Nova Jaws

[Dave Fritz]

I recently made up with set of jaws to use on a Super Nova II. They're made of white oak.

The problem is the wood is so hard it cuts into the wood it's holding. I'm going to try and round over the corners but I wonder if the set of the soft nylon jaws sold by Nova would be a better solution?

Thanks,

Dave Fritz

 

[Scott Hackler]

They look nice. I would think about glueing some rubber to the inside of the jaws. Just get a bicylce inner tube for $5 and cut it up into small strips and glue away. Yo ucan trim the hang over with a razor blade.

 

[john lucas]

Well you need to make sure they hold the piece securely. The only sure way to keep the jaws from biting in (and that's not perfect either) is to make the jaws just a hair bigger than the tenon so as much of the jaw as possible is touching the wood.
A better alternative is to just turn the tenon away on a bowl and cut a new foot to the appropriate size. This way it doesn't matter if there are marks on the bowl tenon because it will be gone or at least resized.
Most of us reverse turn a bowl at the end of the turning session to get rid of any evidence of how it was held or in a lot of cases to reshape or resize the foot to fit the design of the bowl better.

 

[hockenbery]

Dave,
They look nice!
If your intent is to use the jaws to hold heavy objects the white oak and biting into the wood is what you want.
And ditto Johns suggestions.
Close fitting the tenon is a stronger hold as well as less marring.

I use jaws of soft hardwoods and nylon to make a non marring hold on light weight objects.
Bracelets, boxes, ornaments, napkin rings, scoops,
None are dove tail

I would not trust softer hardwoods or nylon to hold a bowl blank. They can and will flex enough to release their grip on a heavy bowl.

Also on boxes etc I have used rubber bands over metal jaws for non marring grip on box parts etc.
These are all light items.

Have fun
Al

 

[Dave Fritz]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry I wasn't clear, I'm only using these jaws for smaller objects like boxes. The biggest would be about six inches in diameter.

I did round over the edges of the jaws using a Dremel tool with a sanding drum on it and that's taken the problem of digging in away. I'm afraid I don't have the holes lined up right on one or more jaws because the chuck doesn't tighten and loosen as easily as it does with a standard set of Nova jaws. Something must be binding.

A friend gave me a set of Nova cole jaws to try and I have ordered a set of the Nova soft jaws which I'll no doubt machine just for this one purpose.

Sometimes figuring things out is as much fun as turning.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Dave Fritz

 

[Bill Boehme]

When you make your wooden jaws, decide on your "perfect circle" diameter. You will have hardly any marring at that one diameter. Smaller tenons may have a little marring, but larger tenons will show the most marring. Like you have discovered, softening the corners that bite into the wood will reduce that problem. When you are making the "perfect circle" diameter use spacers of about 3/8" thickness between the four jaw pieces -- That way, you will have some adjustment range for slightly larger or smaller tenons without any significant marring of the tenon. Typically I turn the foot to remove the tenon or mortise and give a more pleasing bottom.