Thread: Oneway Stronghold VS Nova Titan VS ??

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

1. Drilling holes in the body will do wonders for the warranty .

2. Why would you need to pull apart, clean out and rework a brand new chuck???????? This also could cause problems if you needed to make a warranty claim.

Quite a bit of Chinese stuff that comes to this side of the pond is machined, assembled, and shipped. The more you pay the better finish and cleaning you get.

The worst examples I have seen are the cheap drill press vises with X - Y movements.

The taking apart, cleaning, and deburring gets rid of the casting sand and metal chips left in the machinery, and removes the razor sharp edges that will cut you to ribbons.

It would probably be good to wait a few weeks before drilling a chuck to see if you would need to use the warranty.

Hi All, & Grumpy,
Grumpy, Paul just about said it all, bar a few bits.
I only ever bought 1 New Nova Chuck, & after a while I bored the extra holes in the Body, therefore I now have 4 holes to chose from & also reduces the problem of elongated ( Oval ) Holes. My other 3 have all been 2nd.hand.
The last 1, I bought from these Forums, for $120 Posted, was almost Brand New, & I new it would be full of Grease + small particles of steel.
I have seen those E/Holes on a couple of Chucks mainly because, they have been abused.
As for pulling the Chuck apart, & as Paul pointed out, the cheaper Chucks don't get the finish the $300+ Chucks do.
I'm all for saving a few $$$, & keeping my hand in Cleaning The Fastest Chuck Made.
Just give 1 of the Holes a Flick with your Finger & it Opens in a Flash. & you don't have to go looking for that T thingy in all the Shavings.
I use those very Strong Magnets, so most of my Lathe Pieces are attached to the Magnets. I suppose you could attach that T thingy as well.

Originally Posted by issatree

Hi All, & Grumpy,
Grumpy, Paul just about said it all, bar a few bits.
I only ever bought 1 New Nova Chuck, & after a while I bored the extra holes in the Body, therefore I now have 4 holes to chose from & also reduces the problem of elongated ( Oval ) Holes. My other 3 have all been 2nd.hand.
The last 1, I bought from these Forums, for $120 Posted, was almost Brand New, & I new it would be full of Grease + small particles of steel.
I have seen those E/Holes on a couple of Chucks mainly because, they have been abused.
As for pulling the Chuck apart, & as Paul pointed out, the cheaper Chucks don't get the finish the $300+ Chucks do.
I'm all for saving a few $$$, & keeping my hand in Cleaning The Fastest Chuck Made.
Just give 1 of the Holes a Flick with your Finger & it Opens in a Flash. & you don't have to go looking for that T thingy in all the Shavings.
I use those very Strong Magnets, so most of my Lathe Pieces are attached to the Magnets. I suppose you could attach that T thingy as well.

I don't think Nova would appreciate you calling their chucks cheap.

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

I don't think Nova would appreciate you calling their chucks cheap.

Well, GJ, he could have said a lot worse.....

Hi All Again,
Well Grumpy, they were Cheaper than the other Chucks.
If Memory serves Me, that New Chuck I bought all those years ago was $230, & the other 3 were approx. 1/2 of that. 1 was $120, 1 was $100, & the other was $90.
Mine are all in Excellent Condition.
Just because I paid a lot less for them, certainly doesn't make them a Cheap Chuck.
I'm just a good Scrounger?.

Returning to the OP, Nova Titans are no longer made AFAIK, though last time I looked Gary Pye had stock of the bare item. Pity, cos with the Titan specific Powergrip jaws, it made a formidable kit.

+1 to VM 120 or 150. Or look at Vermec here.

None of those will let you down after you recover from lifting one out of your mailbox.

But frankly, given the exchange rate, I can't see why you would look beyond Oneway.

Originally Posted by rsser

But frankly, given the exchange rate, I can't see why you would look beyond Oneway.

Bare Oneway Stronghold with 1 1/4 X 8 adapter $214.95, #4 jaws - grab 5 3/4, expand into 6 1/2, $58.95. The 20 inch swing Woodfast is for big bowls, as would be the chuck.

Hard to beat, I have an original Oneway chuck and the Oneway live center set. The build quality, finish, and operation is superb.

I have $200 in my crazy money fund, so it won't be long.

My local dealer says the "new" Nova Titan chuck will be coming in a month or so.

I'll have a look, but it would be hard to beat the Stronghold.

Thanks to all for your advice.

