Oneway jaws

[John Walls]

Some of the bowls I turn are 10-14 inches. Using the smaller jaws that came with the Talon make me nervous, I'm thinking a larger tenon? I have the Talon and Stronghold chucks so I'm thinking the #3 jaws. My question is, I see they sell a smooth and a profiled set. Which set do y'all use, what's the benefit of one over the other?

I may order another Stronghold chuck to go with these jaws, I like the convenience of just switching chucks.

 

[robo hippy]

Well, I have had only the dove tail jaws that came with my Vicmark chucks. As some one said, they form a 'locking wedge joint', and to me that is going to be more secure than a straight sided chuck jaw. If I was using a tenon on a 14 inch bowl, I would want it to be about 4 inch diameter. I use a recess exclusively. My Vickmark jaws are 2 5/8 inch diameter, and have no problem holding a 14 inch bowl for heavy turning and coring. On a 14 inch bowl, 2 5/8 diameter recess, and at least an inch wide shoulder, about 1/8 inch deep, and green wood.

robo hippy

 

[Gary Conley]

My Stronghold chuck has several sets of serrated jaws, but I actually prefer the dovetail jaws on my Record Power SC4s. I find that if I match the size of the foot to the optimum diameter of my dovetail jaws, I can often finish the bottom, reverse to mount on the foot and turn the inside with minimal or no marking of the foot. I do like the serrated profile jaws for turning square spindle stock, but for bowls I'm wishing I'd gone with the dovetail.

 

[Tom Gall]

I prefer the OW profile jaws. Gives you more latitude in the sizing of your tenon. Bought my first Stronghold in 1996 and never had any problems. I've got at least one chuck from most of the other brands, but generally, my go-to chucks are the Strongholds and Talons.

 

[Doug Freeman]

I have a stronghold, and #2 and #5 AL profile jaws, #2 serrated tower and #3 profiled tower.

The tower jaws, both serrated and profiled, have a smooth 1/4” deep dovetail at the top and then serrations on down. Got the tower jaws for long tenons for deep hollow forms, but they also work great for bowls and platters. An often mentioned criticism of taller jaws is vibration - I've compared the #2 std and tower jaws turning similar size bowls from the same piece of log, and the criticism is unfounded in my experience. So many variables play into resonance at the cutting edge that I can't tell a difference. I understand the theory behind it. One thing 40 years of engineering showed me - theory is no substitute for tested practical application.

Having used all the types, I don't really have a favorite. They all work well. When I have had a piece come out of the jaws, it's been poor tenon work - no contact at the outside of the jaws, tenon too short, bad spot in the wood, etc. My least favorite is the #2 tower jaws with a circle DT at the top - I often wish I had the profile version. The versatility of the Oneway profile does win over a typical round serrated or dovetail. The profile shape gives a better grip everywhere but the perfect circle dia, and I am rarely at the perfect circle dia. The profile allows use of the full grip range of the jaws/chuck with more confidence vs typical round jaws. They are also superior with square work.

One place dovetail jaws have an advantage is with short tenons. With a dovetail, you can get away with ~3/32, maybe less depending on how much load will be generated. The profile jaws really need a minimum of ~3/16". For smaller more delicate work the DT jaws are probably better, since that's generally when you run into short grip surfaces.

 

[Ron Solfest]

I agree on the convenience of multiple chucks. Just like clamps, you can never have too many

One of my Strongholds is dedicated to mega-jaws for turning the tenon off the bottom of bowls. I have #1, #2, #3, and #3 tower jaws for the other one. Seldom do I use anything other than the #2 jaws in that stronghold (for bowls and plates ~8” to 20”). For bowls and plates less than ~8” I usually use my Talon Chuck with #2 jaws. All of my Oneway jaws are serrated, and they hold great. If I wanted to rechuck often or wanted to leave the tenon/recess without turning it off (I don’t), I might prefer dovetail jaws (I have a Nova G3 with dovetail jaws, and another smaller Artisan Chuck, both of which see little use except for specialty items).

As previously mentioned the serrated jaws can be a problem right at ~1/8” tenon depth where the second tooth can get in the way - I make the tenon a little shorter on small delicate items, or otherwise go closer to 3/16”-1/4”, if I’m right around 1/8” I often chamfer the tenon edge so not to have the second tooth try and push it out.

 

[hockenbery]

How to pick both.

The dovetail jaws for bowls

The ONEWAY for spindles. These jaws grip square and close to square stock better than any jaws.
Dovetail jaws usually hold square stock well enough if the points aren’ too close to the corners.

 

[JeffSmith]

I use both Stronghold and Talon chucks and strongly prefer the smooth dovetail jaw sets over the profiled or the tower jaws. The smooth dovetail jaws - #2, #3, #4 are in constant use. I’ve also got a set of Oneway jaw slides that Oneway machined to take Vicmark jaws. It was using a set of dovetail Vicmark jaws on my stronghold that convinced me that dovetails just hold better. I also found a set of Vicmark 4” jaws that Vicmark machined to fit a Oneway Stronghold chuck. Both items were discovered at one of the Craft Supplies ‘Garage Sales’ they used to hold before the Utah symposiums several years ago. Evidently, there was a time manufacturers recognized that there may be a benefit to making their equipment available to users of other brands of equipment.

Its funny this came up today - I was second-turning a bowl and, in truing up the tenon found that it was too small for the 4” Vicmark jaws I had been using. I actually put on a set of Oneway profiled #3 jaws and went back to work. A minute later, after a stupid lack of attention to what I was doing, the blank was spinning around the floor down by my feet…until that moment I think it had been years since I’d had a tenon fail.

In all honesty, now that I think about it, it’s possible I neglected to get the chuck tightened securely before starting back to work, but it didn’t inspire confidence in the profiled jaws security.

 

[Paul M. Kaplowitz]

Dovetail are the most secure hold. Rule of thumb - Tenon should be 40% of bowl diameter. Cut the long leg off an Allan wrench that fits the screws holding the jaws, mount it in a cordless drill. Removing and installing jaws takes less than two minutes.

 

[Paul Pyzyna]

STUART BATTY RECOMENDS A LARGER SET OF JAWS FOR LARGER WORK. IF I WERE TURNING 14 TO 16 INCH DIAMETER I WOULD USE A 5 OR 6 INCH SET OF JAWS.