Thread: Is there a right way to tighten a drill chuck?

Originally Posted by Markw

...what your actually doing is moving the the drill sleeve (the crown gear) in a sideways motion and taking up any slack between the sleeve and its screw thread...

I guess this makes sense, I'll pay a bit more attention to a chuck design one of these days and try to picture what is happening. Hard to think it isn't getting tighter when the chuck is moving though. I'll most likely keep my old habits, I think they are a bit too ingrained to just drop them .

Originally Posted by fraserbluff

The crown wheel turns and tightens the chuck pieces regardless of where the pinion is. Changing which hole is used is of no value other than perhaps changing the relative purchase of the pinion on the crown wheel.

I tend to agree with this bit. When you move the chuck key to a new hole, before you put it in the new hole you rotate it backwards so as to get your hand & wrist in a better position to apply renewed torque to the chuck key.

What about trying tightening up the chuck in each hole but not doing the backwards rotation thing, ie. keep your wrist in the same spot you completed the previous turn in, & suss your results.

Conversely, try sticking to the same hole in the chuck, but do the backwards rotation thing to get a fresh purchase, & see how it goes.

Me - I'll stick to the "use 3 holes" methodology I've always done & bugger the theory.


Cheers.................Sean

I am still not convinced that tightening by using one hole is the same as using the three holes. You can use all the theory you like but some things in theory just don't work in practice. I have had drill bits slip when I have tightened them using one hole and I have re- tightened using the three holes and no slip. Judging from the posts here I think its fair to say that most of us use the three hole method, be it right or wrong and I don't think things are going to change. People will use the old method and wont be converted.

Maybe we should show a little bit of respect for some of the old folk who pioneered the way for some of the know it all younger ones who find it necessary to call them "old farts" and " a Goose" Without these old farts and Gooses of yesteryear, most of us wouldn't be where we are today. Surely we can put a point across without having to belittle or ridicule others. I am sure anyone who gives advice, gives it with the best intention and believe in what they are saying at the time.

Originally Posted by munruben

Maybe we should show a little bit of respect for some of the old folk who pioneered the way for some of the know it all younger ones who find it necessary to call them "old farts" and " a Goose" Without these old farts and Gooses of yesteryear, most of us wouldn't be where we are today. Surely we can put a point across without having to belittle or ridicule others. I am sure anyone who gives advice, gives it with the best intention and believe in what they are saying at the time.

In the end I really don't care whether you understand the principles of engineering and mechanics or not despite them being around since 1684. I would ask that you don't perpetuate this mythology and infect the future generations with your unsubstatiated practices.

As to the ridicule of the previous generations, those that teach practices which are incorrect or unfounded and should know better are gooses and portray themselves as ignorant "flat earther's". Just cause they're old doesn't make them right. The Principae of Mechanics was developed in 1684 by Sir Isaac Newton - if those that you refer to had their birthday prior to this date then I would grant you that you that they had insufficient knowledge instead of just being ignorant. For some reason I don't expect them to be that old.

As for "know it all younger one's" - I have 32 years in industry which would hardly put me in the recently capped category.

Originally Posted by Markw

In the end I really don't care whether you understand the principles of engineering and mechanics or not despite them being around since 1684. I would ask that you don't perpetuate this mythology and infect the future generations with your unsubstatiated practices. I have better things to do than advise people on how to tighten a drill bit in a chuck. As for unsubstantiated, I can only cite my own experiences in tightening and, I have in fact had drill bits slip when I tighten by using only one hole to do it and when I have re-tightened them using the three holes, the bit hasn't slipped. Thats all I am saying about that. I am not telling anyone that this may be the correct way. This is my experience.

As to the ridicule of the previous generations, those that teach practices which are incorrect or unfounded and should know better are gooses and portray themselves as ignorant "flat earther's". Just cause they're old doesn't make them right. No it doesn't make them right but I am sure at the time, they passed on their knowledge in good faith. For generations we were told Pluto was a planet and only recently discovered it isn't, or so we are to believe. Does that make all those generations of "experts" who told us it was a planet, old farts ? Even doctors believed for years that Systolic blood pressure was not an important factor in measuring whether a person had high or low blood pressure. Today this is considered a vital, important factor. Were all those doctors who told us it wasn't important, old farts?

