Shipping Question/Nova Chucks

Mine came assembled. I still have it but just pruchased a Oneway Talon a couple days ago. Other than stickinh my finger in the path of the spinning chuck (ouch) I feel it's like night and day difference withthe Compac. Oh sorry, rambling here, again yes it was assembled.

Rick

Assembled. If you were able to look at all the posts about chuck problems relating to the "better chucks", Nova would top the list by a good margin IMO. I don't know about their lastest model though. Billh

Hi

Question

Does anybody Know if the Nova Compac Chuck is shipped assembled, or in components?

Reason for asking, Mine came assembled and seems to be out of alignment.

Wondering if I may have been sent a returned product.

Sincerely Keith

Everyone I have seen has come assembled. My early one has always worked well and I still continue to use it (I really like those smaller 40 mm jaws that only fit the Compac), but this particular chuck has had more complaints than any other chuck I am aware of. Teknatool discontinued manufacture of this chuck quite some time ago. However, one must be careful when considering a manufacturer's quality by customer complaints alone, without also considering volume. The way most quality control is measured in industry is percent return (or failures). For a variety of reasons (price, distribution, likely return buyers, etc.) Teknatool has long been the largest selling supplier of woodturning chucks, by far. So for example, if all chucks had a consistent 5 percent failure rate, a manufacturer which sold 4 times the volume would have four times the complaints registered, but the failure rate would actually be the same. Again, this is only an example, but offer it to illustratethat complaints alone are not a good marker of one's likelyhood of satisfaction with a chuck, or a business (same thing applies to a supplier--businesses that have 20 times the customers ....we have been there before on this group).

That said, the Compac has had a mixed reports. As I've mentioned, I really like the chuck, it has a smaller diameter body that any of the other major chucks, is shorter, and has those nicely sized 40 jaws, all of which I find make it an excellent choice for holding miniature work, particularly on smaller lathes with limited between centers distance.Of course is has also been the least expensive chuck made by a major manufacturer. Because of these features, I've always considered it a great SECOND chuck to have for miniature work.

The Talon is an excellent all around chuck for small to medium work.It also costs approximately twice as much. I have one, I like it and it is regularly mounted on my mini lathe. Both it and the Compac have a rather limited number of jaw sets available for them, which is why I consider both of them not the best choice for an only chuck if one is going to do a wide range of work.

As I said before, manufacture of the Compac has been discontinued (actually quite some time ago) and the chuck has been replaced by the Teknatool Precision Midi. The latter chuck is part of a series of new generation of chucks from Teknatool that also include the SuperNova2 and the Titan (all have proven to be outstanding chucks) in my early experience. The Precision Midi I believe will be just slightly higher than in price that the Compac, and likely will be the lowest priced chuck from one of the major manufaturers. It is still lever actuated (which I don't find a problem for small scale work where the piece can be easily held in one hand), is larger in diameter, but actually a bit shorter in height (again, allowing for maximum between centers length on midi lathes). It takes all the standard Teknatool jaw sets directly, which is a huge number of jaw sets. Alas, it won't take those nice 40 mm jaws from the Compac, but instead comes with the industry standard 50mm size jaws. I could say more, but I am in a review of the new generation Teknatool chucks that will appear in the next More Woodturning (and should be available as a pdf on line shortly after publication at

many of my other reviews are archived. So,my recommendation would be for you to return your Compac. There are many options available, and in the case of the Teknatool Precision Midi, for only a very small amount additional in cost.

Lyn

billh wrote:

Out of curiosity, did you buy from KMS?

I also have an earlier Nova Compac chuck. I couldn't ask for a better small chuck, provided you give proper consideration to it's limitations of capacity. I have lost a few blanks using the Compac, but only because I was taxing the reasonable limits of capacity far too much. I don't really consider this to be a shortcoming of the chuck, much more likely it was due to my ineptitude.

Mine was fully assembled and the jaws aligned properly. It's just too small for the stuff I turn a lot of the time. I have since added a Super Nova Chuck with several sets of jaws to fit. I have read many complaints related to the Compac chuck, but have never had any myself. Nova's new Midi chuck appears to have more possibilities, although I have not yet seen one.

Barry

Yes I bought it my KMS and am asking there return mailing directions with instructions for how to make sure i,m credited etc.

Keith

Since there is a high complaint rate , there is a greater possiblity that i bought a returned chuck.This chuck has not performed correctly since i received it!

Keith

Thanks George

Would you happen to know if the others had difficulty getting them to accept a return.

Sincerely Keith

They sounded more than willing to exchange them, but some filing on the damaged set, and a touch of alignment space on the mismatch did the job.

Might add, in three Nova chucks and eight sets of jaws, the only problem I've encountered.

satisfaction

The folks at KMS are very nice to deal with. I bought a Nova Compac chuck with 4 sets of jaws some time back. The standard 2" jaws would not close all the way. Neither would the replacement jaws. It took 3 tries to get it right. I only had problems with the 2" jaws. The others were fine. KMS didn't even ask me to return the defective jaws. "What would we do with defective jaws?", was their answer. Just give them a call on their 800 number.

Barry

Excuse me........make that a Super Nova chuck not a Nova Compac chuck. The fingers are typing, but the mind is not yet engaged................sorry

Barry