New guy with a woodturning chuck question

Hello all, I was at "Working with Wood" show in Melbourne last Saturday and at the TIMBECON stand they had a wood lathe chuck that they were selling a little cheaper than the SuperNova chuck. They claimed it was better than the Nova and came from Canada, the brand name was ILES so they said (there wasn't anything written on the box), they would not tell me any more. I was really tempted to buy it because it looked real strong and the standard jaws had grooves on them so they looked like they wouldn’t slip easy like maybe the Nova might having smooth faces on the jaws. I didn’t buy it because I hadn’t heard about it and thought I would ask around to see if anyone else had used one before and had some good/bad experiences. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Cheers
Roy:~

Iles?

I wonder if this is as in "Ashley Iles" the UK turning chisel maker? I hope so... 'cos if they're selling chucks over this side of the pond it may make sourcing their chisels a lot easier too! :fingers Xed:

Roy, the advantage of both Teknatool (SuperNova) & Vicmarc chucks is that they're good quality, produced locally , have damned good support, are readily available and have wide ranges of jaw types. (Well... to us 'ere in Oz, anyway.) That'd be difficult for any new entrant to compete with, unless their chucks also accept jaws from one of the above "big two."

I'll be keeping an eye out now that you've mentioned 'em though... :wink:

Contrary to what you were told the Iles chucks are named after the current owner Robert Iles and they are produced in china not canada.

There is no association with Ashley Isles of the UK sorry Skew.


I am from the old school and believe a dovetail grip is better than these parralell jaws, they may have rings for extra grip but under duress they still let go.
The Iles chucks are not compatable with any other of the main brands Nova or Vicmarc so the range of jaws limited to the 3 they have.

Jim,
Are these the same as your 'Budget Chuck'' or is that a different beast?

Same but different.

Ours take the Nova jaws so you can expand on the range if required.

Thanks Jim,
Spoken like a true Irishman :wink:

thanks guys, I knew I would get a real answer from you guys, I think I will order a supernova
Cheers
Roy