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Drill Chuck Purchase Advice

William Rogers

William Rogers

Joined
Mar 19, 2016
Messages
1,422
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1,795
Location
Haubstadt, Indiana
I have purchased several drill chucks in the $40 range and have for the most part been disappointed. There may be good chucks in that range, but I haven’t found one. Also is there is a keyless chuck that really works for a lathe? I realize I will/may need to spend more than $40 for a quality chuck, but rather not make a mistake on a higher $$ chuck.

Edit: I occasionally use forstner bits up to 2” in addition to 1/2” and under bits. Wood type varies
 
I had one of the cheap HF chucks ... it was junk. About 5 years ago, I replaced it with one from Nova. It is a keyed chuck, but I have been happy with it. I also use some big Forstner bits and have never had an issue.
 
I've always heard that the design of drill chucks makes them inherently imprecise. Maybe you need a metal lathe or machine tool to get the accuracy you want.
 
I've found a couple Albrecht keyless chucks on a #2 MT for under $100 on Ebay. Even an old, worm Albrecht is better than a new Chinese chuck. The two I've purchased have been more than adequate.
 
I found my drill chuck I first bought. Name on it is Golden Goose. From memory it was a decent working chuck. Jacobs knock off Made in Taiwan. I’m nor sure why I retired it, but plan to clean it up and give it another try. In the mean time I’ll keep a watch on eBay for a Albrecht with a MT 2 taper. My other two chucks have no name and not very good.
 
I picked up an Albrecht a decade or so ago and haven't used it as it has a 1/2" straight shank. I think it has a Jacobs Taper in the chuck itself.
Anyone know how to remove the shank without their special tools?
 
I've never been able to justify the expense of buying the chuck with my own name on it, though I never thought to look on Ebay.

After some inexpensive off brands that were crap, I got a good keyless Jacobs chuck that I bought new. I don't remember what I paid, but it was far less than "mine".
 
Tom De Winter said:
I picked up an Albrecht a decade or so ago and haven't used it as it has a 1/2" straight shank. I think it has a Jacobs Taper in the chuck itself.
Anyone know how to remove the shank without their special tools?
Click to expand...

There are two ways to go about it:
First is to use a wedging action. There are inexpensive wedge sets available for the job but in the video below he uses an open wrench to accomplish the same thing. To use the commercial wedges you need to have a groove in the shank near the chuck body.
View: https://youtu.be/EtT7SS0qPF0?t=405


The second method takes advantage of the knowledge that vibration is a taper's worst enemy. This is less sure fire than wedging because there may be rust in the mating taper surfaces holding them together or it could be a very well fitting taper that isn't as sensitive to vibration. Clamp the shank in a vise with the chuck hanging downward. Use a reciprocating saw with no blade to apply vibration to either the shank or the chuck body. Make sure you have a catch bucket or something below if/when the chuck drops off.

Finally, don't let yourself be tempted to use a hammer on the chuck body. You'll only ding and damage it with little chance of successfully removing the shank. The forces to remove the shank need to be equally distributed around the taper and a hammer can't do this.
 
Thanks Owen. Of course my 1/2" shank doesn't have the groove but I may be able to clamp it in my metal lathes 3-Jaw and wedge between the two chucks.
 
Tom De Winter said:
I picked up an Albrecht a decade or so ago and haven't used it as it has a 1/2" straight shank. I think it has a Jacobs Taper in the chuck itself.
Anyone know how to remove the shank without their special tools?
Click to expand...

Open the jaws fully and look down the center. Some chucks are hollow so that you can press the arbor out. It's not always very obvious so you might have to look pretty closely. I've used a simple hand lever arbor press but you might be able to just set it on a machinist vice and knock it out with a brass punch and a hammer or get a little more creative with a punch/bolt a few pieces of wood and some clamps.
 
William Rogers said:
I found my drill chuck I first bought. Name on it is Golden Goose. From memory it was a decent working chuck. Jacobs knock off Made in Taiwan. I’m nor sure why I retired it, but plan to clean it up and give it another try. In the mean time I’ll keep a watch on eBay for a Albrecht with a MT 2 taper. My other two chucks have no name and not very good.
Click to expand...
William......You also might check on Rohm chucks made in Germany. Plenty of them on eBay new/used, keyed/keyless, various mounting options and sizes. I have one of these marked "Rohm, West Germany", so it kinda dates mine. Good quality.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2057872.m570.l1311&_nkw=rohm+chuck&_sacat=0

-----odie-----
 
Roger Wiegand said:
I've found a couple Albrecht keyless chucks on a #2 MT for under $100 on Ebay. Even an old, worm Albrecht is better than a new Chinese chuck. The two I've purchased have been more than adequate.
Click to expand...

About 4 months ago I found an Albrecht keyless chuck with a #2 MT for $105 on eBay with free shipping. When the chuck arrived, it appeared to be obviously used only because it did not look all brand spanking new shiny. That said, the jaws were in excellent shape with no chips out of it, the mechanism work flawlessly and the run out was minimal. This reminds me, I need to look for another one!
 
Not knowing there are such special name brands, I purchased a few no name Chucks from China on MT2. For my use they are more than adequate. And I routinely use 2 inch forstner bits. I did want a keyless chuck for a specific operation and it turned out to be cheaper and less hassle to buy a corded drill with keyless chuck at Walmart for $14.00. Seems odd to be able to buy the entire drill for less than I can find a part of one. But most importantly, it does exactly what I need it to do
 
Tom De Winter said:
I picked up an Albrecht a decade or so ago and haven't used it as it has a 1/2" straight shank. I think it has a Jacobs Taper in the chuck itself.
Anyone know how to remove the shank without their special tools?
Click to expand...

