# Bowl turning jaw chuck?



## Muzzy17is (Sep 14, 2014)

I am in need of advice for purchase of a jaw style bowl chuck. I have an older cummins lathe and need something besides the faceplate to attach my work to. Sears has one for around $45.00. Any recommendations would be appreciated.


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## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

pends on the size bowls you wanna make. I can only vouch for the stuff I use. And I use a supernova II and use 50 mm jaws (the come with the chuck) for smaller bowls >12" and 100mm jaws for bowls up to 15 3/4" The nova line is a tried and true brand and I know a ton of people that own em. I also own their 100mm power jaws which are awesome for tall vases. They have a huge jaw line that can take on pretty much anything you plan on turning. The supernova 2 handles anything in the 16 inch in diameter range Vicmarc and oneway are two of the other front runners for chucks if you wanna take a look at their line. Make sure you can get the proper size insert so that the chuck will fit on your lathe spindle


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

Muzzy17is said:


> I am in need of advice for purchase of a jaw style bowl chuck. I have an older cummins lathe and need something besides the faceplate to attach my work to. Sears has one for around $45.00. Any recommendations would be appreciated.


Definitely do NOT use that Sears chuck. Chucks used for woodturning are significantly different from metal turning chucks. Woodturning chucks, unlike metal chucks, have jaws that wrap around a tenon to distribute the load so that the wood fibers are not crushed. You will occasionally run across a metal turning chuck that is being sold as a woodturning chuck. The price is cheap, but using them for woodturning is extremely hazardous.

I use Oneway Talon and Strong hold chucks as well as a Vicmarc 120 chuck for very large items. Nova also makes a line of great chucks. Easy Wood Tools also has a very nice chuck. There are also some Chinese knockoffs of some of the above chucks. I have this thing about not wanting to send every last penny of my money to China, so I don't even give the knockoffs a second look.


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

One more thought -- your older lathe may have non-standard size spindle threads. Oneway has a huge assortment of inserts to mate their chucks to almost any spindle thread size. If you don't find your spindle thread size in their list, they will make a custom insert for you. I think that the cost is about $25. They will also do other custom machining on their inserts. The register face was non-standard on my old Delta "Hunk-O-Junk" 1440 lathe, so I had them counterbore one of their standard 1 X 8 adapters. I just emailed a CAD drawing with dimensions and tolerances and got the adapter in about a week.


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## Muzzy17is (Sep 14, 2014)

Thanks for the replies fellers this helps out a lot.


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## NCPaladin (Aug 7, 2010)

I use Nova chucks also. If you lathe is over 12" swing I would go with the Supernova2, if it is 12" or less the Nova G3 will handle anything your lathe can. The G3 is normally about $50 less than the SN2. I have seven Nova chucks, four being the G3's. The only jaws which Nova says should not be used with the G3 are the powergrips which are made for really big work. If you had the G3 you could still do hollowforms using the 45mm spigot jaws.


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## Bmezz (Jun 16, 2014)

+1 on the Oneway talon chuck. And it's Canadian! The stronghold is for pretty big stuff. 
Cheers, Bob


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## jgilfor (Jan 25, 2013)

I have Nova chucks (Three of them, both large and smaller), a Stronghold, and a Grizzly (Nova copy).

Very happy with all of them. Only point i want to make is that, although cheaper, the Grizzly chuck is clearly not made as well as the others. Not only does the gearing feel a bit sloppy, but i needed to file off some very sharp edges before actually using it. Cut the crap out of my hand just playing around with it when first unboxed. Chinese QC!

If I had to chose one, I would honestly go with an Easy Wood Tools chuck and several of their jaw sets. I PROMISE you that you will get to the point where you will NEED to change jaws regularly. When that time comes, having several chucks, with the jaws you regularly use already attached, makes life a whole lot easier. Now, with the EWT quick change jaw system,that is not as much of an issue. The entry price for the EWT chuck is steep, but if you go the multi-chuck route, the dollars add up quickly as well.

Oh, and the Stronghold mega cole jaws are awesome for finishing bowl bottoms. EWT chuck now has jumbo Coles as well.


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## Muzzy17is (Sep 14, 2014)

I'm going to mostly be doing small stuff for now, such as coasters, ash trays and what not.


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

A counterpoint to the quick change jaws is that you will often have several projects going at the same time and generally when you remove something and later remount it, the alignment isn't quite the same. This can be critical for many items. The best solution by far is to leave the chuck attached. I would much prefer having a stable full of chucks that can remain with the turning until completed rather than one overpriced chuck with fast change jaws.


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## Syd Sellers (Feb 2, 2013)

Bill Boehme said:


> A counterpoint to the quick change jaws is that you will often have several projects going at the same time and generally when you remove something and later remount it, the alignment isn't quite the same. This can be critical for many items. The best solution by far is to leave the chuck attached. I would much prefer having a stable full of chucks that can remain with the turning until completed rather than one overpriced chuck with fast change jaws.


Bill, for us poor folk that can't afford a stable full of pure bread chucks, all you need to do is mark and locate the piece so it goes back on the chuck in the same way it came off. I always mark where Jaw #1 fits on the piece and you can take it off and back on a dozen times with perfect alignment.
Learned this trick form a metal lathe operator years ago...
Safe turning....:yes:


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

Syd, I can buy about three of my pure "bread" [sic] chucks for the cost of one EWT chuck with quick change jaws. BTW, a simple trick that Bill Rubenstein who was the Stubby Lathe distributor in the US showed me a couple years ago is how to make any Oneway Talon or Stronghold chuck into a quick change design. All that is necessary is to get a set of inner jaws for each set of outer jaws and remove the roll pin so that the jaws can be scrolled completely out and then a different size set of inner/outer jaws installed.

I have been marking jaw locations and numbers for years, but the problem is that when jaws never perfectly align they are removed and reinstalled. It is generally not a problem for general purpose things like bowls, but for some of the high precision things that I do, the change in alignment is not tolerable. One example is a current project where I have an inlaid groove on the perimeter of a dyed rim platter. If there is any misalignment, the pattern will not be consistent when I remount it to turn the inlay to reveal the pattern.


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## dartman (Oct 12, 2012)

I use a WoodRiver chuck from Woodcraft (house brand) and it works well.Optional jaws are reasonably priced also.


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