Thanks for the post Ed. I'm in the process of finishing a piece and had forgot I had a set large cole jaws for my oneway chuck. Timely post.

Expansion more works well for semi-closed forms.

I don't use them, but have been told if you are doing any turning, slow speeds, and keep the tailstock engaged till the last smallest bit that you can't get without removing the tailstock. The mount is not as powerful/secure as standard chuck jaws. One friend uses blue painter's tape to make sure the piece does not dismount...

robo hippy

Cole jaws. IMO are one of the specialty holding devices that can be a great benefit to the woodturner. Caution is required of course as the holding power is depending on the rubber  buttons. I use the Oneway jumbo jaws and have discovered that I can remove the rubbers and use only the tapered steel inserts to provide a veritable large diameter dovetail chuck like hold on large platters. It works very well on recess or outside hold. I generally burn a line on the perimeter of a piece to register the tips of the cones so the piece runs as true as possible. If near perfect circle size there is no chuck mark on the piece, and it is very secure, less flex due to no rubber. I am not sure what the Nova Cole jaws use to holder the rubbers, I have only used the Oneway system.

The buffers are from Teknatool/NOVA
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I wrote this in  Feb 2012 when I first bought them
"The first thing I noticed is that these buttons came with allen head screws.  Smiley The cole jaws I bought years ago come with slotted head screws, which are still in the package. So that saved me a couple of bucks.
The multi sided buttons have two different radii molded into them. One side is marked with a 6" and the other a 10", I suppose this is to insure the best possible fit without squishing the heck out of the buttons or your project.
The posts are about 3/4" tall and are great for holding  anything with a 90 degree edge.
They seem to have been well made and look as if they will last quite awhile. "

After 5 1/2 years, they're still working fine.

Bert Delisle wrote on Aug 20^th, 2017 at 11:15am:

There is rubber and there is rubber.
The Nova buttons are rubber but quite hard and not easy to compress, This was part of the problem with the original buttons. They were too hard, straight sided, and that translated to not holding very well. You had to "over-tighten" the chuck to get a reasonable hold. This is no good for the chuck or the piece. This is why I use the tapered bumpers, originally my own and then when nova offered their set about 5 years ago. The Nova buffers are hard, the other ones in my photos are soft so that they do conform to the piece. Different buttons/buffers for different applications. I have useed wood, plastic and metal to make my own. Using tapered buttons, hard or soft is much safer than straight sided in most applications. There is also no need to over-tighten with the added mechanical advantage.

George Stratton wrote on Aug 20^th, 2017 at 5:31pm:


I typically finish the majority of the piece (inside and out) before I remount.
The masking tape is really only there to protect the finish from touching the cast aluminum jaws and getting marred. It can however be used as you mentioned as the larger the jaws get, (more back and forth movement) the more the need to true up the piece.

For a long time I had great difficulty trying to turn off the tenon on once turned bowls and have a non-warped bottom.  Using a suggestion from another Cincinnati turner, I made a number of jam chucks by gluing with Titebond pieces of 2" high density foam onto 3/4" plywood disks that had a tenon on one side.  The foam does tear a bit but now I have a number of different diameter foam jam chucks with slightly rounded circumference.  Using one about the same diameter as the tenon to be removed, and putting the point of the live center back in the marked center of the tenon,  and taking light cuts, I've been able to turn off the tenon and have the bottom flat enough to make a shallow ring or two.