Chuck for American Beauty

[Michael Mason]

I have an American Beauty on order, and need some opinions on chucks for it. The chuck will be used mostly for bowls and I do a few hollow forms. I am ordering the McNaughton Center Saver System and need some advice on chuck size, jaw size, etc. I currently use Supernova2 chucks. I really like them so I would like to stay with Nova's but am not against changing brands. Should I 1.) Stay with the supernova2 and order larger jaws for it? If so, powergrip 4", or the regular 5", or 2.) move to the Nova Titan which comes with the 4" powergrip jaws already on it. Most of my work will probably be around 16" max due to size of trees. Any Mcnaughton users with opinions?? thanks

Michael

[Reed Gray]

Well, McNaughton user, and Beauty owner. I have all Vickmark chucks. The larger one, with 2 5/8 inch jaws when closed works for bowls up to 14 inches very well, and can be used for ones up to 16 inch, but that is pushing the limits. If I go bigger, which is almost never, I switch out to larger jaws I use a recess for all of my bowls. Dale Bonnertz and I both have videos up on You Tube on using the McNaughton coring system. If you are using a tenon, the Vicmark still work fine. I do prefer dove tailed jaws because you end up with a locking wedge joint. The dove tail joint has been used in woodworking forever because of its strength advantages.

robo hippy

[Alan Trout]

I also have an AB. I have some Nova chucks and Stronghold chucks and have used Vicmarc's, Bulldog, Easy Wood, and several others. I like my strongholds the best but they all will work fine. I use spigots mostly and I really like the profile jaws. I was a convert. Always thought the profile jaw inferior to dovetail jaws until I got my first stronghold. Now I love the profile jaws. Basically any of the chucks you mentioned will handle 16" without issue.

Alan

[Dale Miner]

When coring, use a tenon that is larger than you would for roughing the interior with a gouge. For a 16" bowl, you might get by with a 4" tenon, but a 5"+ is much better. I also use Oneway profiled and like them because the corners do not dig in when the jaws are opened above the minimum like the dovetail type jaws do. I have had the corners dig in during rough out with dovetailed, and during the drying the corner damage became crack initiation points and the rough out lost. I have never lost a bowl from the profiled due to the tenon pulling out of the jaws. I have had tenons break off and stay in the chuck with both types of jaws, but more often with the dovetail type .

If you stay with the Nova line for jaw interchangeability, look up a set of jaws that will grip a 5" or larger tenon when nearly closed, and buy a chuck that will accept the jaws.

You are buying a work horse of a lathe, and in the grand scheme of things, a new chuck and jaw setup is a trifling matter and not a good place to shortchange yourself (even if interchangeability goes out the window).

[David Delo]

Check out the Hurricane chuck from the woodworking store dot com. They have 4" and 5" chucks and are also a Robust dealer.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I've got the AB and use the McNaughton - all my chucks are OneWay, but I think that any of the chucks mentioned will work equally well. IMHO the critical thing is to get a good hold on a reasonably sized tenon. My preferred size for bowl blanks up to 18" is 4-1/2 ' 5" diameter tenon in smooth dovetailed jaws. The combination I use almost exclusively for coring is a Stronghold chuck with a set of smooth dovetail jaws that Vicmark made specifically for the stronghold chuck. They may have been a special order from Craft Supplies because I picked them up at one of their garage sales before the Utah Symposium about 5 or 6 years ago. They're nice and deep, beefy jaws that have never lost a grip on anything I've put in them. To duplicate them, you'd need to go to either the 128mm or 148mm Vicmark dovetail jaws in a VM 120 or 150 chuck.
I've tried the profiled jaws from OneWay, but still prefer the smooth dovetail versions after loosing a couple of tenons to cracking (probably my fault for overtightening...).
If you can find a set, Oneway used to make a set of slides that would allow you to mount Vicmark jaws for the 120/150 series VM chucks on the Stronghold. I do have a set of those, too (from the same Craft Supplies garage sale).
Evidently, there used to be more 'sharing' between the chuck manufacturers - either that or they were actively cribbing customers from one another...

[Michael Mason]

Thanks everyone for your input. I will post whatever combo I decide to go with.

Michael

[Harry Robinette]

I use Nova chucks never had a problem,I use the Super Nova or Super II with the 130mm jaws and sometimes I use the Power Grip jaws depending on the length of the piece. I also use a McNaughton Coring tool with these set ups.
Just my $.02