# Apprentice Collet Chuck - junk?



## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

*I just got this Apprentice Collet Chuck from Craft Supplies. The runout on this thing seems totally unacceptable, it shakes like a hula dancer. Am I missing something? See my Youtube video to see how bad it is.




*


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## Wes Murphy (Mar 7, 2013)

I would certainly return it. They are an excellent company and returns or exchanges are always honored.


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

As a double check against an issue with my headstock I put my Supernova chuck with the small jaws on those same threads and chucked in a (bigger) forstner bit. No noticeable runout. So it's gotta be the collet chuck.


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## Maylar (Sep 3, 2013)

Manufacturing defect. Something's very wrong.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

Wes Murphy said:


> I would certainly return it. They are an excellent company and returns or exchanges are always honored.


I agree +1. No need to keep it.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Try putting a spacer between the shoulder on the spindle and the attachment, the threads may be machined as a loose fit on your spindle, it is the shoulder that trues a chuck etc.


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

Frank, your comment made me realize that the chuck wasn't even close to threading far enough to seat against the back plate of the spindle. I just double checked and couldn't spot a defect in the threads (like a stray bump), but the threads bind up on the spindle way before the spindle comes close to bottoming out in the chuck. Looks like a defect in the threading, maybe the piece shifted on the metal lathe when cutting the threads.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Have you tried it without the collet in the holder?


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

Yes, that's what I just tried, no collet and no end that holds the collet - looking in the end you can see lots of space where the spindle should still be able to thread in, but the collet threads themselves seem to stop it from going further. It's a dud.


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## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

As posted earlier, a quick call to CraftSupplies and they'll return/exchange it with no hassle.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Must have been made Friday afternoon, too bad.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Hope you get the quality service I've experienced from Craft Supplies, they've always been very good to me.

I have the same collet chuck, and it looks like we both have the Nova 1624 lathe ... mine is a rock-solid combination now that I have the tailstock perfectly aligned with the headstock.


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

Called them this morning, the call went pretty much like:

me: I received my collet chuck this weekend and was defective, wouldn't even screw all the way onto the spindle. My order # is....

them: Sounds like you got a defective piece, I'll have a new one sent out today, we'll check the new one before it goes out, and is it OK if we send the return mailing label to the same email address as the order?

me: yes, thanks.


Can't get much less fuss than that. I had been looking forward to playing with it yesterday, but I'll get over it.

I've got the Nova DVR XP lathe and have been quite happy with it. I've got it on a wooden stand similar to what they suggest in the manual (with a bag of sand on a shelf down below for extra weight). A while back I figured out that the guide plates on the tailstock had shifted and there was no way to reposition/tighten them while it was mounted on my stand, so I took the lathe off and then cut out most of the table top between the bed rails so now I can slide the tailstock up to the head, use a double ended taper to align them, and tighten the alignment plates from underneath. Easy now.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

sprior said:


> Can't get much less fuss than that.


Isn't it nice when you get this kind of service?

It's no fun that you didn't get to play with your new toys when you wanted, but they treat you with respect and do all they can to lessen the pain.

Hope your next one is machined properly, I think you'll enjoy using it.

My next purchase after the collet chuck was a set of metric ER-32 collets, 3mm -- 20mm in 1mm steps ... since each collet will open & close by 1mm, there are no gaps in the range, and metric is really easy to keep sorted in size order :yes:


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

I'll admit that I had visions of being told I had to pay for return shipping, waiting for the return to arrive back to them before they'd ship the replacement (or guaranteeing the cross ship on my credit card), and waiting for their normal slow ground delivery for the replacement (she said she'd ship the replacement by 3 day service). All of those things have happened to me by other dealers over the years.

It was nice when I didn't need to have the fight I was prepared for if necessary. The conversation went so fast I completely forgot to ask if I could buy a bag of their stepped dowels and throw that in the box for no additional shipping - oops.

I'm planning to use the collet chuck to try some bottle stoppers. I don't really have much personal use for bottle stoppers, but then I'm such a computer guy I didn't really have a use for pens either and that went totally out of control. So maybe I'll start drinking now.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

sprior said:


> IThe conversation went so fast I completely forgot to ask if I could buy a bag of their stepped dowels and throw that in the box for no additional shipping - oops.


Call them back -- there's a chance they haven't already shipped.



> I didn't really have a use for pens either and that went totally out of control. So maybe I'll start drinking now.


That's what I like, a positive attitude :laughing:


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

duncsuss said:


> Hope you get the quality service I've experienced from Craft Supplies, they've always been very good to me.
> 
> I have the same collet chuck, and it looks like we both have the Nova 1624 lathe ... mine is a rock-solid combination now that I have the tailstock perfectly aligned with the headstock.


I have the Nova 1624 as well and just received the Nova DVR conversion kit for the 1624. It took me about 1 hour from opening the box to making the conversion and get it running. No more changing belts plus more hp. The conversion kit motor is about 1 1/2" shorter than the original motor.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Bob Willing said:


> I have the Nova 1624 as well and just received the Nova DVR conversion kit for the 1624. It took me about 1 hour from opening the box to making the conversion and get it running. No more changing belts plus more hp. The conversion kit motor is about 1 1/2" shorter than the original motor.


