Drill Chuck Recommendations for Drill Press

Morning all,

I have restored an old Pollard Corona twin headed pillar drill and converted to run off our 36v solar system. However, when I first tried it out I was gutted to see the drill bit wobbling about. Luckily, when I put a dial gauge over it I realised it was the chuck (phew!) and actually visual inspection shows clearly that the jaws aren’t coming together properly.

So I am on the look out for a 2MT drill chuck and I generally prefer second hand kit, believing old stuff was better made and so better value. However, most of the ones I see on ebay, don’t look to be much better than the one I have. So maybe this is one instance where new is going to be best? That said, I have read reviews of the Chinese Jacobs’ chucks that suggest quality has really suffered. My ideal would be a NOS USA Jacobs, but cannot see anything.

Any suggestions?

James

James,

I am a fan of Vertex, quality kit available from a number UK suppliers.
I use their keyless chucks in my lathe and mill/drill.

Regards

Stuart

.

If you want 'quality' then it's hand deep into pocket time.

**LINK**

Having said that I have a couple of imported far east drill chucks and they are fine.

You could always consider purchase of an MT2 collet chuck and some collets to fit the Pollard. - They would also find other uses in the workshop.

Nick

Buy cheap, buy twice.

**LINK**

Seem to have Jacobs at reasonable prices new, and the arbors are pretty cheap. Worth getting a real Jacobs arbor too. When I bought a little Albrecht fro them they threw in the arbor in the price.

My favourite market old tool stall yielded a nice 13mm Albrecht which cleaned up very nicely, though I had to dismantle it.

And if the old chuck is originally good quality then it's worth stripping it down and cleaning, it may be fine once cleaned.

I'v got 3 Jacobs #34 industrial chucks, mine are plain bearing with #6 Jacobs Taper, they come with a number of different size taper fits, or screw fits. They also come with ball bearing bearings in them, easier tightening, and in a number of degrees of accuracy, and prices, but there seems to be lots of them on Ebay. They seem to be a good general purpose chuck.

Ian S C

The only problem with keyless chucks (as linked to by Nick_G) is that they are very long and you may run out of headroom if your drilling machine is bench mounted. If it floor mounted, then no problem.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

I'm not sure if I'll get shot down for this but I have a Golden Goose Jacobs clone chuck from Axminster which I've always been pleased with.

Still Chinese but pretty good TIR at low cost.

16mm variant...

**LINK**

and 13mm variant...

**LINK**

Hope this helps

Jon

+1 for Golden Goose

Just remember that if you have a keyed one. to tighten it from all 3 holes with the correct sized key

Then duck !!!!!!!!!

OK I am going

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your advise everyone, really welcome.

The twin heads are mounted onto the proper cast floor base with moveable table, so height itsn't a problem. However, I have heard that with keyless chucks they can over tighten when the drill bit catches and also that you cannot use reverse (just very occasionally useful with a left handed bit when removing stuck / broken bolts).

Any experience anyone?

James

I have used these suppliers end of last year, they were the cheapest for quality goods I could find and were quick with shipping. **LINK**

Niko.

Hi there, James et al.,

It used to be possible to buy a chuck refurb kit comprising new jaws and gear ring but I haven't seen them listed anywhere recently. The kit is a bit mind-boggling because the gear ring is made with a notch then hardened and split into two pieces. Amazingly, when I fitted a couple (many years ago) the two halves of the gear ring fitted together perfectly. I'm sure I remember seeing the refurb procedure on YouTube.

If one were to acquire a used chuck whose body wasn't visibly 'chowdered' AND acquire a refurb kit the result could be an affordable path to a quite usable chuck? Having suggested that, I did have a bit of an adventure with a keyless chuck (similar to an Albrecht but still by a reputable maker). I think it was rejected from a cnc machine because of a programming error collision - not only was the MT arbor bent but the JT taper socket in the arbor end of the chuck was out of true as well!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Those Pollard multi spindle drills were superb drilling machines,they could be run all day every day for donkeys years and never gave any trouble,about fifty years ago my works doubled capacity and bought a Herbert multi spindle drill,never liked it too many sharp corners on the drill parts and castings (so called modern styling at the time)always knocking your hands when adjusting the drill heights.A machine like that deserves a good drill chuck, jacobs chucks can sometimes be found on tool stalls at auto jumbles,two of my jacobs chucks came new with a Fobco and a Myford,both are still perfect after 49 years use,the others have been bought as used from tool dealers, some have been stripped cleaned and lubricated and are good,there is a website which gives the info how to press a Jacobs chuck apart to get at the innards,and assemble them.

