When I first got my lathe I bought a quick change chuck set (the one on the right) from PSI. It was about $200 (ouch!) but it came with 6 different jaw sets so I was set up for most anything I wanted to turn. One particular set of jaws, I think it was the 3", would kick off as soon as the lathe started spinning. Quite dangerous! I sent the chuck back and they replaced it with a new one that one of their tech guys personally went over. A few months later I received a recall notice on the chuck set but ignored it for a long time (almost a year) because mine was working fine now. I finally found a replacement, well, 2. I got the 2 Nova chucks (center and left) with some jaws for about $230 out the door. They work so well I can't even believe it! And quick change? Turns out that unscrewing a chuck and replacing it with the other takes about 10 seconds. This is living, folks! More good stuff on the way. Oh, and that's one of my homemade Mahogany carbide tools above. Pretty fun project. Anyone looking to get a PSI chuck...don't! Nova is the way to go!
Anyone looking to get a PSI chuck...don't! Nova is the way to go! I agree completely based on the 2 chucks that came with my machine as well. Unfortunately, the local woodworking shop that’s just a few miles down the road only carries PSI products. The Nova that I have is hands down the superior of the two.
I completely agree. My first chuck was PSI. I had too many bowls let loose and go flying off it. My current chuck, a Nova G3, holds tight. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
Here's a handle I turned from the scrap pile The PSI chuck with the pin jaws expanding would loosen so I was always retightening it and as a result cracking glue-ups like this one. Having a chuck that stays put is a game-changer.
Here are the other two wood/resin fusions from my pic last Wednesday. Both are drilled for a 28mm knot. The darker one is Sapele and the lighter wood is YaYa. Unfortunately, one won’t be able to leave the den. Looks like the resin didn’t harden perfectly on the bottom edge on the lighter one. You can see where it looks cloudy. Hardened ok with the CA finish, but just not good enough to move on to a friend. I might keep it, I might bin it. Very proud of the other one, though: I was worried about the bond with the resin on the end grain of the wood. I drilled into the wood so that the resin would hold on something besides end grain. That worked well at least. I guess I didn’t mix well enough? Who knows, the batch was perfect everywhere else.
Master Cast 1-2-1. Have made pours into 6 molds with it and 5 hardened perfectly. This was weird- only along the wood edge did it not harden.
You could be right. I’ve started to wonder the same thing, tbh. Only time using YaYa, and it only didn’t harden right along the wood line...
Haven’t used either one. Mine is a Oneway Chuck. Excellent product. Bought it at Lee Valley years ago. The basic Chuck is about $200 CDN. There are most expensive Oneway options as well but I’ve never seen the need to upgrade.
If it is the wood you could use a different type of wood to act as a barrier between the YaYa wood and the resin.
Mail call brought a 1/2” router bit extender that is the perfect 12 buck collet chuck for my wonderful Beall I-X collets. Set up in the sunshine immediately and turned a couple more prototypes. The eagley one is pearwood, the beehive probably cherry. For quick prototypes I’m pretty happy. What did I learn? The router bit extender works great once it is bound down tight. Variable rings on a beehive look dumb, but now I have a good idea of the depth and spacing I’ll want. They are both drilled for 28mm boar knots and have a light beeswax finish just to bring out any grain. I am liking the feel of the pearwood. The cherry has nicer color, grain, and spalting; but it’s kinda punky. I’ve got the worst side showing - nicest spalting and weakest wood. I will be interested to see what sort of blanks I can get out of my black walnut. The set up:
I’m not familiar with those bit extenders. Very interesting. As for the punky wood- Have you used wood stabilizer before? Works well on soft or punky woods.
I just happened to run into the bit extenders when looking for the right chuck to hold the Beall I-X. Looks like the are many price points, but the low end one I bought is doing the job and staying well out of the way while turning. I figured the runout spec must be good if it does the job in a router. A bonus is that the extender’s locking nut presses out against the I-X collet when loosening, helps free the Beall’s shank from the extender’s collet. I haven’t tried wood stabilizer yet. I have used Minwax’s brush-on ‘wood hardener’ product for woodwork restoration around the home, but I don’t think that would work well for turning. Any suggested products? The blank I was using for the prototype wasn’t weak enough to crumble, but it couldn’t be turned or sanded to a clean surface.
