Supplier for a Drill Chuck Key

My Press drills key went walk about a few months ago and i have tried to find a supplier for the right chuck key but i dont know enough about press drill chucks not to order the wrong thing. It has WUE JT3 16MM on the side of it. The hole where you put the key seems to be about 8mm and the distance from the centre of the hole to the bottom of the teeth seems to be 13mm. Any help would be a blessing. Thanks.

I ordered some chuck keys from Arc Eurotrade on Friday and they arrived this morning, impressive service. Your key is probably a 040-010-00321, check their website and check. Regards Pat

This can be a minefield!

A few years ago we bought a brand new Jacobs 1/2" drill chuck. The supplied key was too big in the pin diameter.

The supplier tried to get the correct key from Jacobs but after 5 attemps to supply the correct key they sent everything back to get things sorted out. The chuck came back with the wrong key again! I found a phone number among the correspondence in the box for Jacobs. The guy I phoned said that they had many complaints about the key not fitting but they could do nothing about it as it was the correct key!!

We pressed out the handle and machined the pin to the correct size. Job done!

We then did the same for any chucks that the supplier got in to stock.

"The paperwork says it will fit so it must fit"

Alistair.

Having seen too many keys getting lost in my last job,resulting in the chuck being hammered open and closed [yes,it did happen ], I decided that I would avoid this situation in my own workshop. The answer is quite simple,I attached the key to the machine by a length of chain,problem solved !! Never once over the last thirty plus years has that key gone AWOL. You can spend more time looking for the chuck key than it takes to do the job. Friends who have seen it think it,s a great idea and have copied it,although I dont see it as any big deal,just common sense.

Still,that does not help me to find my 6" rule which I "misplaced" weeks ago. Perhaps a longer chain ?.

PS I have a collection of chuck keys,big,small and in between,from many different drills. Why the Hell can they not settle for four or five sizes and be done with it ?

Maybe keyless chucks are the way forward.
(Except that they take up too much headroom).

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Thanks Guys, Ive ordered the one suggested by Pat Bravery. I am tempted by the keyless chuck steamdave but not going to pay out until this one is unusable. I like it larry phelan 1 though i may just attach one of the high power magnets to it and attach it that way i always get a little concerned about dangly things near moving parts.Thanks Alistair and Brian also. Will let you know if it fits

i have a rare eart( magnet on the side of the drill and just stick the key to that, fast and easy !

i have converted one drill to,keyless but still like my fobco with key as then you can easily use it to start taps , cos the keyless ones undo when you twist backwards

hope it fits Ian

Good job it was an American chuck, not a Chinese one ... this thread would have run on for years...

Ditto

N.

.

My Amolco drill has a convenient cast-in lug with a hole in it to take the key.

... I thought they would all be like that.

[presumably now omitted to save a couple of Yuan, or Rupees]

MichaelG.

bs

Yes Michael

the fobco star has one too and I do,use it (honest) but the bigger Boxford has a tray on the column for stuff , and a magnet is faster and less likely to get missed by the key when i’m rushing a bit.

If the chuck key concerned is for a jacobs it will have somewhere the K size. RDG do,spare keys and they’re ok.

cheers Ian

Not sure whether it's worth starting a new thread for this so am posting here for now.

Could anyone tell me what code Jacobs chuck key, if any, corresponds to the non-Jacobs key I have for my Chinese-made "Golden Goose" keyed chuck? The current key has twelve teeth and apparently a 5/16" pilot. Jacobs' own information charts don't seem to list such a key.

Thank you.

Are you sure the ‘apparently 5/16”’ is not 8mm?

I'm not at all sure what it's intended to be, but measuring all round it repeatedly with a micrometer gives me readings between 7.92mm and 7.94mm.

Like someone else on here, I pressed out the pin and turned down the spigot, to be a snug fit in the chuck, before refitting the pin.

Most keys are a looser fit than I would like, but maybe that's just me..

With regard to a Chinese chuck, with a diameter of 7.92 / 7.94, I would say that it was supposed to be 8 mm, rather than an Imperial size such as 5/16., but 7.94 is 0.312 in old money. But see my views above on the fit.

Howard

I have a chinese drill chuck where the 3 holes are at different heights, I adjusted the outer ring longways (hit it with a hammer, carefully of course) until the key engaged properly with the teeth for one hole, then ground a mark to identify which hole works.

My new milling machine came with a whopping great chuck, 16mm I think, but it has a very short key, only a couple of inches long, so there is very little leverage and it won't hold a 6mm drill tight enough to stop it slipping. - Useless!

Obviously turning up a handle is the next job, but I suspect that a longer shaft/whatnot will help get the turned handle clear of the chuck.

13mm!

No I was right first time.

Yet another case of the Warco website being wrong about what they ship, in this case not a problem as such, I just need to get something for holes below 3mm for Christmas.

At least type B16 chucks are a common standard.