For what its worth...

What George said is about the same way I use my Nova 2 jaws.

Been using them for about a year now and this chuck and jaws are worth
every penny.

On small light bowls and vessels I counterbore the first end of my
bowl, chuck it with the outside dovetail of the jaws. Turn the bottom
and outside. With that same mount I turn a shallow hole on the bottom
(foot) of my bowl and give the wall of the hole slight dovetail angle.

Then dismount, turn the bowl around, and mount the bowl in the dovetail
hole I made in the foot, and finish my bowl on this second mount.

On larger heavier bowls and vessels, I turn a spigot that is near the
maximum opening size of my powergrip jaws. I also turn a step at the
end of the spigot, so the ends of the jaws has something square to butt
up against when I mount on the spigot.

One good tip.

Once you have your work mounted on the jaws, and it is turning
perfectly round, mark the bowl right next to a mark on your jaw. This
will give you a reference so that if you have to dismount your bowl you
can remount it at the same spot you had it before reducing the chance
of mounting it out of round the next time.

On spigots, this is far easier because the spigot will be a waste
piece. On spigots I use a sharpie pen and mark the wood on the spigot
where it shows in between the jaws. Spigot jaws will leave impressions
on the wood as well, so you will want to "feel" your block back into
the same spot when remounting.

cad
hanturnedbowls.biz

Ken Wilson wrote:
First posted on rec.woodworking - thanks, George - should have guessed that
there was a dedicated bunch of computerised turners.

Anyway:
I've had an axminster clubman chuck for a year or so and have only used it
with the type C jaws. er, this is my first expanding chuck in
case you can't guess from the rest of the post.

These have a dovetail on the outside and a lipped internal grip on the
inside.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-A...Jaws-21941.htm

After one or two disasters with the expanding dovetail on bowls where i had
left insufficient wood around the outside of the recess to withstand the
forces - and that the internal recess can be left on the bottom of a bowl
but its not a great feature {George posted a link to one of his which is
giving me second thoughts on this though}- i have tended to use the internal
lipped recess for most stuff and then take off the stub after finishing.

originally i would turn a stepped spigot to fit the lip - but i had one or
two of those fly across the room with the "stepping" bit splitting.
So i took to just doing a straight spigot.

But it tends to slip occasionally.

Two questions then - what does everyone else use - the inside stepped or the
outside dovetail. If you use the inside stepped do you turn a stepped
spigot or a straight one.

And would a different internal shape be better for bowls such as the
serrated one on the type H Medium gripper or the dovetailed ones on the Type
A ? (eg the kids don't know what to get me for xmas...)

Oh if it makes any difference - not just bowls of course - I'm still working
on perfecting the ideal eggcup; have had an enjoyable bash or two at goblets
and everybody seems to be getting boxes this xmas.

Thanks

Ken