Over the weekend I had a surprise need to drill 2mm holes with my drill press. The Clarke chuck can grip 3.2 or bigger. So, used an MT2 ER32 collet chuck, but my smallest collet is 7-6mm. Instead, in the 10mm collet I put an ER11 collet chuck with a cylindrical shaft and a 2mm ER11 collet. This worked rather well. So well, I needed to use a 2.1 drill as there wasn't enough wobble in the chuck to open the hole up so I could get a reasonable fit on a 2mm pin.

The ER11 collet & 13 ER11 collets cost the same from HK as 1 ER 32 collet from Axminster.

The point of this: an ER32 collet chuck is very useful for a drill press.

Regards,

Richard.

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Richard,

Can you recommend a particular supplier of ER11 kit; or are you convinced that they all supply the same quality ?

MichaelG.

If you have gone to all the trouble of restoring a Pollard why settle for anything less than a good Jacobs chuck?

It wasnt an industry standard for nothing as a good all rounder. Likely more of these originally fitted in jobbing shops than any other brand.

I have a Kerry back geared pillar drill yet to do and when it's done it will have either a Jcobs or a Cardinal chuck on it ( if i can get my hands on another good one ).

You can usually puck up a couple of genuine Jacob's Chucks at any car boot sale.

Stick a 3/8" rod in one for a quick and easy dial gauge stand, or use one as a handle for a deburrer

Once I even found one that wasn't completely knackered! Remarkable, I fitted it to an arbor and can use it to drill holes!

In all seriousness, I have no idea how people could possibly keep using some of the Jacobs Chucks I have seen long enough to inflict the bell mouthing and wear they exhibit.

Neil

Most of my requirements are for pen making with flexible materials like acrylic, polyester & vulcanised rubber. I am lucky to be able to cut to 0.01mm with these materials as they flex & deform around the tool tip (regardless of how sharp). I normally work to 0.05mm and every seller of chucks, collets etc. seems to better than this level of precision. Which means for my requirements, any supplier seems to be acceptable. I actually used E-Bay seller 'fzeroinstore' for mine: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/fzeroinestore/

Where I have tested concentricity in the lathe, I have noticed the needle of my dial gauge move as I turn the spindle, but indicates less than 0.01mm deviation in a complete turn. I suspect this is adequate for most purposes. At work we usually specify machined items to +/-1mm in non critical areas, +/-0.1mm in more critical areas and tolerances specified by suppliers of mating parts for everything else, so on my pens at home I have a smaller tolerance limit than the company's normal best work.

My current selection method for ER collet tooling is 'Lowest price including post & packing', and so far, I've not had problems that are attributable to the tooling. Where I have had problems, it's usually attributable to the idiot controlling the lathe (me) or the material being less than homogenous and departing from normal behaviour in a big way - disintegrating pen parts make you duck pretty fast! Pen blanks such as these: **LINK** are made by thin partially cured sheets of resin being dipped, prodded & poked into tanks of curing resin. Unfortunately they do not always adhere perfectly at the interfaces, and can split/crack at the surface of the inlaid sheet. This is particularly true at threads, where often need to get the thickness of material at the root down to 0.3mm to allow other parts down the middle. If there is a slight weakness at the joint between parts of the blank, it will show up then.

Hope this is of interest

Richard.

Edited By richardandtracy on 21/02/2017 10:47:22

Thanks a lot, Richard ... Yes, very interesting

I'm just off to the hospital, for my cataract 'post-op' check, but will follow-up your link when I get back.

MichaelG.