Name those jaws!

[Tim Goldrein]

Can you please help me out (again)? What are these chuck jaws?
I was given two pairs of jaws (with a load of other stuff, including some chucks). But I can't work out what these jaws are meant to fit! They don't seem to fit a VersaChuck (with any of the kinds of jaw carrier), an RP SC4 or a no-name mini-chuck that I can't identify either.

The first set is a dovetail jaw (pic 1), and the second is some kind of pin jaw or pen jaw or long-nose jaw (pic2). The dovetail jaws are 19mm from front to back, and the pin jaws are 42mm from front to back. They both seem to have the same fixings, so I assume they are the same make.

The diameter is 69.3 mm, possibly 2.75" for both sets.
The spacing between the fixings holes is about 18mm. Maybe that's 11/16" or maybe ¾".

Each quadrant is 35.35mm in radius (pic 3), which may be 1⅜".
On the back (as in pic 3), there's a single locating ridge. I measured it to be 5.12mm across and 1.22 mm high. There are shallow 3mm-wide grooves either side of the ridge. These numbers don't easily convert to inches, so maybe it's a metric design.

They seem like perfectly nice jaws, and I'd clean them up and use them if only I knew what chuck to attach them to. Maybe there's some jaws for the VersaChuck that I'm missing. But I can't for the life of me work out what brand they are. Each jaw is numbered 1-4, but I can't find any other branding or trade marking.

Has anyone any idea what these are? Or were?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[David Wrate]

The jaws in the first and last pic look exactly like my 2" Nova jaws.

 

[Tom Lucas]

The jaws in the first and last pic look exactly like my 2" Nova jaws.

The walls on my Nova jaws are not that thick. But the one's on my vicmarc are. Not say it's a vic. I just doubt they are Nova's.

 

[Neil S]

Middle one 'looks like' Vicmarc long nose jaws.

Woodworking Supplies S/E QLD - Long Nose Jaws VM90/100

www.woodworkingsuppliesqld.com.au

The size of the jaw screw holes distinguishes Nova from Vicmarc. What size are the holes?

 

[Tim Goldrein]

Middle one 'looks like' Vicmarc long nose jaws.

Woodworking Supplies S/E QLD - Long Nose Jaws VM90/100

www.woodworkingsuppliesqld.com.au

The size of the jaw screw holes distinguishes Nova from Vicmarc. What size are the holes?

Thanks, Neil! I'll measure them when I get home this evening. I'm not going to try and guess.

 

[Tim Goldrein]

I've been looking online at both the Vicmarc and the Nova jaws. It looks to me like the hole through the centre (where the four jaws meet) is too big for it to be the same as a Nova 2", and the jaw profile doesn't look quite right. The pin jaws have holes drilled right through, and not a recessed hole like the Vicmarc. It's possible mine are old/obselete versions, I guess. Can anyone share a picture of the back (mounting side) of either Nova or Vicmarc? After all, it's the interface that matters most to me. If I can work out what chuck to screw them to, then I'm well on my way.
Thanks, people.

 

[robo hippy]

My first thought was that they looked like my Vicmark jaws. The tower type jaws are what I use for expanding into an oval recess for sanding. The others look like the small sized jaws, mostly on my small Vicmark chucks. A wire wheel on the grinder will clean up most of the gunk on them. I always keep a wire wheel on one grinder.

robo hippy

 

[Dave Landers]

Vicmarc jaws: First two pics are VM120 (4" jaws), second two are VM100 (3" jaws). These were the jaws I had unattached to a chuck, but the hole and ridge spacings are what you need for id.

 

[Neil S]

Screw sizes:

VM90/100 standard jaws - countersunk socket head cap screw M5
VM120/140 standard jaws - countersunk socket head cap screw M6
Nova - for most if not all of their chucks - M6

But, as Dave has pointed out, even with the same sized screws the ring spacings prevent swapping jaws between the two brands. There used to be an adaptor available for that, but no longer available.

 

[Tim Goldrein]

Thanks, people. I measured the holes (as requested by Neil). The pin jaws at 5.35mm, the dovetail jaws have 5.15mm holes. So both might be roughly M5 clearance holes. Both are countersunk. By Neil's reckoning, they won't be Nova jaws, then. I'll line them up against an imperial ruler like Dave (thanks, Dave!) to see if it's a VicMarc match in the morning,
This is really helpful. Since one of the things that I acquired with the mountain of stuff that included these mystery jaws was a VersaChuck, and since there are VM jaw carriers available for the VersaChuck, it would make good sense that the only thing I'm missing is some jaw carriers. That would make lots more sense than an entire chuck. More exploration tomorrow!

 

[Neil S]

Thanks, people. I measured the holes (as requested by Neil). The pin jaws at 5.35mm, the dovetail jaws have 5.15mm holes. So both might be roughly M5 clearance holes. Both are countersunk. By Neil's reckoning, they won't be Nova jaws, then.

