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Teknatool chucks not suitable to woodturning.

OK so Jon thinks he has a bad Nova chuck and nobody called him back from Nova so for him Nova is dead but the rest of you (myself included) who have no problems why don't we put this thread to bed.
😑 No, that is not what I've said. I think the nova chuck is poor quality and it's been problematic for years, and I'm tired of dealing with it, and IMO their poor quality jaws.

It bugs me you are misconstrueing the issues I had with the RMA of my nova lathe with the chuck issues. Nova left me completely in the dark for months in 2020-2021 regarding the RMA, from fall 2020 through the end of January 2021. I've never contacted nova about the CHUCKS. FWIW, after my prior experiences with their technical support, I have no interest in contacting them again, either. I simply want to be done with them.

I would appreciate you not putting words in my mouth and not misconstrueing my situation, Bill.

Otherwise, I agree, we can put this thread to bed. The horse is dead.
 
I've been looking through the Nova G3 chuck manual today, to make sure I'm reassembling my chucks correctly. Noticed this:

View attachment 76452


"DO NOT EXCEED THEM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES."

Seems to give weight to what the OP said... If these very low RPMs are really that critical of a speed limit for Nova, that makes me highly suspicious. Their speeds are pitifully slow, well below speeds frequently recommended by most of the world's top turners as far as I am aware...
That's just legalease, IMO.
 
I looked at the manual for Teknatools jaws. https://www.teknatool.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Accessory-Jaw-Manual_June08.pdf

Very few jaw sets have a maximum speed above 684 rpm, so obviously they cannot be recommended for woodturning. Any comments?

View attachment 74903
I hope you don't read the warning labels on any prescription drugs, cords or plugs, any electrical product or any product sold in California (it all causes cancer). We live in a litigious society and when you get 1 page of instructions followed by 5 pages of warnings, denials, waivers etc, you know you really should have gone to law school. LOL
 
A problem during turning can be avoided by creating a good solid tenon with a flat surface for the jaws to rest on, making sure there are no cracksin the blank that would cause pieces to fly off or the blank to "explode" apart. Also, sometimes I've made the tenon a little larger and used a larger set of jaws when I'm at all concerned. I recently started turning a piece out of an old piece of red oak (very dry). It was essentially a roughly square block with bark on one side and unevenly cut ends. I started out mounting betweene centers, specifically with an Elio Drive which uses the 3 points on the headstock. I put a little larger tenon on it, about 3 1/2" (slightly less) and used larger jaws than I normally would since it's an endgrain piece and it will be hollowed out. No issues so far except for cracks not obvious in the beginning. To me, that's more of a threat than exceeding Nova's recommendations. By the way, all my chucks and jaws are Nova right now. Never had a problem while using any of the chucks or jaw sets I own.
 
I hope you don't read the warning labels on any prescription drugs, cords or plugs, any electrical product or any product sold in California (it all causes cancer). We live in a litigious society and when you get 1 page of instructions followed by 5 pages of warnings, denials, waivers etc, you know you really should have gone to law school. LOL

If you read all the crap on the side of a ladder, you'd never use one. :rolleyes:
 
When I’ve checked metal turning chucks (all of mine having one piece jaws) I chuck up a ground steel rod to check concentricity.
For wood turning chucks with a multitude of different top or accessory jaws I don’t bother doing this. I simply put a DTI on the chuck body.
Only one wood turning chuck has failed the test and I’m pretty sure it was the screw insert. I’ve only bought direct threaded chucks since then.
I would though consider wood turning chucks with interchangeable back plates.
 
My SN2 serves me well too.

Based on what has been revealed, I still contend the issue Jon experienced was rooted in bad jaws (perhaps of questionable origin), and not the chuck itself.

Tim

It is certainly possible. Someone mentioned someone may have put a different set of jaws back in the package and returned it, then I bought it (for the 75mm jaws). Can't say, honestly. They do look like they were made by Nova. I think part of the issue is they may have been cut opposite the standard direction, as they do fit together slightly better when I arrange them the opposite direction as the slide numbers on the chucks. I also even tried to put the slides in the opposite direction, but the scroll simply wouldn't align with them that way. It also seems like there may potentially be two different sets of jaws in this one set. Two of them seem to be slightly wider than the other two, regardless of which way I order them (clockwise or counterclockwise). I guess its possible someone bought a set, mixed em up with another set, and returned em. 🤷‍♂️
 
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