From Record Power.
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New Chuck
- Thread starter Bill Alston
- Start date
Interesting idea. I do wonder how big a market they will get. I think it will be reduced by the fact they will mostly be smaller cleaning range. Might tempt me to look at a record power chuck to add to my collection, currently invested in nova chucks.
Gregory
Gregory
I have a supernova 2 and it’s not bad. I brought it as it was direct threaded (M33) and cheap. It is Nickel plated ( Record chucks are plain steel) so somewhat rust resistant. My only criticism is that the chuck Jaws and Pinions are cast metal and have a poor surface finish. The teeth on the Jaws are particularly bad compared to any of my other chucks. I wouldn’t buy another.
What jaws did you get that are cast? I have a bunch of nova jaws and the only cast ones are the cole jaws. I don't think I've seen any others.
The Chuck Jaws are cast, not the Accessory Jaws.
Here they are from the back, pretty poor in comparison to all my other chucks which have machined Jaws.
Here they are from the back, pretty poor in comparison to all my other chucks which have machined Jaws.
The Versalock jaws and accessories are interesting, and the jaws should fit on the SN2 chuck bodies. Still, I'm probably not goi g to run out and buy them any time soon.
More screws and threads to get full of guk. I sadly (or not) am of the camp that adds chucks, and prefer to never change jaws. :|
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Not *cast* - More like pressed metal (Like some high end bowl gouges & turning tools can be) - a lot would depend on quality control but in many cases Pressed metal can be even better quality than parts machined from solid steel. I have Nova chucks (including Supernova 2) and have been very pleased with fit & finish as well as precision and durability.
No, they’re definitely cast:
Ah, the jaw slides.
The Nova jaws will fit RP chucks.so those will also fit Nova chucks.
Same with me. I am up to six ot seven now.
They are nice. I have three of them.
I use SuperNova 2s exclusively. I don't have experience with any high-end chucks to make a comparison. They work for me.
I too was initially confused by the terminology used!
The Nova manuals have a parts diagram with the names of all the parts if anyone wants to know.
I useTeknatool/Nova chucks and have had no problems with operation, wear, or precision over the last 20+ years.
All have operated smoothly (except for two I bought used, abused by the Hulk, worked well after I repaired them.)
I wouldn't hesitate to buy more, in fact I recently bought two more SN2s to get my supply back up to 20 after giving some away.
Besides hating to change jaws, I sometimes keep several projects in progress in chucks, some with student projects, some to loan to friends.
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Nova calls these jaw slides, Oneway calls them base jaws, I’ve not seen them referred to as chuck jaws. The Nova slides are sintered powdered metal. This process allows parts to be formed with precision without machining each part, and include lower friction material in the material mix. In my mfg experience we used such parts that were made within a couple thousandths of an inch. Oneway base jaws are machined. I’ve been using both Nova and Oneway chucks for ~ 6 years. Both work well and I expect will give decades of good performance.
Different companies call them different things. Chuck Jaws differentiates them from Accesory Jaws. Like OneWay, German wood turning suppliers also call them Base Jaws, and the part that actually grips the wood, Top Jaws. The metalwork industry uses the same terminology. I’ve known several machinists call them Chuck Jaws. In the end though they are Jaws that go in the Chuck body so I think it’s descriptive enough. I’m happy with OneWays description though, it makes perfect sense to me.
Edit: In Record Powers English instructions they call them Jaw Slides, but in the German instructions they call them Base Jaws!
As I mentioned earlier though, Nova say their Jaw slides are Cast.
Sintering is quite different from Casting.
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Just curious. Did that information come directly from Teknatool or somewhere else? Is it from an advertisement?
The reason I ask is I tried searching for info on jaw slides directly from Teknatool and all I could find on the internet was this, kind of sparse and lacking technical details. (maybe they are being vague to protect manufacturing process technology, or maybe they can imagine anyone caring)
Copper composite Jaw Slides
and further down the page:
High Tech Precision Composite Jaw Slides.
NOVA SUPERNOVA2 WOODTURNING CHUCK - INSERT TYPE (SKU 23055) - NOVA, a Teknatool Brand
Suitable for a wide variety of lathes with up to 20″ swing. The SuperNOVA2 Chuck is fully featured and one of the most popular on the market today. Unique features such as Composite Indexing Back, Auto Stop, Copper composite Jaw Slides, Woodworm Screw, Comfortable Tilt away T Bar Handle and 2″...
www.teknatool.com
But I'm certainly no search guru. And the last time I checked I was still not a Teknatool engineer or a materials scientist with an analytical lab. Maybe someone else can find more official info.
JKJ
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Looks like he'd be right - From Nova's own product catalog (Circa 2018, though) " HIGH-TECH JAW SLIDES The copper impregnated cast iron slides have an extra long life and are self lubricating for easy movement and resistance to wear"
I always figured them for pressed metal, myself (I worked with a lot of components in pressed metal, vs cast iron, and judging by the fineness of the Nova slides, I'd always assumed they'd have to be Powdered metal, so if it is actual cast iron, they've done a superb job of it!)
I always figured them for pressed metal, myself (I worked with a lot of components in pressed metal, vs cast iron, and judging by the fineness of the Nova slides, I'd always assumed they'd have to be Powdered metal, so if it is actual cast iron, they've done a superb job of it!)
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Good find, thanks! From what little I can see that page may be rich with details on dimensions and tolerances.
I failed to find that with multiple Google searches and browsing through the Teknatool website.
I sometimes wonder if searches from different countries give different results.
The suppressed researcher in me is too interested in the topic. I keep telling him to quit wasting time but he won't listen!
Can you share the URL to that page?
