Oneway Stronghold Serrated or Smooth Jaws??

[Alan Heffernan]

Looking for insights from the board as usual. If you were buying additional jaws for a Oneway Stronghold would you buy the profiled(serrated) or smooth dovetail jaws? I am leaning to the dovetails but want to gauge your views here before pulling the trigger.

When you buy a jawed chuck it comes with the no. 2 profiled jaw set. So I am needing to add a set of spigot and larger jaws for my Oneway setup and haven't found a clear answer as to which to buy (profiled or smooth).

BTW, my interest is in pepper mills, bowls, platters, lidded boxes, and eventually some hollow forms.

[Joe Bradshaw]

Either will work fine as long as you make the tenon or recess the correct size. I like the dovetail jaws in expansion for holding platters. I mostly use Talons and I have several chucks with each. I have 5 or 6 Strongholds. One I keep my jumbo jaws mounted on. I don't use it much, but, it does come in handy at times. I have one Stronghold with the dovetail jaws and one Stronghold with the profiled jaws. I would rather buy a chuck than change jaws. Just lazy I guess.
Joe

[Len Mullin]

Personally, I prefer the serrated jaws, but, both sets have their uses.
Len

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

The first chuck I bought was a Stronghold. After only a few weeks I ordered a set of smooth dovetail jaws for it & I haven't ever changed them back to the serrated ones. I didn't like the serrated jaws at all. The next chuck I bought was a Vickmarc with the smooth dovetail jaws. For my type of work where I take a piece on & off the lathe several times the smooth dovetail jaws are all I'll use. The serrated jaws chew up the tenons to much.
But you'll have to decide whats best for your style of turning.

[Bruce Wilson]

I do not have a stronghold, but i do have a Talon which came with the #2 seated jaws. Haven't had it long, so I have not done much with it. The two cents I will put in for the serated jaws is they are made to be able to hold on to squared end stock too. Just a thought for your consideration.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

As I turn smaller and larger pieces, I want the holding to also be larger or smaller, and not be bound by one size for the jaw-set.

With the dovetail jaws you are forced to make a precise hold (Tenon or Recess) and the shape to fit the angle of the dovetail jaws, if you want to have the jaws to hold best.

With the patented profiled jaws from Oneway you are not bound to these restrictions and can use the jaws over their full movement and still have a good hold.

That also means you do not need a myriad sets of jaws as just 3 will cover you from 3/8” to 6” hold sizes.
Stronghold capacity chart.jpg


This picture shows what happens with dovetail jaws that do not fit right and the profiled jaws fitting on that.

Chuck jaw differences.jpg

I personally use a recess for holding my pieces most times, but do use a tenon occasionally too.

As for tearing up the wood, that certainly is not the case for me, as matter of fact you can barely see where the jaws have held a piece, even with fairly soft spalted wood, mind you I do not crunch the living daylight out of the wood, one hand tightening is enough for me.

Besides all this is removed when the piece is finished.

Wormy punky Maple tenon.jpg Large Elm recess.jpg Siberian Elm recess.jpg Black Walnut recess.jpg

Just to show that one size wont fit every size piece, it is not often I have to change chucks (or jaws) but there is a need for like with these 2 different size recesses in the Black Walnut with narrow base and the large Siberian Elm platters.
Walnut smaller recess.jpg Large Elm platters.jpg
No dovetail jaws for me, they are too restrictive for my way of working.

[Alan Trout]

In the type of work that I do the serrated jaw is a benefit. They work very well and believe it or not if I mark the tenon they re-chuck more accurately than my dovetail jaws. I work mostly in resins and a dovetail jaw will shear off a tenon the serrated jaws will not. I have turned so pretty dang big hollow forms with the standard #2 serrated jaws.

[Alan Heffernan]

Thanks all for the help.

Leo, thanks for the detailed answer with the drawings - very helpful.

I realized that I have mixed up terms here. I should not have used the term "Serrated". I meant Profiled. I am sure you all know better than me that Oneway sells Smooth, Profiled, and Serrated. I am trying to sort Profiled vs. Smooth.

I will likely buy a couple of more chucks and since I am already on the Stronghold path, at least one more Stronghold makes sense and with Leo's visualization provided here I think I will stay focused on Profiled jaws for the time being.

[Dale Miner]

What Leo said. ☺