Cole Jaws

Dan Mosley

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Palm Springs, Ca
I was reading today about the use of cole jaws and then read a couple different points of view on using them. I have never used them and have finished my bottoms in other ways but im wondering if they are as good as some say or as bad as others say.
* they can hold up to 10' diameter
* works good for bowls with clean sharp edges and not at all good for any natural edge bowls
* At the woodcraft website one of the comments say they are not worth having because he had to grind down the surfaces to get them to fit correctly and put tape on after due to poor machining quality
* The comment goes on to say they are a real pain to put on and get set right even after the additional surface machining and suggests to leave them on a dedicated chuck.

They are not cheap and im not sure they are worth bothering with now after reading the reviews.............comments ???

Maybe ill just stick to my donut, jamb
 
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I've not used Cole jaws, but I did have a Longworth chuck, which uses similar rubber bumpers. I didn't really like it...it was the only reversing method I've used that caused me to launch a bowl. Jam chucks and donut chucks covered a lot of ground for me, and still do, but the vacuum chuck is my favorite. I'd say save the money you'd spend on Cole jaws and put it towards a vacuum rig.

Just my 2¢. :wave:
 
I have a set of Jumbo jaws that fits my Barracuda from PSI... the largest bowl they will take is about 8 inches or just over... if you have a vertical edge and mount the bowl over the jaws inside the bowl, you can get a little larger, but I don't find the hold to be secure..
Mine are well machined and made to fit the Barracuda body, so no fit problem at all... the machining on them is good, nice and smooth. They also came with two sets of pegs.. one tall and one short... never use the short pegs... they don't work well with natural edge, but they can be used. If you still have bark on the NE, likely to knock it off in the Cole though.... one the smaller bowls, they work fine...

I also have a Longworth that I made for larger bowls... I can get up to about an 11 inch bowl on the Longworth.. I don't feel the Longworth is quite as secure as the Cole, but that's probably because mine is a little more crudely made than the Cole jaws.

I find the Cole jaws useful and do not have them on a dedicated chuck...

All this aside, I want to make a vacuum chuck soon and try that... I think it may be more veresital or try David Reed Smith's idea of using the hot glue on a donut chuck as in the Spring issue of Woodturning Designs.
 
I have a set that I made.I can a clamp a 14" bowl on it,but there right about it being a P.E.T.A.I use it quite a bit,but allways keep the tail stock up against it,then just finish the bottom as close to the center as I can,then just sand that little bit.For natural edges I use the Vac chuck,allthough I plan on using that more in the near future.
 
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