(Interesting, the picture shown appears to have a different surface texture than the previous picture, but maybe the "jaw side" is different on all of them. I'm headed out of town but maybe when I get back I'll take a couple of my newer and older SN2 chucks apart again and examine/compare the slides. Compare them to the titan and original SN. I must not have enough to do. Don't tell my wife that.)
JKJ
Here you go John.
The problem with Teknatool is that they appear to have both New Zealand and USA websites? Some of the links don’t work as well which doesn’t help.
This wasn’t the only reference I found, there were a couple of others about the cast slides:
The problem with Teknatool is that they appear to have both New Zealand and USA websites? Some of the links don’t work as well which doesn’t help.
This wasn’t the only reference I found, there were a couple of others about the cast slides:
I no longer have over 40 chucks. Downsizing after 16 or 17 years of having hands on in my shop I have sold a few chucks and I have given a few away. I have kept 6 lathes and down about 35 chucks. I do always stress that all of my chucks are all each as good as the others and that the main difference is what you pay for them. I have more Nova chucks just for that reason. I have all the major brands and put them up against each other and they are all the same, they do the job they are expected to do and they do them well! None do the job better than the others. Of the 30ish Pros through my shop only one asked for a specific chuck, they used what was on the Powermatic when they were here.
Thank you! I'm headed out of town this morning but I'll definitely check into this when back.
Fascinating topic (well, maybe not to some people. Back in the 70s I ran a one-man metallography lab and did material analysis for a segment of the nuclear industry, so I'm afraid I'm still a bit of a materials geek. We made reactor elements for research reactors and part of my job was QC with etching and microscopy to insure the highly enriched uranium-bearing element plates didn't delaminate in in the reactors! It was fun - armed guards in bullet-proof booths and all.)
Fantastic! I may quote this when people try to have me committed for having too many chucks, lathes, and tools... Just last week I gave away a Jet1642 and accessories and plan to donate another one soon to a good cause. Yikes, I'll be down to two lathes.
JKJ
Anyone experienced with powder-metallurgy can easily see by their details that the slides pictured above are PM. 99.9% of the vehicles on the road today use PM componenets, even for critical and highly stressed parts (some very extensive use). It’s not a bad thing. In fact it will continue to grow as manufacturing processes trend toward “net-shape processes”; in other words, parts will be made in there final form in one process. Machining will eventually be considered re-work. We will not see the complete transformation in our lifetimes, but many years from now this will be the case. You can look back at the trend as follows: open-die forging => sand casting & close-die forging => injection casting and investment casting => coining => now PM is on the rise (and has been for many years and is highly refined in the carbide cutting tool insert industry). Manufacturing processes will continue to migrate toward one-step creation of part geometry.
Tim
Tim
So, back on topic... I snagged a rikon z-104 and it's awesome. Clean, smooth and perfect fit for my nova jaws. I'm still frustrated nova left behind the 1-1/4 direct thread sn2 model. I think I will be passing on those in the future, or perhaps I will fit them down to 1" for the kids on the mini
At times I have seen pm parts referred to as "cast" as a mold is used.
Well, they perform well for me, and based on feedback in this forum and others, many others. If the visual appearance convinces you that they are an inferior product, vs the experience of many users, don't use the product.
Why would I not use it? It’s worked ok to date, it just doesn’t appear to be of the same quality as my other chucks. No surprise really as It was half the price of one of them. 
That's just Marketing crap. It would have read differently if Engineering would have written the ad...but product likely wouldn't sell as well due to lack of process understanding by the general public. Also, the mention of being "copper-infused" is another tip-off - becoming very common in PM parts.
Tim
When you look at the Jaws for chucks made for metal work lathes they all look to be machined. I guess this is for accuracy. Wood turning lathes aren’t generally expected to make things to the same degree of accuracy as metal lathes. I guess this is why some base Jaws on wood turning chucks are simply cast. This must keep the cost down, the main reason I bought a Nova Chuck. It was so cheap at the time I had to add another small item to my order to go over £100 to get free shipping.
One of the reasons I originally avoided Nova chucks was because you had to turn the chuck key in the opposite direction to every other chuck on the market to open and close it. They obviously thought they had a good reason for it, then they changed their mind.
I’ve not noticed any other chuck manufacturers needing to infuse copper into their Jaws so I wonder about that now.
One of the reasons I originally avoided Nova chucks was because you had to turn the chuck key in the opposite direction to every other chuck on the market to open and close it. They obviously thought they had a good reason for it, then they changed their mind.
I’ve not noticed any other chuck manufacturers needing to infuse copper into their Jaws so I wonder about that now.
This and all your previous and future questions can be answered by research, and the web makes it very easy.
Why would I bother? I haven’t got any questions, I just bought a chuck to use on my lathe. You’re obviously very interested in metallurgy, but I’m more interested in wood turning.
Then why bother with all the technology/metallurgy questions? Go turn wood. Nova has a well proven design with very positive reviews.
I think all manufactured products go through evolution. I have one Vicmark chuck that tightens up in the opposite direction of all my other ones. Now days, I don't think there is as much difference in overall quality of the major chuck brands as there used to be 30 years ago. I will stick with my Vicmarks. I do think that all chuck jaws are machined. I would expect with all the CNC machines, it would be far less labor intensive.
robo hippy
robo hippy
You’re obviously upset about something so I’m going to put you on ignore for a while until you calm down.
Oneway uses manganese phosphate plating on the scroll, used for a smooth running of the chuck.
they also use nickel plating, and case hardening etc, I will put their info here.
I do remember all the problems with the Nova chucks and for that reason never bought any, but like with many things, if the price is low enough there are clients, and so a lot of weekend warriors did buy those chucks.
Curious what those problems were and the time frame?