Step jaw chuck with 5-100mm range

[Steve Chu]

I am a seasoned beginner woodturner. I use a nova chuck and although I have some different sized jaws, it’s a pain to change them. I saw a new style of 4 jaw self centering chuck with step jaws that claims to have a range of 5-100mm for tenons. They look like metal lathe jaws but the advertisement clearly says woodworking. I think you use various steps for the big tenons and reverse the jaws so they are like 4 arrows pointing inward, to go down to a 5mm tenon. I do notice that the jaws have very little surface area so they might not hold very securely. And super cheap too. Has anyone tried this? I also found a different version online for the last picture

 

[Isaac Fisher]

I doubt that those jaws would hold wood very well. Also, a 6 inch chuck is just too big and heavy for a 1-inch spindle.

 

[Asher Langton]

I am a seasoned beginner woodturner. I use a nova chuck and although I have some different sized jaws, it’s a pain to change them. I saw a new style of 4 jaw self centering chuck with step jaws that claims to have a range of 5-100mm for tenons. They look like metal lathe jaws but the advertisement clearly says woodworking. I think you use various steps for the big tenons and reverse the jaws so they are like 4 arrows pointing inward, to go down to a 5mm tenon.

That's definitely a metal lathe chuck and a cheap one at that, even if it's designed to fit a wood lathe's spindle. You'll find the grip of such a chuck to be far inferior on wood to your Nova. And FWIW, reversing the jaws on a metal lathe chuck is more annoying than swapping Nova jaws.

 

[Brian Gustin]

Yup what the rest said, no way is that a woodworking chuck. What I would suggest is just to buy another chuck with a different jaw set every so often, before you know it you'll have a collection of 2 or 3 or 6 or a dozen chucks each with different jaws, then you can just swap chucks instead. (Bonus, you can leave a project in the chuck to swap it around with another project without altering alignments.. or you can get adapter and have a chuck in tailstock so having a project chucked up on both ends, and so on.. leaves you many more options)

 

[William Rogers]

I have no idea on that particular chuck. The jaws appear to be straight (no dovetail) and may not have good holding power. However I do have Axminster step jaws. The jaws I have are steel and the jaw slide and jaws are a single piece steel. Looks like Axminster changed the jaw material to aluminum and you now install them on their jaw slides. I actually bought mine by accident thinking I was buying extra jaw slides and decided to keep them. They are dovetail and hold the wood just fine. I don’t use them often and usually for spindle type turnings, but have come in handy for other things on occasion.
Nice thing about Axminster changing jaws is super simple and no need to have a dozen chucks sitting around.

My chuck with step jaws installed.



Axminster new step jaws are made from aluminum. I don’t think I would want aluminum.

Axminster Woodturning Aluminium Step Jaws

These stepped jaws are similar in design to engineer’s chuck jaws. They present a solution to many workholding situations such as gripping drills or dowels and other small workpieces. CNC machined here in Axminster from high quality aluminium they fit...

www.axminstertools.com

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

The chuck on the left is from my old LaBlond metal lathe and you can see that it has 2 sets of jaws and the female thread on the jaws is full width for the best accuracy and strength so if they are reversing one set of jaws they must not have a full width tread = super cheap.
The chuck on the right has two piece jaws that are each attached with 2 allen head cap screws and they are reversible without removing the jaw base.
The procedure for reversing the single jaw set would be to remove all 4 jaws then reinsert them starting with number 1 and you still may not get it right with the result that it will not be centered.
Bottom line is that is a poor excuse for a machine lathe chuck and even worse for a woodturning chuck.

 

[Alan Weinberg]

Piling on here, but I’d be afraid to turn with that chuck. Nova makes a quality inexpensive chuck. I’ve got that and use it often, also Oneway, Axminster, Vicmarc—a collection, as another poster opined.

 

[Peter D'Attomo]

Steve, if you belong to a local club, you may ask if anyone is selling a used Nova. Or you can post a wanted ad here. Multiple chucks is the way to go.

 

[Jay Simmons]

You probably thought of this but a low torque or adjustable torque powered screwdriver has cut my jaw change time way down. Still check final tightness by hand. Also have several chucks.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

These are the ones you want.