Thread: Keyless Chucks...more trouble than they are worth!

Gumby

In general two handed keyless chucks are not very good but I have a DeWalt Cordless drill which is a one handed chuck with a ratchet tightening system and it never comes loose even when drilling steel with a ½" twist drill.

You really need to upgrade to a good tool.

I don't have any problems with the chucks on my GMC drills

I use the keyless chuck that CT Perth sells in my drill press and also on my lathe, even with 83 mm forstner type bits no problems, but I have a B&D Firepower drill with a keyless chuck......absolutely useless. I can get a better grip on a drill bit with my gums if I remove my teeth! Have a Bosch cordless at work which have an excuse for a chuck, one handed and it is just as useless.The real one I use on my drill press and lathe take a heap of turns to open or close somewhat.........must have a good ratio which means a better grip

Yeah well, it seems as always, ya get wot ya pay for................

Think the misses needs a Dewalt for xmas.................

I bought a noname keyless chuck from McJing at the Sydney WWW Show for my drillpress and now I wonder why I ever messed around with chuck keys.
I've had no problems with twist drills down to 1.5mm up to 60mm hole saws, and no more lost keys.
I was going to get keyless chucks for my hand held drills but will be very wary now.
Cheers,
Graeme

I find the keyless leave a bur on the shank where they grip the drill. This is a pain when you go to put them back in the holder which is sized for the drill minus the bur.
Any idea what causes this?

the shank not being gripped tight enough

Originally Posted by Barry_White

Gumby

In general two handed keyless chucks are not very good but I have a DeWalt Cordless drill which is a one handed chuck with a ratchet tightening system and it never comes loose even when drilling steel with a ½" twist drill.

You really need to upgrade to a good tool.

I have to say the DeWalt system is the best I have used, I went through 3 cheapies before I went out and got a DeWalt
Very happy now


Warrick

Originally Posted by rodm

..the keyless leave a bur on the shank where they grip the drill. This is a pain when you go to put them back in the holder which is sized for the drill minus the bur.....

G'day.

The trick to get around this is to put the drill bit back point down.... you'll never have the problem getting it in & out of the holder again.
You just have to remember that it goes in the chuck the other way.

I'm with Gumby, I've got 2 Hitachis 1 Bosch and a Metabo electric, no problem with keyless chucks after many years of hard labour, drill bits not a problem either, maybe the quality of the drill bits might be the problem.
The chickens have come home to roost!!!!

Thanks Joe
Good tip with the upside down storage Cliff
Jaws - Drill bits are all Sutton which are reasonable quality Australian made drill bits.

Sorry for stealing your thread. I have noticed that some of the larger Jacobs chucks are specified for gripping 1/16 upwards. Perhaps this could be your problem on the keyless.

GMC have a 2 year warranty. If you are within this period send the thing back to them. I do not think that the keyless chuck is an inherently bad idea. I had a cheaper drill which had the same problem as yours.The last drill I bought cost me a fair bit more, but it works really well. The chuck has held fine even when drilling larger sized holes in bricks using the drills hammer action.

Although I have commented on chucks I would add a couple of more comments.

Even keyed chucks are not always the solution. After spending 15 years in contracting in the building industry and using drills with keyed chucks of which I have had probably had 15 drills of various brands mostly with Jacobs chucks I found that even they would slip especially if you didn't tighten them on all three holes. The problem then was you had to find the last hole that you tightened so you could get it undone again, and that didn't matter whether it was a ¼", 3/8", ½" or 5/8" chuck.

As I said the best chuck I have used is on the DeWalt.

But a solution I use is what is called the Snappy System which quite a few manufactures have used which is a chuck you put into the drill chuck and then it is just a matter of using the snap in system of changing from drill bits to screwdriver bits which use the hexagonal shaft.

The thing is you can buy all sorts of accessories to use in this system now.
They make drill bits, screwdriver bits, Irwin Speedbore bits, Plug Cutter bits and Countersunk bits just to name few.

The best part about it is they are quick change and save a heap of time when drilling and screwing.

Attached is a set by P&N that included drill bits, screwdriver bits and a countersunk bit along with the chuck.

The other part about it, it eliminates any slippage especially on the smaller bits.

Hey Baz, what sort of money for a kit like that & can the bits in the snappy holder be changed or are they a throw away item if you break one?