl

Bill G's Donut chuck

http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/bowljig.html

Art Liestman Doughnut Chuck Plan *LINK*

Craig Daymon

>There is also a PDF of Art Liestman's Doughnut Chuck on http://www.woodturningonline.com that is pretty well written. It came from the Canadian Woodworking magazine. He uses this for hollow forms as well as bowls. The link to the PDF is below. (Right click to download it.)

-Craig


Art Listman's Doughnut Chuck Plan (PDF)

I wonder !

Fred in NC

>Why the vacuum chuck has not been mentioned.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Barry Turner

>Your expectations are reasonable, just not the way it is, and the same problem I had with a Nova Compac chuck. Great chuck, just too limited in capacity. Solution? Trade up to a Supernova or Supernova II.

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Barry Turner

>They're hoping you'll buy another set of jaws to solve the problem. Of course, it won't and you'll buy another and another and another.........

Re: Chucks and jaws (rant)

Carole in VA

>I almost did, but now I know it won't solve the problem. Seems the Vicmark is the only one that provides some overlap? I am not going to buy another chuck for the mini...unless of course it can also be used on a PM which I hope will be my next lathe.