jaws&chucks so many/few choices

[Raul McCai]

Some one said to me when I bought my lathe "Welcome to the world's most expensive hobby." Well It ain't as bad as yachting, but it's spendy. I mean I just last night spent almost a hunnert dollahs to get a itty bitty hunk of tool steel from Weidmann in Germany: A little thing, barely a couple inches long. But nobody in the US is making hook tools.

I have aVM100 chuck on a PM 3250b, I just ordered the 144mm jaws for it 'cus I wanna do a couple of platters.
Which of course got me looking at other chucks.
There is the VM 150 - - it's bigger.
Where would you use the VM 150? What sort of work might call for it? A bigger lathe?

I remember eyeballing my VM100 and wondering if it was beefy enough. Of course, my benchmark was from a different industry altogether; the 6, 8, 10, and 12 inch ( and bigger) chucks I was used to using in machine shops. So far the VM100 has been plenty beefy.

 

[Odie]

Hi Raul........😀

Remember the 1/3 rule?

It's the loosely applied general rule that the best visual appearance and stable turning is provided by making the foot 1/3 of the total width of the turning. This, of course, depends on how wide, and how deep the turning is. Personally, I think the visual is better when it's more like 1/3 minus 10% of the total width......but although the general appearance might be enhanced, the smaller the foot, the more stability issues there will be.

If you want to do an 18" platter, or bowl, then you probably ought to think about having a chuck that will have jaws that open to about 5" to 6", or so.

Some turners take it even further, and make the foot much smaller. If that's your plan then the chuck you have might work for your intentions.

ko

 

[hockenbery]

Vicmarc has the 100, 120, 150

The 100 is sort of the oneway Talon size
The 120 is sort of the oneway stronghold size
And the 150'is bigger .

I use the 120 a lot and it it is my favorite chuck.
Bigger chucks are designed to hold more weight than the smaller ones.
The 120 would be a good chuck size for the powermatic.
I would definitely use a vicmarc 120 or a oneway stronghold for bowls 14" diameter and larger.
I use my Talon on the the 12" lathes and might turn an 11" bowl with it.
I have used a VM 100 and it is a nice chuck.

I prefer the hex key used in the Vic Marc.

 

[hockenbery]

Foot and chuck jaw size have no relationship to each other unless you plan to turn the foot from the wood in the tenon.

A bowl with a six inch foot can be turned easily using a 2" tenon
A 1" foot can be turned easily using a 5" diameter tenon.

Generally you want a larger tenon for larger work.
However I have turned some 18" bowls using the #2 jaws on the vicmarc 120 or the stronghold.
# 3 jaws would be better for bowls over 14" and absolutely essential if you might get a catch.

 

[Odie]

Foot and chuck jaw size have no relationship to each other unless you plan to turn the foot from the wood in the tenon.

A bowl with a six inch foot can be turned easily using a 2" tenon
A 1" foot can be turned easily using a 5" diameter tenon.

Generally you want a larger tenon for larger work.
However I have turned some 18" bowls using the #2 jaws on the vicmarc 120 or the stronghold.
# 3 jaws would be better for bowls over 14" and absolutely essential if you might get a catch.

I get what you're saying here, Al.....

I have highlighted the key element in your comment above. If the intent is for a minimum amount of waste, and the plan is to use the tenon as a part of the foot, then the size of the tenon is directly related to the size of the foot......although, I'd have to agree with you that it doesn't necessarily have to be. I believe this is the point you intended to make.

Raul......I will clarify my comment above, to say that you surely can use a smaller chuck with a smaller tenon for a larger foot, at the expense of wasted wood. It's this that I didn't consider when I made my previous post. For me, I purchase all my wood, so one of my main concerns is to have as little waste as possible. I don't normally waste any more than is absolutely necessary, but sometimes I do waste some in order to eliminate flaws.

ko

 

[hockenbery]

The tenon needs to be the size necessary to adequately support the wood for turning.

Design and shape vary a lot among turned objects. Generally for non functional work the smaller the foot the more attractive. The rule of thirds for a foot on a functional bowl works pretty well to keep salad off the table but it is usually a concession to function and rarely provides the best looking form.

Two common teaching elements I have heard many times are:
Don't let the size of the blank dictate the shape of your form.
Don't let the faceplate or chuck dictate the size of the foot.

One of the great things about working with bowl blanks from logs is that we usually have an extra 1\2" for a tenon.
Buying blanks makes us want to use the "whole thing" we paid for but we can usually find one the size we want or get one cut to order.

Always go for a good looking shape even if it means making shavings from $$$$
Al

 

[Bill Boehme]

Some one said to me when I bought my lathe "Welcome to the world's most expensive hobby." Well It ain't as bad as yachting, but it's spendy. I mean I just last night spent almost a hunnert dollahs to get a itty bitty hunk of tool steel from Weidmann in Germany: A little thing, barely a couple inches long. But nobody in the US is making hook tools.

I have aVM100 chuck on a PM 3250b, I just ordered the 144mm jaws for it 'cus I wanna do a couple of platters.
Which of course got me looking at other chucks.
There is the VM 150 - - it's bigger.
Where would you use the VM 150? What sort of work might call for it? A bigger lathe?

I remember eyeballing my VM100 and wondering if it was beefy enough. Of course, my benchmark was from a different industry altogether; the 6, 8, 10, and 12 inch ( and bigger) chucks I was used to using in machine shops. So far the VM100 has been plenty beefy.

It's far from being the world's most expensive hobby, but it is expensive enough.

All of our neighbors have swimming holes in their back yards and most of the time they are used by the ducks from the lake a couple hundred yards from here. They've all spent far more than the cost of woodturning.

My first hobby that I started fifty years ago was amateur radio. It's at least two or three times the cost of woodturning.

Then I took up flying after graduating from college and going to work for an aerospace company ... I think there's some sort of a connection between the two because a lot of engineers where I worked had the same malady. And, of course if you're going to fly then you need an airplane. And spend money.

I never tried golf, but it probably isn't cheap either.

When I was in college I enjoyed photography so after retiring I decided to resume that hobby. Things had changed. My old film SLR cameras were now dinosaurs. And, to my surprise, prices had gone up a bit during the intervening forty years. Some of the supertelephoto lenses cost more than a Oneway and Robust lathe combined. And some DSLR cameras cost more than either of those lathes. And all of the accessories can more than match the cost of woodturning accessories.

So, here I am ... finally at an affordable hobby. I paid around $500 for my first lathe (a Delta 1440 "Boat Anchor") and then asked a foolish question, "Do I need anything else?"

I had heard that wood was free so this couldn't be an expensive hobby. Could it? Turning tools and accessories, you say? OK, so maybe a few more dollars. 😀

Regarding chucks, you really don't need the VM150. The main difference between it and the VM120 is the fast action feature for opening/closing the jaws. The VM120 works with all of the same jaws as the VM150.

 

[Dean Center]

RE: ordering fro Europe. Michael Hosaluk sells a hook tool system with a solid steel shaft that takes replaceable hooks. He's in
Saskatchewan, which is very nearly upper North Dakota, and an AAW founding member.