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(actually quite some time ago) and the chuck has been replaced by the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
http://www.fholder.com/Woodturning/lyn.html
where 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:
"Keith Young" wrote in message
...
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
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