Looking for a new Chuck

[John Schumer]

Hello Again,
Thanks to everyone for your input on our lathe purchase, my son and I went for the Jet 1642EVS over the Nova.
Now,
I want to buy a good, quality chuck for this thing.
Remember, all we have turned in the past are pens, and wine stoppers, never used a chuck, just mandrels.
I remember reading somewhere that if I sand on the lathe in reverse, I need a different chuck? Is this true?
Is there a chuck that is "upgrade" style? ie: One chuck, many jaws??
This lathe won't be in our shop for about a week, so I would like to be ready to roll when it arrives.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated as usual.
Thanks
John

[Steve Schlumpf]

John, there are a number of quality chucks out there - all with multiple jaws. I have the Oneway Talon with the #1 step jaws, #2, #3 and mini-jumbo jaws. It is a high quality chuck and does absolutely everything I have asked of it! While there are others out there - I feel you would be very happy with the Talon!

Tim reminded me about the set screw in the chuck - the Talon has 2 set screws that tighten against the spindle and prevents the chuck from unscrewing when you run the lathe in reverse.

[tim mathis]

lee valley is closing out their teknatool nova chucks. good prices super nova 2 , g-3 the jaws are interchangeable you may want to look there.
i purchased a bunch of jaws and a nova titan chuck with titan power grip jaws cheaper than i could find them anywhere.alot of them are sold out so i would not wait long.
on sanding in reverse you will need a insert with a set screw so the chuck does not unscrew , teknatool offers this too, i have them on my 3520b.

[Jim Becker]

While I'm most fond of the OneWay chucks due to their jaw designs, you have plenty of choices from OneWay, Technatool, Vicmark and Axminster. All of these offer chucks with both interchangable jaws (in at least two chuck sizes) as well as insert adapters to mate the chuck to your lathe.

I currently own a OneWay Talon (as I had it for a smaller lathe prior to buying my Stubby) and have the #2, #3 and spiggot jaws. Should I feel I need a larger solution, I'll buy another chuck with just larger jaws and continue to use my Talon for the rest of the work.

[Reed Gray]

I own Vicmarc. They are all I have ever used, so can't really compare them to the others, except that you will like a scroll chuck that uses a key (hex wrench, or like the ones on a drill press) rather than the ones that use the 2 bars to tighten or loosen the chuck. I now have 4 of them, 2 of the smaller ones, and 2 of the larger ones. I keep a different set of jaws on each one because it is easier than changing them out each time I want some thing different. I do prefer the dove tailed jaws to the straight ones because I get a better grip with them, but then you have to turn a dove tail on your tenon, or recess. I prefer the recess.
robo hippy

[Dean Thomas]

Exact ditto to what Jim Becker said. The Talon is a perfect fit for your 1642, according to Oneway.

If you think that you are indeed going to be getting a bigger lathe SOON, then you may want to consider getting a system where the jaws are interchangeable between the mid-size chuck and the biggie. Tim told you that Nova's jaws interchange. Yeppir. And that part of things works well. Nova's chucks have had some quality issues in the past 18 months or so. I'm not sure which models were the ones affected and so can't speak intelligently to that other than to say find out which model and don't buy it!

I'm of the school that you should not buy more chuck than your lathe should be expected to handle. I know a guy who had a minilathe with a Stronghold chuck on it. He had to spin the silly chuck to allow the motor to spin up to speed! Too much chuck on too little motor. Absolute overkill. Really, the same thing for the 1642. The Talon will hold anything that you can safely run on the 1642. To put the Stronghold or other biggie chuck on there is trying to use a bulldozer to swat flies!

IMHO.

[Scott Donley]

I also have the Talon and could not be happier. It was my first chuck and did not want any more problems learning this stupid turning stuff than I was already having and figured not having to get the dovetail on the tenon would be best for me, it was, A great chuck and I have never lost a bowl out of it.

[Dan Williams]

You will be very happy with the talon chuck. I am new at turning, and have just received a talon chuck. And it is awesome.


Dan

[Dick Strauss]

John,
IMHO Oneway makes the best chucks whether it be a Stronghold or Talon. Their #2 profiled jaws have the best design on the market. They grip very well when the tenon is significantly larger than minimum diameter (unlike the Novas). The jaws are machined differently (not a continuous arc) and that gives them the extra holding power in almost all cases.

FYI-I own a Stronghold but have no direct knowledge of the Talons. However, I've heard nothing but good things about them.

[David Wilhelm]

I have a talon and have done most of my work with it nothing has ever slipped. I just picked up a new Stronghold for my 1442 and a set of #3 jaws. Maybe it is over kill as Dean says. But I like it and for 189.00 I wish I would have got 2 more. There are times when I feel I'm better off holding more area with my tenon and it works great. I don't care to swap jaws each time o want to do something many turners have several chucks for that reason. I have jumbo jaws for my talon but find they limit me and more often than not I don't even mess with them.

[Tom Steyer]

When it comes to chucks, I don't think you can beat the Oneway offerings - their jaw designs and spindle adapters are the best in my opinion. I have a Stronghold for my 1642 and absolutely love it. I just picked up a new Talon as well, for smaller pieces and just as a 2nd chuck. It would be nice if the jaws would interchange, but you will probably find that you will only need to buy the #1 and #3 to go with the #2 that come with the chuck. I don't like the fact that many other chucks (offshore companies) use counter-clockwise turns of the key to tighten the jaws, rather than clockwise turns to tighten.

[Allen Neighbors]

I have two SuperNova2s with 4 different sets of jaws, and one Nova Titan with Power Grip Jaws. All Nova jaws will fit the Titan and SuperNova2s, except the Titan PowerGrips will only fit the Titan.
The quality problem with Teknatool's chucks came as a result of them "outsourcing" their manufacturing to China. I think the quality problem was with some of the jaws, though. The quality problem has been resolved now, and quality has been reborn!. I've only had one piece fly off the lathe when using these chucks, and that was from a tenon that split off the piece, not the jaws giving up.

[John-Paul Murphy]

I have the supernova 2 it is an excellent chuck and have been using it for a few years now. The harder decision is which jaws to get….
The chuck is threaded on and a set screw is installed on the ones designed for reversing.
There are some other threads that cover this topic very well.
As a second note there are a lot of very good turners who do not use chucks. They are not a requirement and a lot can be learned from creating your own mounting systems.
I have the same lathe and it came with a spur drive and live center. Also included was a face plate. (Not saying yours will be equipped this way!!). With that it is pretty easy to manufacture your own jam chucks.
Here’s a link to a few more ways.

I am not trying to talk you out of buying a jaw chuck just giving options. I am finding when I buy based on a need I end up with better equipment rather than something that sits on the shelf.
Ps check the manual cause the tpi and diameter is a little larger than some expect and the adapter needs to be correct to attach the jaw chuck.

[Wayne Cannon]

Have OneWay Talon and Stonghold chucks on a Delta 1642 and have been very happy with them -- using the Talon for almost everything.

Someone suggested here that a Stronghold chuck was overkill for a 1642 lathe, but I've found it very convenient for square stock that was too big for the Talon's jaws.