I was given a 1/2” Jacobs chuck with a stuck (bent) arbor. Wedges were tried by the original owner but failed to do the job.
I looked on the Jacobs website and they suggested fully opening the jaws and drilling down through the chuck body. A drift can then be used to knock the arbor out. I tried this and it worked perfectly. I’m still using the chuck.

Edit: My best keyless chuck is a 5/8” Albrecht. I was also given a 3/4” Keyed Jacobs chuck that’s very nice.
 
I was finally able to find a decent Albrecth chuck on eBay. I looked for a long time and got a 0-3/8 for $36 plus $10 dollars shipping. I had to change to a MT2 taper and that was another $15. It was well worth it. Most of the time 0-3/8 is all I need. I also got a 1/32 - 5/8 Rhom chuck from an estate sale for $30. Not quite as good as the Albrecth, but a quality chuck. I must have looked and bid for over 6 months before winning the Albrecht. I don’t think it was ever used.

@Tom De Winter Mine also had a straight shank, but had the place to use a wedge. I do remember when it separated it did so with in a violent fashion. The chuck did have the taper to install a MT2 taper.
 
The problem with drill chucks, and this includes the chucks on your drill press is that they tend to slip as you use larger bits, like the 2 inch bit you mentioned or for me a 2 5/8 bit for drilling a recess for mounting bowl blanks. I don't think you can get away from that unless your Morris taper is rusted into place. I did get a keyless chuck from Woodcraft, but haven't used it yet. I do have a keyed chuck, and while trying some pepper/salt mills, it did slip.

robo hippy
 
robo hippy said:
The problem with drill chucks, and this includes the chucks on your drill press is that they tend to slip as you use larger bits, like the 2 inch bit you mentioned or for me a 2 5/8 bit for drilling a recess for mounting bowl blanks. I don't think you can get away from that unless your Morris taper is rusted into place. I did get a keyless chuck from Woodcraft, but haven't used it yet. I do have a keyed chuck, and while trying some pepper/salt mills, it did slip.

robo hippy
Click to expand...
I use a 3-1/2” forstner bit in mine with a clean mt2 and it works fine.
 
robo hippy said:
The problem with drill chucks, and this includes the chucks on your drill press is that they tend to slip as you use larger bits, like the 2 inch bit you mentioned or for me a 2 5/8 bit for drilling a recess for mounting bowl blanks. I don't think you can get away from that unless your Morris taper is rusted into place. I did get a keyless chuck from Woodcraft, but haven't used it yet. I do have a keyed chuck, and while trying some pepper/salt mills, it did slip.

robo hippy
Click to expand...
I think the only [potential] saving grace of a keyless chuck is the addition of jake bar holes for restoring the ability to torque properly to the shank of the bit.
In other methods, one could forgo the jacobs chuck and use MT2 collets which use a drawbar thread. I have done this in the past for deep hollow form work with good success.
 
I have a Albrecht, and really like it.....for smaller bits. With larger forstner bits and heavy loads it will self tighten so tight I can't loosen it by hand.

For those larger drill bits I use a made in the USA keyed Jacobs Super Chuck. For small bits and light drilling I can get away with hand tightening and not use the chuck key. Of course best practice is to always use the key. They can often be found used with attractive prices.
 
This is an old & new thread. I'll add this suggestion. If you are purchasing a jacobs style chuck and plan to use bits with a 1/2" shank, consider buying a 5/8" chuck. 1/2" chuck will just accommodate a 1/2" shank, but a 5/8" will give better hold.
 
Face it folks, you want a good quality chuck you have to spend good dollars for it.

The ultimate drill chuck has always been the Jacobs ball bearing chuck. Not sure if those are even manufactured any more.

Albrecht keyless chucks are okay for light duty drilling where you want quick bit changes.. With heavy drilling they'll self tighten to extent you might be tempted (or have) to use a pipe wrench to loosen them. Also, not good for a situation where you need to reverse the machine spindle to get a stuck drill out of a hole, they loosen in reverse. Sometimes small hole thread tapping is done by holding taps in a drill chuck, not with an Albrecht.

S&D bits, the name for Silver and Deming bits with 1/2" shanks and sizes well over 1/2". Yeah, these will spin in most chucks because the chucks were not designed to be used with bits larger than 1/2" cutting diameter in metal. Some of the new S&D bits now come with 3 flats on the shank to prevent slipping.

Using large Forstner bits shouldn't be a problem in drilling from the tailstock in a wood lathe. But, of late I've noticed warnings about using large bits because the lathe manufacturers cheaped out on the anti-rotation method of preventing tailstock quill rotation. The cheap method can damage the slot in the quill, ridiculous, requiring having to file down burrs caused by the set screw.
 
My Albrecht chuck hasn’t slipped yet on my milling machine, but I think it may have self tightened once? - it could have been one of my far east keyless chucks. I had to use a rubber strap wrench to undo it.
 
Doug Rasmussen said:
The ultimate drill chuck has always been the Jacobs ball bearing chuck. Not sure if those are even manufactured any more.
Click to expand...
I bought a Jacobs (brand) keyless jacobs (type) chuck afew years back. They were in business then.

I make frequent bit changes on the drill press where I want to maintain accurate alignment, hence the keyless chuck. If it over tightens (not often for me) a rubber strap has worked great.

A bit stuck in the wood is a problem. I have learned the hard way to always use peck drilling technique.
 
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