Thread: Keyless chuck

Kevin
I have an electric and a battery drill, both with keyless chucks. Never had a problem with them. I also have an old orange B&D drill with an after market 13mm chuck. I much prefer the keyless chucks. I don't use them commercially though. Those that use them commercially will chime in soon.

TT

Originally Posted by Twisted Tenon

Kevin
I have an electric and a battery drill, both with keyless chucks. Never had a problem with them. I also have an old orange B&D drill with an after market 13mm chuck. I much prefer the keyless chucks. I don't use them commercially though. Those that use them commercially will chime in soon.

TT

Thanks for that. My problem has been with my keyless battery screwdriver. Sometimes I've put a drill bit in it but no matter how hard I turn the chuck to tighten it, the drill motor revs up but the drill bit stays stationary in the wood. It's as if the chuck isn't tightened up enough. The screwdriver is an expensive Ryobi. But maybe it wasn't meant to hold a cylindrical bit. Regards, KevinB

Hi Kevin B,
Yes, I also have only Keyless Chucks. Just could not stand those other ones & I really only drill wood but occasionally a bit of steel or allum.
Try a small flat on that S/Driver, as that should hold it.

The only time I've had bits work loose on my keyless chucks is when I'm using masonry bits and the hammer action on the drill. Otherwise they're fine.

I personally think there are good keyless chucks and poor keyless chucks. I have an older Atlas Copco drill with keyless chuck and it is superb and dare I say much better than Makita keyless chucks.

Kevin
I guess there are horses for courses. I had Bunnings special XU 21 cordless for a short while and that would often happen. Hasn't happened for the makita cordless or the older Skil drill. I wonder if dodgy drill bits could have been the cause too.


TT

Some keyless chucks are excellent, but it also depends on the drill design.

In high torque situations, a really powerful drill will still spin up the shank of the bit in the chuck. You will notice that the majority of fixed pillar drills use keyed chucks and a vice or clamped workpiece for really high torque, low speed metal drilling for example.

The exception to this rule are paint/mortar mixers and paddles, which use a hex shanked mixing paddle to overcome slippage.

Some keyless chucks are horrible, even the quality ones. The ones I particularly despise are the "2 collar" KLC version, with the user having to counter rotate the 2 collars on the chuck for tightening/untightening. You just can't effectively tighten a chuck with 2 skinny rings. I've even spun up & ruined an expensive hex holesaw arbor with one of these.

However, there's even some good examples of these. I particularly like the Metabo Futuro Plus chucks that give you enough room (and finger purchase and knurling) to properly tighten tooling.

Better, however, are the one piece collared chucks, which I often tighten in one hand while driving the drill clockwise/counterclockwise with its trigger. It probably breaks just about every safety rule in the book to do so, but for me in the workplace time is money, and the worst that's ever happened is perhaps a slight friction burn from injudicious trigger work.

Better again is the same chuck in a properly designed drill with a self-locking driveshaft, which gives the user something to twist against when tightening/untightening. There's some really good quality Metabo, Rohm and Jacobs chucks now that offer carbide jaws for really effective "bite" on shanks.

The best grip, however is still the traditional keyed chuck. The absolute best tightening torque available is from the keyed arrangement. Using all 3 key positions, the "reduction gears" of the key's gears provide the best grip with round tool shanks.

My biggest drill is 1500w (2 HP!). There's absolutely no way any KLC could withstand the low gear torque of that much grunt with say a big 3/4" bit if it jammed in metal! It came fitted with a 16mm. keyed chuck (and safety clutch) for this very reason.

Smaller drills, up to say about 1000w should be able to withstand spinning if properly tightened and fitted with a quality chuck from one of the abovementioned brands. Don't try using those reduced shank bits, however. Smaller shanks don't provide sufficient mating surfaces, allowing the smaller radius to spin, immediately ruining the shank and possibly the chuck also.

In summary, then.

(a) Quality drill with quality chuck. Preferably with auto locking shaft.

(b) if = or <1000w KLC is fine, but of single sleeve variety only.

(c) if non-locking, then a Metabo Futuro Plus or keyed design is needed.

(d) if > 1200w (1 1/2HP) then use a keyed chuck of 1/2" or even better 16mm size.

(e) use the correct sized key, and tighten ALL 3 KEYWAYS.

(f) hex shanked tooling doesn't require anywhere near such manic tightening as round shanked does.

(g) knurled metal bodied chucks are infinitely superior to their plastic bodied counterparts: not because they're stronger, but because you can grip & twist metal so much more tightly with sweaty hands.

Thanks for the kind words in your PM, Brian.

For other's benefit I'll post here.

It's not difficult to get a good drill.

All the usual suspects are well represented, but just as in Orwell's Animal Farm, "all are equal, but some are more equal than others".

Metabo make the best drills (and grinders). It's their specialty. As with all manufacturers, some of their other tools are a bit ropey, but you can confidently purchase a proper (German made) Metabo and know that it will probably outlast you.

Bosch aren't bad either. My big 1500w Core drill is Bosch (GSB132). It just isn't really their "core" business like it is with Metabo. But many models have self-locking shafts and quality KLC's. Their GSB 21-2 RCT is an excellent all bells and whistles hammer drill. 1300w, 2 gears, electronic speed & torque controls, safety clutch, Rohm all metal KLC and prodigious torque.

What's not to like? Well maybe the price.

I've tried others too, and came away either underwhelmed or unimpressed.

A Makita had a variable speed trigger failure.

AEG were once the world's best, but since the Ryobi takeover are now little better than any other Asian made rubbish.

I won a Protool, but found in the drill press that it hunted around the preset speed. Protool/Narex have a good rep. as a robust but crude Czech-made tool, and it was certainly well made with quality alloy castings, but the V/S electronics fault was bad.

Black & Decker also once made extreme quality German drills, but now they're mere toys.

Eibenstock are big, heavy, relatively unsophisticated and extremely powerful.

A 1000w 2 (variable) speed tool is a good all rounder. Able to drive augers, speedbors and spade bits up about 35mm, holesaws up to about 75mm, and about 16mm in steel. You can hammer (slowly) to about 20mm in concrete, and have sufficient torque to mix paint, plaster and mortar in relatively small quantities.

For capacities larger than above you'd require specialist triple reduction geared, SDS, higher wattage or mixing drills specific to the purpose required.

Just look for the "Made in Germany" tag on the tool's ID plate. Even these days it's still an assurance of quality.

Good Morning Kevin

When keyless chucks were introduced about 20 years ago, the first generation were basically crap. But times have changed and now most are equal or better than keyed chucks.

I suspect that the manufacturers have stopped development on keyed chucks and are just waiting for some old dinasaurs to die off.




Fair Winds

Graeme

PS: Most of mine have keyed chicks as they haven't worn out yet!

I have an 1100 Wat Ozito drill with a keyed chuck The drill is great,
the chuck is crap. I got so sick of the chuck letting go when using
masonary bits in hammer mode that I went and bought a rotary
hammer Ozito. Brilliant!!

I also have a Ryobi 18Volt cordless drill with a great keyless chuck.