• It's time to cast your vote in the January 2025 Turning Challenge. (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Alan Weinberg for "Elm Burl Bowl" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 27, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

chuck jaws

Dave Fritz

Dave Fritz

Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
729
Likes
203
Location
Montfort, Wisconsin
I'm cleaning up my Super Nova 2 chucks and jaws and even after that find the jaws still have a little slop in them. I think the shaft they're attached to that slides in and out has a bit of play in it. It doesn't appear to move in and out, rather side to side.

Is that normal?

Thanks,

Dave Fritz
 
I too have the Super Nova 2 set, and they have the side to side movement also .....
don't particularly like that, in fact am going to be selling the set I have, along with some newly purchased jaws for them.
decided to stick with Vicmarc chucks & jaws, they don't seem to have as much play as the Super Nova's do.
 
I've had Novas along with several copies of the Vicmarc. The Vicmarc has much less slop than any of the aftermarket copies and less than my original Nova and the G3. In and out slop doesn't seem to hurt the alignment or how the chuck works. Side to side slop probably would although none of my current chucks has any side to side slop.
 
I have been using a Vicmarc chuck on my Stubby 750 for 15 years and never had any issues with the chuck. I purchased a Super Nova 2 about 4 months ago and find myself going back to the Vicmarc. I typically use expanding dovetail jaws and with the Nova I have to tighten the jaws several times during the project. Do not have to do this with the Vicmarc. I guess I am trying to say I am not real enthused with the Nova chuck.
 
just like you Pete, I prefer the Vicmarc's over the Nova
and have had the same issue where I've had to retighten the Nova during turning, in the expanding mode......
never had to retighten the Vicmarc's at all, hence me going to sell my Nova 2 chuck and jaws ........
 
Jerry Bailey said:
just like you Pete, I prefer the Vicmarc's over the Nova
and have had the same issue where I've had to retighten the Nova during turning, in the expanding mode......
never had to retighten the Vicmarc's at all, hence me going to sell my Nova 2 chuck and jaws ........
Click to expand...

Have you noticed any greater free play in the #4 jaw of your Vicmarc than in the others? I recently bought a Vicmarc 120 and all of my other chucks are Oneway and was surprised to see that much free play. I can rock the jaw side to side, wiggle it up and down and a little side to side. I don't think it is a big deal, but was surprised that three of the jaws had very close tolerances and one was far looser.
 
Bill, I own 4 VM120's and 1 VM150, and honestly don't have any free play or sloppiness in any of them,
hence part of my dissatisfaction with the Super Nova 2 :(
When I go out into shop tomorrow I'll pay extra attention to see if #4 is any different than the rest
there might be a way to manually tighten that section, since you're able to disassemble the whole chuck for maintenance .......
will have to check the manual about that ....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top