Jacobs No 34 chuck

I recently purchased a No 34 Jacobs chuck from large commercial seller. I was somewhat disappointed by the chuck, very poorly finished, compared to some of my old Jacobs chucks. Run out was good, but I was so disappointed that I returned the chuck for a refund.

I can't imagine that the respected seller was pushing fakes. So have Jacobs started sourcing from the Far East and I just got a bad one?

Andrew.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Jacobs are buying from the Far East, nearly every large engineering company seems to be going that way.

I think Jacobs may have gone the way of many others, they offer their expensive top of the line quality gear at top prices, and also offer lower priced fare of lesser quality. The latter most likely sourced from China or surrounds. Their good ones seem to be branded as their "industrial grade" and cost 80 Quid and more. They seem to have others for 20 Quid or so.It might be a case of you get what you pay for, regardless of the name stamped on it.

Relevant addresses, and a declaration of the ‘’Quality Policy’ on this page: **LINK**

http://www.jacobschuck.com/about/

MichaelG.

I did a factory tour back in 2008



See also from "28 days Later".
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/millhouses-engine-sheds-jacobs-manufacturing-sheffield-south-yorks-april-2013-september-2015.122672/


Bill

I paid about £50 for the chuck, so somewhere in between the £20 and £80. So which quality did I get!!!!!!

Andrew.

The quoted quality policy refers to catering for specific requirements. The 34 series is of long standing and is listed as a heavy-duty industrial chuck, ie not one intended for hand-held tools. As such I would have expected it to be of very good quality.

One would like to assume : **LINK**

http://www.jacobschuck.com/plain-bearing-keyed/17.html

BUT

MichaelG.

I recently took a chance and bought a 5-20mm keyed chuck with an R8 arbor to use it on for £36.50 from RDG. The finish and runout are excellent for a cheap chuck. There is no indication on the box as to whether it is of Indian or Chinese origin.

There have beed adverse comments on the quality of current Jacobs branded chucks on the forums in the USA, also.

Edited By old mart on 24/02/2023 15:44:01

Jacobs 34

This says made in China, there is no reason that China cannot meet the Jacobs quality but maybe Jacobs don’t pay enough or specify tightly enough. It looks like the made in China is on the box and not on the chuck so once the box has gone it’s just a Jacobs chuck

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 24/02/2023 16:54:56

Jacobs hasn't existed as a real firm for some time.

They were bought by one of the tooling conglomerates whose policy is to use the reputation of purchased brand name to charge high prices for, at best, barely adequate for the market products sourced from low bid Far Easter suppliers. Especially at the retail end most purchasers won't understand the difference between properly engineered lasting quality and something that will, probably, work for a while. Most folk inn the target market won't be set up to properly inspect and test a chuck beyond basic concentricity, and how many even do that. The cost of refunds and returns is cynically built into the business model. It's a lot. I'd guess around 30% is allowed for.

Generally the difference between low bid suppliers and proper, high engineering quality ones is in allowable tolerances and quality control. Low bid works to wider tolerances and much loss QC inspection rates. Unlike the real cheap end of the market things are made from OK materials on decent machinery so the probability of producing at least acceptable goods is high. Mix'n match of wider tolerance band components means at least some will be good enough to help support the brand reputation.

Has to be remembered that large firms are purely finance driven. It's interesting to examine the company and plant buying and selling machinations of VW Group. Thats where they make their money. Car production is basically an add on that makes the finance stuff possible!

Once an engineering based company is run for the finance it's basically dead. May take a long time to die. General motors has taken half a century but its now entered its dead spiral as part of Stellantis.

Even a cursory examination of the de-industrialisation of Britain shows that it's been driven by our finance plays. Whether the steady company consumption of GEC under Weinstock followed by its spectacular final implosion attempting to become a "fibre telecoms" company. The cynical Staverly acquisition of most of Britains machine tool companies. Or the many lower level failures and sell off of lesser names. Such as Jewett, Napier et countless al. The machinations of the finance heavy board of Westland Aircraft during the run num to WW2 are sobering.

Out of curiosity a friend recently dismantled a Bosch battery drill and it's apparently identical, except for the colours, low end (LiDL?) counterpart. Identical right down to the control printed circuit, components and all visible part numbers. Including the motor. Quoth he "£100 is a lot to pay for a different batch and colour scheme."

Clive

I have a Jacob's 5/8"capacity chuck, from new many years ago.Seems OK for my use. More recently, purchased second hand £4 @a club rummage sale, an almost identical chuck, stamped "CVA". Just had to have it in memory of my Father who worked in their Portland Road, Hove factory during the war. Its actually better than the Jacob's since it will hold much smaller drills, down to no.51, if I recall. I use it on the Sharp mill in vertical mode and the Jacob's on the Myford tailstock. Chuck keys not interchangeable. CVA and their filthy smelly factory all long gone, replaced by smart clean EDF offices. If you find a CVA chuck, suggest you acquire it.

Don’t know what vintage this is: I picked it up at the Flea Market, today

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.

Made in Italy … by whom, I wonder ?

MichaelG.

MichaelG:

You remind me of my expensive walking boots "Engineered in Italy" but actually "Made in Romania"!

I would guess that it was made by Porta. They are (were?) a very respected manufacturer of drill chucks. I have one and it is every bit as good as my older Jacob's chucks. They were still in business up to a couple of years ago. But who knows if they still are.

Andrew.

Thanks for that, Andrew

… I haven’t even taken it out of the cellophane yet, but it certainly looks the part.

MichaelG.

Good afternoon all.

Clive's point about old names being bought & cheapened happens all the time unfortunately.

My brother has moved some distance away & can no longer bring his motorbikes into my workshop to work on them. So he's in the process of buying a lot of hand tools. I pointed out King Dick as a good make of professional grade spanners & sockets. Until recently they were made in Birmingham. He rang the new owners of the name & they said that current stock is UK made, but in future new stock will come from the far east. So that's more British manufacturing down the pan.

If you have an old but good Jacob's chuck look after it. I have a couple of 2 morse chucks that came in a box of odds & sods that I acquired. They were both stuck solid, but after a good soaking they freed up, & they both work pretty well. I use them to save wear & tear on my Albrecht chucks. Albrecht chucks are excellent, but eye wateringly expensive.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Hi, looks like Porta are still in business Porta

Regards Nick.

That will do nicely for me, Nick

MichaelG.

I bought a 16mm keyless chuck with a 2MT that was advertised for £15 and looked the same in the photographs as those being sold at up to three times the price. Obviously, I knew it was Chinese but since it arrived and has been fitted to a Union pillar drill that I have tidied up, having found the machine on a scrapheap, I can't fault it. It grips well, runs true and look well finished. Well OK, a pillar drill isn't really any sort of precision machine so maybe its well suited to a cheap chuck but I have others of a similar type and appearance that seem to work equally well in my lathes so I am quite happy to have some 'cheap Chinese junk' at my disposal, except that it doesn't appear to be 'junk'.