Woodcraft drill chuck, any good?

[David C. Roseman]

I'd highly suggest a threaded-end Morse taper for the chuck, so you can add a drawbar to keep it from coming out during lathe operation. Drawbars are easy to make using allthread. I even added a piece of aluminum tubing over mine to keep the threads from scraping the bore in both the headstock and tailstock, although this is probably overkill on my part. You'll probably need to add a washer so that the nut used to tighten seats OK in the headstock or tailstock. You can use a simple hex nut or a small star knob to improve grip for thightening and removal.

Lee makes a very good point. Important to use a drawbar if the chuck is in the headstock and there's no tail stock pressure on the workpiece. As, for example, turning bottle stoppers on a mandrel. I don't know if the HF keyed chuck is threaded for a drawbar. Anyone?

The Woodcraft chuck Morse taper is threaded for 7/16" Allthread, the PSI for 1/4, fyi.

David

[Paul Engle]

Not sure how you would use the chuck in the head stock as most drilling is done from the tail stock and you would not beable to use a threaded taper ... if you drill from the head stock how would you hold and advance the piece ? unless you had a mount that uses a morse taper to go in the tail stock attached to a chuck , which there are such chucks but are spendy . I have seen a 2 inch chuck with morse taper to mount in the TS and there are adapters to mount your chuck to the adapter to insert in the TS . At any rate if you go that way , like David said , always use a draw bar to hold it in the HS spindle .

[David C. Roseman]

Not sure how you would use the chuck in the head stock as most drilling is done from the tail stock...[snip]

Paul, quite so; I should have clarified. Mounted in the headstock, a drill chuck can be used as pin jaws to hold small workpieces, buffing pads, and also mandrels like this for turning bottle stoppers, ice cream scoops and other items that use threaded hardware. E.g., this mandrel from Woodcraft: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200...r-Mandrel.aspx

David

[Mark Levitski]

Not all drill chucking is for drilling. Use the drill chuck in the headstock for holding a sanding mandrel for instance. Works great for finishing the bottom of a bowl that you weren't able to complete w/ the piece being held by the lathe.

[Ralph Lindberg]

I spent about an hour on the phone with the guy that Ralph was talking about. He does go to some of the Symposiums. He does not have a web sits. His drill chuck is one designed for machine shops. It sounds like it is as far above most other drill chucks as the CBN wheels are above standard wheels. Some times, you do get what you pay for. I plan on getting one or two in the future.

robo hippy

Found my note... VM Woodworking email is vmwoodworking1982 -at- yahoo.com

[Kelvin Burton]

John, you have solved a problem for me! I was wondering why my drill chuck kept coming loose when I was turning bottle stoppers with the mandrel held in the drill chuck! With your comment about the drawbar and some Googling and finally an article in Wikipedia I now know how to solve the problem, thank you!

I thought I had a damaged taper in the headstock (still a possibility) after I left my buffing adapter on the lathe for an extended time and a Mud dauber built it's nest inside the morse taper and made it go rusty I cleaned it out as best as I could and ran some sand paper in it to remove the rust.

[Kyle VanMeter]

I have the Wood River keyless chuck, and have no qualms with it.

A keyed chuck will definitely afford you more gripping power. But unless I am drilling metal, or doing some real heavy drilling in wood, the Keyless chuck works great and is far more convenient.


Kyle VanMeter

[John C Lawson]

A couple less common things to consider:

If you are using your drill chuck in the headstock, and the chuck is connected to the shaft with a Jacobs taper, that can also come loose, until less you make sure it is firmly seated. A firm, not violent, shot with a soft mallet will do it. You can also get chucks that thread onto the taper (usually 1/2-20 threads). That can come undone if you ever run in reverse, so if that is something you might do, there are integral chucks permanently attached to the taper. They ain't cheap.

[Aaron Wingert]

I have two of the Wood River keyless chucks and love them. Also have one of their keyed chucks and it is good too. I also have a Harbor Freight keyed chuck and in my opinion it isn't worth the box it came in. Lousy piece of equipment, comparatively.