I have both Nova and Vicmarc chucks and I will measure my jaws holes when I get around to my workshop later on today.

What I gave above was the screw sizes (i.e, their diameters). The holes in the jaws will be closer to the drill size before tapping. The following chart gives the drill sizes for M5 and M6.

Tap Size	Drill Size
M5 x 0.9	4.2mm
M6 x 1	5mm

Edit: When I got to the workshop I realised I had been referring to the holes in the chuck slides not the jaws. So, ignore the struck through wording above. See next post.

 

[Tim Goldrein]

So thanks to Dave Landers, it seems that the VM100 3" jaws are the likely candidate. Phew. That was much less painful than I expected, thanks to you all.

Neil – Clearance holes, as I understand it, for M5 are 5.5mm and for M6 are 6.5mm. I usually use 5 and 6 because I'm lazy, and I never remember to add the 0.5mm. Sometimes, in wood, it can be a bit tight, when I typically end up drilling again with the next size bit. Remember the holes in the jaws have to clear the threads, but the drill-before-tapping drill has to be at or less than the size of the inside of the threads.

Good news then! I'll see if I can get a set of Vicmarc jaw carriers for the Versachuck.

Thanks for helping!

 

[Neil S]

But, as Dave has pointed out... the ring spacing prevent swapping jaws between the two brands.

I measured the distance across the inside of the locating ring on the back of both Nova and Vicmarc jaws as follows.

To do this place the upside down jaws so that they form a true circle or, if you think you know the jaw size position the jaws at that dimension. My following example was for Vicmarc 72mm jaws...

​

Then measure the distance across the inside of the locating ring ...

​

That is approx. 36mm.

Doing the same for Nova I got a measurement across the inside of the locating ring of approx 45mm.

​

Checked the screws for the two chucks and Nova are definitely M6 and Vicmarc M5. See next post.

Vicmarc 120/150 chucks and jaws are larger, but none of those jaws you have Tim look like they come off those.

 

[Neil S]

Nova are definitely M6 and Vicmarc M5 on the VM90/100...

​

The holes in the Vicmarc were very near 5mm. Some of the Nova were a bit larger than 6mm.

 

[Tim Goldrein]

Thanks, again, Neil. Yet more evidence in favour of Vicmarc. I am beginning to think the standard jaws are VM90, and the pin jaws are an early version of the Vicmarc Long Nose jaws.The profile looks like the modern ones, though the inner ring of mounting holes is not cut away like the modern ones. Still, the mounting really does look to be Vicmarc, so I'm a happy bunny. I also have a grinder with wire wheels on it, so it's now worth cleaning them up so I can use them. I think the long-nose ones are going to be the more useful ones, since I have standard jaws for RP and VersaChuck (and a tiny 2" chuck as well). Options are always good to have. I'll let you know when they are securely fixed to a set of Vicmarc carriers, but it's looking good.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

@Tim Goldrein , before you go to the wire wheel, have you tried some solveny (e.g. acetone) or even blsde cleaning products like Simple Green?

 

[Tim Goldrein]

@Tim Goldrein , before you go to the wire wheel, have you tried some solveny (e.g. acetone) or even blsde cleaning products like Simple Green?

Good idea, Mark. I have a bottle of Simple Green, especially for moments like this. But not a memory, apparently. It will probably take a bit of both, mind you. It seems to be more than just accreted crud. I was given a very large pile of turning stuff from a friend's late-father's shed. I've been through very large quantities of degreasers, Jenolite, wire brushes, Simple Green, machine wax and elbow grease. If you'll pardon the expression, it's getting to be a well-honed process.

 

[robo hippy]

I have used the wire wheels more times than I can count. Fastest way to get gunk off, and no damage to the metal. I could have used solvent....

robo hippy

 

[Neil S]

For completeness for the next time this question comes up, here is the ring spacing for the larger Vicmarc VM120/140/150 chucks.

Approx 58mm across inside of ring​

Not that some of their larger jaws are likely to be confused with any other makes. Other than Hurricane that has a 61/2" jaw set, most of the others makes only go up to 5"/130mm. whereas Vicmarc go all the way up to the 9"/223mm jaw set in the photo above.

 

[Tim Goldrein]

Yay! Vicmarc jaws they must be. They fit the Vicmarc jaw carriers, and they've all cleaned up very nicely, thank you!
Thanks, everyone – I'm now two extra sets of jaws up. A nice place to be. Cheers.
(And by the way, the cleaning was done with a brass wire wheel. It was a quick job, and I have a cheapo grinder ready for these eventualities. I almost never resort to a steel wire brush, but it was easy here. Tidied up with a spot of machine wax afterwards, which does a good enough job of restricting more rusting.)