I'm looking for "smaller" drill chucks and would like to get one that goes up to 1/4" dia.
I have a HF 44991 and the included chuck is a but big and maybe not so suitable for small drills. I need to make threads #10 & below & smaller holes down to .040"
My buddy gave me an albrecht 1/2" which works like a champ, but consumes a little too much length. I would love to have a set of these, but then the drillchuck collection would be twice as costly as the whole mill (smile - it's an economy solution after all).
I have been able to locate the Rohm model which seems to be in the Albrecht format, but a little less expensive.
Does anyone have any comment on the quality of the Rohm vs the Albrecht?
Are they roughly the same size?
Do you have a small drill chuck that you like (keyed or keyless)? Perhaps a different brand. I'm having trouble getting actual sizes and all the pictures look the same.
I need a good, small drill chuck that is not too expensive. My budget is about 60 bucks +/- 20. The Rohm that I found at enco is about $40 with a $30 precison arbor. Not too bad in all.
I have a small 0-1/4" drill chuck with a 1/2" straight arbor. When I need to drill a small hole with a big chuck, I just put the little chuck in the big chuck. If chuck height were a factor you can always put it in a 1/2" collet.
I'm pretty picky and I think the Albrechts are a little nicer than the Rohms, but I like the Rohms and buy and use them without hesitation, so if $ is tight the Rohm is a good way to go. Enco has pretty good prices on them. They're way better than the import variety.
Yeah, Rohm is second choice to Albrect, which is the "Cadillac" AFAIAC.
If you get some "noname" econo-chuck, you'll have a good chance of ending up with a piece of shit. Then the decent one you should have gotten will cost even more.
Using a keyless chuck for tapping is not condusive to a long life for the jaws. Though, I admit to doing it often, sticking to smaller sizes like you mentioned. From 5/16 & up, I tend to use a Jacobs key chuck instead of one of the Albrechts for power tapping. You might get one of the spring loaded tap guides. They are pretty inexpensive and handy as heck.
I guess you'd need a pretty nice larger chuck as the runout between the drill press's spindle and the drill bit might become excessive due to all the connections.
Albrecht (and other clone keyless chucks) tend to be a little longer than a Jacobs style keyed chuck of the same size.
I've got Albrecht in 1/8, 1/4" and 1/2". I've got an older Rohm Albrecht clone in 3/8". I find little to choose between them. I've also got a 5/8" Albrecht clone from Poland which is not as smooth as the Albrecht and the Rohm, but still pretty good. (I also have a 1/2" Jacobs keyless, which is patterned after the Albrecht, but is not quite a clone. It is also quite good.
I think that any of the Albrecht keyless clones will be roughly the same size for the same capacity -- and will all be noticeably larger than the equivalent capacity keyed Jacobs and clones.
I have in a small lathe (Emco-Maier Compact-5/CNC) three keyless chucks on MT-1 arbors. The 1/8" Albrecht (very nice for tiny bits, down through #80.) The 1/4" Albrecht (nice general purpose for that 5" lathe), and the 3/8" Rohm. All are very good for their purposes. Any from 3/8" on down should hold drills down to #80 size. I also have a
1/4" Jacobs on a MT-1 arbor which I use when the 1/4" Albrecht is just a shade too long. (I also have some drill bits with MT-1 arbors, so I can totally skip the chucks for those. The one which I use most is a 6" long flute 0.380" diameter which is my best choice for drilling out the center of a workpiece prior to boring.
The 1/2" Jacobs keyless is on the drill press.
The 5/8" Albrecht clone is on my 12x24" Clausing lathe. I also have a 1/2" Albrecht for it in a MT-2->MT-3 adaptor sleeve.
Track eBay. Most of these, except the 3/8" Rohm and the 1/2" Albrecht came from there. Those I have had since before eBay -- along with a Cameron Precision sensitive drill press with a 1/8" Albrecht which came with it when new. For most of them, I had to go to MSC to get a good quality arbor to adapt them to my machines.
Also get a keyed chuck for the mill -- if you *ever* will use left-hand drill bits. (Those drill bits are particularly nice for drilling out broken screws. They tend to dig in as they break through the far end, and will often unscrew the remains of the screw.
In any case -- the reason for the keyed chuck -- the keyless ones will self-release when you try to run them backwards, just as they self-tighten when used normally. (Yes -- you can get special versions which have an additional locking mechanism, but aside from the improved runout over the typical Jacobs style keyed chuck, they are a *lot* more affordable than the lockable Albrecht.
Note, I don't know the HF 44991, so I don't know whether it is an R8 shank or some other. I do know that Albrecht chucks are made with integral shanks for R8 and for the 30, 40, and 50 taper shanks) which tend to be a bit shorter than the usual combination of a shank and a chuck joined by a Jacobs taper. However, these are also far from affordable -- except for a company making money from their tools. :-(
Anybody know where to find an arbor with a thru hole? Preferably a J0 or J1 and 1/2" diameter shank?
I was making a fixture that required an 1/8 drill chuck with a thru hole. Got an Albrecht off the shelf, no problems. But couldn't find an arbor with the matching (or any) thru hole. Not even Albrecht made one for their own drill chuck!
I've machined other arbors in the past and decided just to drill the hole myself. My experience told me that once I got through the case hardening, drilling the rest wasn't hard (pun intended!). Anyhow, the cheapo arbor I bought was hardened ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!! Arrrggghhh!! And no, I was not generating enough heat to harden as I was drilling. I've done this before and know better.
I then had to make a second fixture! I made my own arbor this time :-)
I've never seen an MT-JT arbor with a through hole in it. If I needed the services of such an animal, I'd use my Jacobs headstock chuck that's threaded 1 1/2"-8 in the lathe. For fixure use, I'd incorporate one of those square 5C collet blocks with a closer and a
You really need to work on your imagination skills.
If one would not need an arbor with a thru hole, then I guess one would also not need the 1/8 drill chuck sold by Albrecht that comes from the factory with a thru hole either. I'm sure they intend their chuck to be used with thru coolant, but I had another app. I need to hold a 48" long wire in the fixture I built.
What?? Drill my thru hole?? As I explained, it was hardened all the way, not just case hardened!
We tried a Jacobs threaded chuck first. It was a smaller thread (on a smaller chuck), but had too much runout.
For fixure use, I'd
The collet block closers that I've seen do not have a thru hole. The cam mechanism is in the middle. The nut and spanner closer would work, but that is too slow and (relatively) awkward to use for a production fixture. Thanks for the ideas though.
BTW, it's a .010" SST wire about 48" long. The fixture does "stuff" to the end of the wire sticking outta the chuck. Realize that when I have .010" parts to work with, I don't have a whole lot of room for tolerance issues. .0015" TIR on the Jacobs threaded chuck was too much.
Yea...I would like to find an arbor with a hole too...and a portable VSR drill of some kind that would allow pass-through of long wires. When inserting the wires we use it would be LOTS easier to chuck it at about
6", spin in that 6", move the chuck down, etc. Sometimes we have to go
11+ feet and using a hand jig gets really old. I suppose I am just too lazy to fabricate a dedicated tool to do this although it would probably save one hell of a lot of time in the long run.
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