Oh well, the new Titan sounds v. like the old. Hope the quality is still there:

NOVA TITAN CHUCK

Having lots of Nova and Vicmarc chucks I have some opinions on those.

Regularly swapping between those two brands (have most models and styles) I can't say I find much difference in their quality, but none of my Novas are made in China so that might account for my satisfaction with them.

I don't regret buying any of my Nova or Vicmarc chucks. I use them all regularly and have had no trouble with any of them.

Nova was the only real choice available when I bought my first woodturning scroll chuck many years ago. I'm still regularly using that little chuck and expect it will soldier on for a couple of more decades... I'll probably give up the game before it does....

I have avoided the Novas since they have been made in China but note that the complaints seem to have subsided over the last year, so maybe those concerns have been addressed. In my opinion the problem wasn't because they were being made in China, per se, but a failure on Teknatool's part to specify and communicate their build quality and QA requirements.

If I was starting again now I would probably settle on the Vicmarcs because of the larger jaw sizes which now go up to Dovetail 223mm ( 8 3/4"). The largest jaw size in Nova is still their 130mm jaws (5"). I never understood why Teknatool didn't bring out some larger jaw sizes when they released their Titan chuck.

Paul - if you are looking for some larger jaws than those available for the Stronghold or the Titan then the Vicmarc 120 chuck is worth a look. If I was going to be swinging a 20"/70lb blank on my lathe I think I would want a more robust chuck than what I can see of the Stronghold (just looking at it online). I expect you will find the Titan or VM120 chucks (both 5" diam ) will be far more substantial than the 4 1/2" Stronghold. Both the Titan and VM120 are hefty bits of gear that won't blink at anything you hang off them.

A big plus with the Titan is backward compatibility with other T/Tool jaws. But it sounds like you don't need that. Big minus is T/Tool like to round over the edges of their jaws (leastways last time I looked/bought).

Another plus is that for a 5" jaw, acc. to Jim it's fairly light in weight so good for swivel head lathes if you have to run a spindle thread adaptor or extension.

With the Titan Powergrips I've started with 2' blanks and not had a concern.

But if I were doing big platters that had to be thin, the big VM120 jaws that Neil mentioned would be good to have.

.... from the Vic alps, where the weather is far too good. Soon we'll be touring backcountry in shorts and carrying our skis

I have been tucking away some crazy money. My in town dealer had the smaller Nova chucks, but would not stock the big one. I looked at the smaller one, all coverd in grease and marked Made In China. The US has a pretty big inbalance of trade with China.

I have an original Oneway and there is a dealer 90 miles East on the way to my daughter and family in Raleigh. The dealer prices the stuff the same as the factory, for the Stronghold chuck, the factory ships free.

On my way back today I stopped at the Oneway dealer and selected the Stronghold, a 1 1/4 X 8 TPI adapter, and #3 jaws. I told them If they would eat the tax (6.75 %) I would buy the set. They did, and I got it for $268. I grinned all the way home.

I like Oneway stuff, and I'm glad to help manufacturing on this side of the pond.

If cost were not a factor I would go with the Vicmarc 120.

All things considered Paul I would have bought a Oneway as well.

I have earlier SN2's 5" dia, the newer smaller dia are OK and now they intend to bring out the larger version again.

What I find a bit disconcerting with Teknatool is they chop and change on the larger size Chucks as if they have no clear idea of direction. They keep reintroducing the large chuck and then pull it off the market sometime later Bring the darn thing back later with a different name. Not exactly confidence building stuff me thinks.

Having said that the 5 SN2 I have perform well and I have no complaints, other than a slight personal mod to the jaws on one chuck to remove a large radius on the outer edge of the jaws.

I took time over the week end to mount the Stronghold on the Woodfast.

I cleaned the mating surfaces of the chuck and spindle, cleaned and oiled the threads, cleaned the tapers of the insert and the chuck and carefully assembled the chuck and insert. I mounted the chuck on the lathe and put an indicator on it and got 1 mm run out on the chuck body. I took it off and tweaked the two screws holding the adapter on the chuck and remounted. again 1 mm run out. That is OK for wood working, but this is a new chuck.

I removed the chuck again and took off the adapter. I lightly oiled and wiped clean the surfaces on the male and female tapers and assembled them, put it on the lathe and checked the run out, .015 mm run out. I took the chuck off and securely tightened the two adapter mounting screws, remounted and checked again, .015 mm (.00059 inch) run out.

Way more accurate than it needs to be for wood turning. I am very pleased.

Way more accurate than it needs to be for wood turning. I am very pleased.

Good one Paul