23-05-2011, 12:02 PM
(22-05-2011, 07:28 PM)Retired Wrote: The parts shown in the picture are nothing short of disgraceful; they obviously were supplied from a number of different batches without inspection being applied to any.
The smaller part doesn't even appear to be concentric.
Looking at the four jaws they appear each to be mounted by a single countersunk set screw presumably onto indexed slides so do they actually need to be numbered in sequence? A picture of the back of the jaws would be appreciated as I'm not familiar with the type of chuck.
Kind regards, Col
Thanks for reading my post Col (and others) and for your observations.
As to different batches, the thought that occured to me is that even so, separate batches should surely be made to much tighter tolerances to be considered 'within spec'. I think that the smaller segment would be concentric if mated up with similar sized jaws, but as it is, no, it isn't concentric.
As I said before, Nova was established in a NewZealand, and their products consdered to be innovative and of good quality, and although they say that they still manufacture in NZ (my two Nova chucks are stamped 'Made in NZ), I suspect that most production is now on their 100% Teknatool owned factory on an 8-acre site in China. Here's what they say about themselves:
'In order to meet the challenges of a very globalised, competitive, interconnected world market, Teknatool International has expanded and now has 3 manufacturing facilities worldwide:
• USA
• CHINA
• NEW ZEALAND
We take great pride in our philosophy of delivering best value to our NOVA owners and users. We aim to deliver the optimum mix of features, quality and price (internally here we call it the 'Teknatool Golden Triangle').
USA :
Manufacture and assembly of specialised products. Research and Design. Service & Support.
CHINA:
100% NZ owned by Teknatool International. Manufacture and assembly, Chinese based Research and Design Team, Product Sourcing.
NEW ZEALAND:
Head office.
Manufacture and assembly of specialised products, NZ based Research and Design Team, Global Sales and Marketing Teams, Global Administration Teams.
I've no idea where my duff chuck jaws were made - I just get the feeling that the answers is 'not in NZ'. Interestingly, Robert Sorby Ltd, a Sheffiled based manfacturers of woodturning tools and distributor of other makes via it's 'Turner's Retreat' retail arm has this to say about its relatively new 'Patriot' Chuck: 'The new Patriot lathe chuck is the latest new product from Robert Sorby. It comes after many years of experience in selling, marketing and distributing another chuck. These chucks are all made in Sheffield, England and come with unrivalled Robert Sorby after-sales service'
Note: 'After many years of selling 'another' chuck'. No surprises for guessing which one they're alluding to, or perhaps why they stopped selling it. As I said earlier, initially I thought that using the naff name 'Patriot' and emblazoning the chuck with the Union flag was just outdated nationalistic jingoism, particulalry because Made in Brtian came to be a byword for shoddy goods and late delivery back in the strike-bound 60s and 70s. However, I now realise that what it most likely means, is not so much simply 'Made in Britain, but more importantly 'not made in China'.
In a similar vein, Axminster's latest chucks are also British made, and they emphasise not simply 'British assembled', but that the chuck body, jaws, and boss are all UK made, inspected and assembled. (However, for one of their chucks even they say 'only the backplate is made in Britain' despite showing a Union Flag and the slogan 'Great, & British').
It does seem to me that there's an undercurrent that Chinese stuff simply isn't up to the standards of accuracy and quality control, despite no doubt using the latest CNC manufacturing facilites. I do wonder if one of the reasons for firms decamping to China isn't simply that labour costs are a bit lower, (surely offset by the costs of shipping bulky heavy goods?), but that the working practices, health and safety regime, and general red tape is less of an issue than in the UK, NZ or wherever.
I've attached some pics - one showing the front of the sets of jaws and the two Nova chucks that I own, another showing a side view. (There's a 'screw chuck' too, fitted into the lower chuck body, which is used instead of jaws for holding bowl blanks while the outside is turned. The screw is simply held in the jaws of the chuck body). The smaller jaws are fixed with just one screw per jaw. the larger sets with two screws. The jaws sit in a groove to locate them corrrectly. One of ther chucks is a MK2 which has a better chuck key - the other is a bit fiddly. Lathe headstock drives come in different thread sizes and you have to have aan insert to adapt the chuck to your particular lathe. However, as my lathe has a large M33 x 3.5 thread, instead of an insert the chucks have to be fitted with 'excerts' which can be seen at the rear of the chuck. This robs the distance between cenrtres for spindle work by about 50mm, but I don't do much spindle work so it's not an issue for me.
I've also attached a pic of the lathe bed of my Nova '16-24 44' lathe (so named as it has a capacity to turn up to 16" diam, and 24" between cenrtres, but the bed can be extended to 44 "). If you look carefully at the join between the two castings which make up the lathe bed, you'll notice that to get the ground slide to line up correctly, the two castings are slightly offset. Although it's no big deal, as with the jaws, there's a lack of accuracy. That said, I'm very pleased with the lathe, which is about £1000 retail, but which I bought new and boxed for £595 off e-bay a couple of years ago from a famous professional woodturner. It's very solid and the tailstock and headtock line up very well.
The lathe has several very useful features, such as the abiilty to swivel the head so that when turning a bowl with a long gouge, you dont have ot lean over the lathe or find that the tailstock gets in the way. Theres' an interesting litle vidoe about it here:
http://www.teknatool.com/products/Lathes...0_1624.htm
Hope that's of interest.
When I get a few mins, I might e-mail a pic of the jaws to Teknatool and ask if they're as dissapointed with them as I am, or whether they're content with this standard. What they must not lose sight of is that their customers are a bit more discerning than ham-fisted unenthusistic weekend DIYers.
David
