Cordless Drill Chuck WobbleItis

**HypnoToad** · 17th July 2018, 11:41 AM

There seems to have been a new disease breakout in the last decade, it's the dreaded Cordless Drill ChuckWobbleItis, my old B & D cordless drill I picked up cheap from Walmart while living in the U.S. has finally given up the ghost, I never expected much from it and for the price it's served me well.

Time for a new one, being on a pension and not flushed with cash I steered clear of the Titanium and Ozito's because of bad reviews and chose the Makita DF331DWYE 12V Max CXT, thinking it must be a step up from the old B & D.

It arrived yesterday and it is much smaller than the B & D, and much much more powerful, it can easily drive 8g screws into MDF without drilling a hole first which is way more power than I need, the clutch settings are great and offer a full range from very light to full on. The battery charges quickly and will reportedly last a long time.

But I noticed it has some wobble in the chuck, I went online to see if others have had this problem before I called the seller or Makita. I was amazed at the number of hits not just with Makita, but with Bosch, DeWalt (seems they are one of the worst), Hitachi, Milwaukee etc and even some Festools. People have had replacements and they are the same and being told its normal or within specifications, others have tried every brand in a store and found the same thing, chuck wobble. I have an AEG corded hammer drill with a Rohm chuck and not a "skerrick" of wobble there.

We can put a man on the moon but not make a cordless drill with a chuck that doesn't wobble?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huvxbn-xO04

rrich · 17th July 2018, 03:32 PM

Is it really the drill or the bit?

Take your drill bit and roll it on the table saw to see if it is straight.

Use a file and remove any burr from the drill bit.

Squirt a minuscule and I do mean MINUSCULE bit of WD-40 on the back side of the jaws of the chuck. The best way is to close the jaws all the way, squirt some WD-40 on your finger and rub on the exposed part of the jaws. Then open the jaws all the way. Repeat this 3 or 4 times.

You could always replace the chuck??? Beware there is a screw holding the chuck in place on the shaft. AND THE SCREW IS A LEFT HAND THREAD.

You could return the drill and repurchase it from the home center. At least at the home center you could test the drill there.

Good luck.

**BobL** · 17th July 2018, 04:09 PM

Is it the outer plastic shell of the chuck or the actual jaws of the chuck itself that are wobbling. If it's the plastic shell I'd like to see some run out measurements of say a 1/2" bit shank in the chuck before passing judgement.

**HypnoToad** · 17th July 2018, 07:12 PM

Thanks for the replies, I went and tried it with different drill bits and drilled about a dozen holes in a piece of 2 x 2 pine with some 1/4" and 5/16" twist drill bits and a 1/2" spade bit, and funnily enough it's a lot better, if you look at the end of a twist drill bit it's very steady now, nothing like the DeWalt one in the video which seems like it's wobbling all over the place. So maybe it needed some use to wear in? Haven't tried the WD40, I have some very fine machine oil that I may try but at the moment it may only need a good work out. That being said I doubt it will be as good as the corded AEG with the keyed Rohm chuck which costs nearly as much as the whole cordless drill.

It just worried me when I did a search on the net and came up with tons of hits of people complaining about chuck wobble on cordless drills after noticing that mine wobbled a bit.

**BobL** · 17th July 2018, 08:11 PM

Could have been something was caught/trapped in the chuck.

Originally Posted by HypnoToad

It just worried me when I did a search on the net and came up with tons of hits of people complaining about chuck wobble on cordless drills after noticing that mine wobbled a bit.

How many actually reported a shank measured run out? It's not that easy to do with portable drill as it has to be held firmly while runout is measured.

Thread: Cordless Drill Chuck WobbleItis

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Cordless Drill Chuck WobbleItis

Similar Threads

How to hold 1mm drill bit in drill press chuck?

chuck jammed open - bosch 18v cordless :(

Acceptable chuck runout on cordless drill?

Best cordless drill for $200

Cordless drill

Posting Permissions