I'd be very interested in hearing your experiences with this as time goes by ... how much does it cost?


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

I just googled for that headstock upgrade and it looks like it's almost $1600! That's just a couple of hundred less than a brand new DVR XP sells for on sale (without legs) and then you have an entire second lathe to keep or sell. Did you get the upgrade for less than that?


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

The price you state is for the actual DVR head, but the price for the DVR to 1624 is $899. The head looks like the 1624 but actually is a new motor with the DVR controls on top. Surprisingly the complete unit is 1 1/2" shorter and 2 hp. Here is a link http://www.novatoolsusa.com/Woodturning-Lathes_c2.htm
Remember it is a conversion unit and you need to remove your existing motor and replace it with the new upgrade. You do not get the complete head, you use your existing head. That is why the price difference $1600 vs. $899.

I was able to get a Bata unit for less but I was very lucky I just happened to see it on a search of their site and than called. They returned my call and I bought the Bata unit. The very next day I saw it as a commercial offering. If you will notice the manual still states Bata unit.

I have not had a chance to use it very much because I am busy with another project which is helping me to pay for the upgrade. 

I am just getting use to the programing feature and speed controls, but it sure beats changing the belt/pulleys to change the speed.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Thanks for linking to this, Bob.

So the belt and pulleys are still in place, you just use a single belt position and vary speed with the DVR control?

That suggests you could shift the belt and get really s--l--o--w speeds if you have a need ... could be handy if there's a finish that would run/drip if it was left standing.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

Bob Willing said:


> Surprisingly the complete unit is 1 1/2" shorter and 2 hp. Here is a link http://www.novatoolsusa.com/Woodturning-Lathes_c2.htm


Like the NOVA DVR XP it is 1 3/4HP when run on 120V and 2HP when run on 240V. It seems the controller is amp limited, so 15amp max on 120V.

Interesting upgrade.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

duncsuss said:


> Thanks for linking to this, Bob.
> 
> So the belt and pulleys are still in place, you just use a single belt position and vary speed with the DVR control?
> 
> That suggests you could shift the belt and get really s--l--o--w speeds if you have a need ... could be handy if there's a finish that would run/drip if it was left standing.


The initial set-up they recommend not setting the pulley speed greater than 1440rpm's, but you can set it to any lower speed pulley. I have not tried a lower speed pulley. They are very emphatic about not going any higher with the pulley placement.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Bob Willing said:


> The initial set-up they recommend not setting the pulley speed greater than 1440rpm's, but you can set it to any lower speed pulley. I have not tried a lower speed pulley. They are very emphatic about not going any higher with the pulley placement.


Makes sense -- it would create a potentially dangerous top speed, and likely cause the motor to stall out (by demanding more torque than it can deliver) with heavier work.

My arithmetic says you'd be able to get down to about 15 rpm by shifting the pulley belt from the nominal 1440 to 214 (low speed of the DVR unit is quoted as 100rpm, so 100 x (214/1440) = 14.8 approx.)

I don't know if you'll ever need it -- but it's nice to know that the day you mount an off-balance piece which makes it jump around even at 100rpm, you can slow it down even further.


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

Just got the replacement collet chuck today... and it's identically defective as the first one! Now I'm mad. They even TOLD me on the phone that they were going to check it before it shipped. This new chuck doesn't screw any further onto my headstock than the first one did.

Can someone reassure me that this chuck does in fact fit the Nova DVR XP lathe?


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

sprior said:


> Just got the replacement collet chuck today... and it's identically defective as the first one! Now I'm mad. They even TOLD me on the phone that they were going to check it before it shipped. This new chuck doesn't screw any further onto my headstock than the first one did.
> 
> Can someone reassure me that this chuck does in fact fit the Nova DVR XP lathe?


That sucks.

I can't give the assurance you're asking for, as I have the Nova 1624 not the DVR XP -- but it does fit on mine.

Just a thought: my chuck came with an insert that adapts it for a different lathe spindle (1" x 8tpi.). If you find that this insert screws fully into the chuck, take it out and measure it side-by-side against the lathe spindle and it'll show how far the thing ought to thread on.

Another thought: how long is the drive spindle (threaded and unthreaded portions) on your DVR? I'll measure the spindle on mine when I get home -- it could be that the DVR is too long to accommodate this chuck.


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

I just got off the phone with them. It seems that the customer service rep who talked with me and who promised they'd check the replacement before it was shipped forgot to tell the people who would actually do the checking, so mine was shipped without checking. Then they did hear about a problem and ended up testing their whole stock and found out that LOTS of them were defective. So now they've pulled out the bad ones and have good replacements. Of course they didn't do anything to notify me that I might be getting a bad second one so I was surprised and this will be the second weekend I had planned to play with it and can't. Since I found out so late it was too late for them to ship out another replacement today, so it'll go out tomorrow (Friday) and even overnight shipping wouldn't get to me before Monday.

They gave me a $50 credit for my trouble, but it's still annoying to have to deal with it. Maybe after this fuss I'll start actually needing bottle stoppers after all...


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Bummer.



sprior said:


> Maybe after this fuss I'll start actually needing bottle stoppers after all...


When it gets really bad, you stop needing them again


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