On Feb 4, 7:20 am, "brian white" wrote:
As a relative noob to woodturning ( I acquired my first lathe 3 Months ago )
I feel that I am now restricted in my creations for the lack of a chuck. I
have made all kinds of Jam chucks, fixing to the headstock with turned morse
Tapers. but its hard going !. Looking through the Polewood Cataloge There is
a choice of the Patriot, SuperNova2, Fox FX4000, and others. Yes of course
I would probably like the most expensive, ( Patriot @£126 ) or the
SuperNova @ £114.00 , are these chucks that much better than the Fox FX4000
@ 68.83 ( including delivery ! ). for which, for the same amount of cash as
a Patriot I could also get a couple of sets of Jaws

What would you "seasoned" ! woodturners recommend ? Price of course is
always an issue.

many thanks in advance, and happy turning

One thing I have learnt in my 3 months of turning - Ride the Bevel, or Sup
with the Devil. :-)


There's a 1 page review of the Patriot chuck in this month's Woodturner
magazine which you should be able to pick up (or just read the relevant
article) in WHSmiths.

The review recommends the chuck - well built, does the job, uses design
features from other chucks but adds it's own touches (like the rubber
band safety feature). A typically well made Sorby product.

The Versachuck was also reviewed several months back and this was
recommended as well. The big selling point of it is that with the
purchase of extra jaw slides it can take jaws from other manufacturers.

I've never used or even seen either of these chucks so can't personally
recommend them.

I have a SuperNova and SuperNova Deluxe chucks and have not had any
problem with them. They're the only ones that I've used so can't compare
to others.

As for the Fox chuck - as others have said, you usually get what you pay
for. I've just done a quick search for the Fox and didn't get many
relevant hits, which may suggest that they aren't well supported in this
country. Try to find someone selling jaws for it and see how many are
available. You may not think that you need many right now but who knows
what you'll be wanting to turn in the future.

Where abouts are you in the UK? If you're anywhere near Newcastle then
feel free to contact me and you can call round to check out my chucks.
Wherever you are there's likely to be a local club where you'll find
years worth of turning experience to draw on.
The Association of Woodturners of GB (http://www.woodturners.co.uk/)
should have a list of clubs

Hope that helps

Duncan