The Principae of Mechanics was developed in 1684 by Sir Isaac Newton - if those that you refer to had their birthday prior to this date then I would grant you that you that they had insufficient knowledge instead of just being ignorant. For some reason I don't expect them to be that old. We can't expect everyone to know everything and again we can only cite our own experiences. I am sure even Sir Isaac Newton didn't know everything. Not everyone in the world would have been aware of Sir Isaac Newtons teachings immediately following 1684 and who knows, maybe one day in the future, someone may prove Sir Isaac Newtons principals of Mechanics to be wrong and I guess then we will have a new generation of old farts.

As for "know it all younger one's" - I have 32 years in industry which would hardly put me in the recently capped category.

I respect your qualifications and your experience and have little doubt that you are probably right about this but having said that, the experts who told us about Pluto also had a lot more than 32 years experience but they were proved wrong.

I would imagine that during our lifetime we would have all passed on information we have accumulated in the belief that it is correct to someone else.

This debate has left me in three minds. From here on, every time I put a drill in a chuck, I'm going to dither for three hours on whether hand tight will do, one hole or two holes. Logic v habit....... habit v logic... logic v habit.... THWI

my techie teachers tought me 2 holes.

for drilling into wood ? even with large bores or heaven forbid hole saws or forstner bits - always just done one hole and never had a slip.

with the hand/hammer drill into steel or masonry usually hold the chuck and click the trigger till it bites then nip one hole; occasionally nip the other 2 holes....

who gives a rats so long as it dont slip ? whatever works...

There are those that teach and there are those that learn from the teaching and must use this experience. Those that teach must be expert in what they impart and to teach rubbish "in good faith" is unacceptable. Would you accept being taught high voltage electrical principles from a "Brickie" - No I think not.

Whether Pluto is a moon or a planet is only as good as the information available to the experts at the time, the same with blood pressure. As reliable information changes through technology and understanding so might the basic theory change. The prinicles needed to consider this problem has been around and unchanged since the end of the 17th Century.

Originally Posted by Markw

Those that teach must be expert in what they impart

bullshot!

Originally Posted by Markw

There are those that teach and there are those that learn from the teaching and must use this experience. Those that teach must be expert in what they impart and to teach rubbish "in good faith" is unacceptable. Would you accept being taught high voltage electrical principles from a "Brickie" - No I think not.

I hardly think you can compare teaching someone about tightening a bit in a drill chuck to being taught high volatage electrical princiapal by anyone. lets keep things in perspective.

Originally Posted by MurrayD99

This debate has left me in three minds. From here on, every time I put a drill in a chuck, I'm going to dither for three hours on whether hand tight will do, one hole or two holes. Logic v habit....... habit v logic... logic v habit.... THWI

Murray, I''m going keyless, it's the only way.

I had some quality time at the drill press today at work so I did a little testing.

Tightening one hole, removing the key reinserting in the same hole and nipping it up gave the same result as using the other two holes. Ie; once that was done then I couldn't get any more 'nips' by changing holes.

I think the "I tightened it up with one hole and it slipped so I used three holes and it didn't!" argument isn't really valid, since once you have had a slip you are going to give the next tighten a bit extra whether it be in three holes or just one.

For the record; I've always been a single hole guy. It just makes sense to me.

I've never seen more than 3 experts, selected at random, agree on anything, so why should this issue be different? In a perfect world, machine elements are made with zero tolerance, have no running clearance, no friction, no backlash, and so forth. With older chucks in particular, most of these increase with time. So, I use all three holes. And I've also seen a slight increase in purchase with each crank, without backward rotation BTW. For tiny bits, I find it's best to first tighten without the wrench, jog the switch to assure centering, and then tighten with the wrench. Works for me.

Joe

Originally Posted by joe greiner

I've never seen more than 3 experts, selected at random, agree on anything
Joe

Very wise words.

I've only ever tightened a chuck using the one hole, my Grandad was a three holer. I asked him why and he said "coz their there" that was enough for me to put it in the same category as not stepping on the cracks in the pavement etc

But next time I can't get the darn bit to stay in my drill ,I'll give the three hole, technique a go anything is worth a try then.

Cheers

Dave