Keyless chuck on drill press?

I like keyless chucks, and about the only time I prefer the keyed chuck is when I am pushing a larger bit to spit some really big chips.

My experience however has been that most of the work like that is not done on a drill press so I would not think the keyless is going to give you any grief.

IMHO, keyless chucks work well as long as you don't push them too hard. Like small holes on a Bridgeport, hand fed. If you're tempted to over tighten one, its time to switch to a good keyed chuck.

I wouldn't consider using one on my radial arm drill press.

Karl

Keyless? I have a keyless chuck (1..13mm) on my mill (FP1). And I use it with power feed. It always opened when I wanted it. On the lathe, all keyless. One of them Albrecht (note the spelling). On my hand-drills, keyless. The Jacobs on the Makita is crap. The keyless on the Fein looks so much like an Albrecht, that I feel it is OEM'ed for Fein by Albrecht. And this one has a problem. It is rated for 0..6mm but can hold 7mm. As soon as you go over the 6mm, you will have big trouble opening it again. The DPs (small and big) have key-chucks and you only remind me, that I should replace them.

Nick

The keyless chucks on the new Sears "Professional" Grade lithium-ion drill drivers are a farce. I call them an "Auto-loosen" chuck. We have had nothing but trouble with this "Professional" Grade drill driver.

I knew the spelling was wrong but didn't bother to look it up. I'm so ashamed!

On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 06:51:42 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields" quickly quoth:

Stu, I'll let my sig speak for itself. You've hopefully learned your lesson and won't be buying any more Searz tools.

------------------------------------------- Crapsman tools are their own punishment

One of my machining instructors in Manchester Connecticut said as much. He said about the only time he had problems with the keyless chucks was when used at their max limit, then they would sometimes be difficult to undo. I haven't had such issues at the limit but do find that when I use a Starrett hole saw arbor, which is hexagonal, they can be difficult to undo, maybe some camming issue. I'd use a keyed chuck for that situation but I don't have one for the BP, yet.

If you are going to do any serious drilling I would recommend investing in a morse taper R-8 holder for your bridgeport and use morse taper shank drills. They never slip and they don't fall out unless you don't take care of them and keep the chips out of the taper.

John

I drill on the BP only as large as I need to use a boring head.

There are good ones and so so ones and bad ones.

One big learning lesson is to never speed tighten the chuck by grabbing it and turning it on. That can screw up the chuck and make a good one so so or bad.

When I upgraded my hand drill I read the booklet for some reason... It was in plain language never do it. Never.

I think when precision is really needed, a three key twist is best. Tighten using all three holes for even pressures.

Martin

Mart> I recently got a Clausing drill press to replace a dead buffalo. I lubed