Help With a Drill Press Chuck

[Larry Frank]

I have the Jet 16-1/2” drill press and not happy with the chuck. It. Is a 5/8” with a #2 MT. The chuck is good except it is hard to turn and adjust the size. It is not stuck buy just pretty hard to turn by hand. It makes it difficult when making a large change in drill bit size. What makes it hard for me is that I have issues with my wrists with arthritis and have had surgery on one wrist.
I have blown it out and used a light oil on it. It does not appear dirty. What more can I do with it or should I just replace it.
I have looked at new ones online and a bit shocked at the price of a Jacobs brand chuck. The LFA brand is a bit better but still pretty expensive. I want a good one but want to keep the price down at $100 or less. Can someone point me in a good direction.

Should I look at a Grizzly chuck and have people had good luck with them.

[Ken Frohnert]

How about a used one from that large online auction site that begins with an "E"? I looked on there a while back for a chuck for my lathe - and there is a bunch of used ones out there. You can probably get a older Jacobs that would be of good quality. I happen on one a a flea market so I did not get one of the auction site - but I have bought a number of things over the years with no issue.

[Lee Schierer]

Take the chuck off and turn it upside down and put a liberal amount of oil in it. You can set the back end in a shallow pan with oil in it so it soaks in to the internal mechanism.

I replaced the chuck on my drill press with a Jacobs chuck and it has been much better than the original one that came on my drill press.

[Mike Cutler]

I replaced the one at work with a Jacobs and it was much better.

For the arthritis part;
One of the machinist at work used to suffer from arthritis and carpal tunnel. He took the chuck keys and tack welded a shaft to them so that they could be put in a battery powered drill. That way only the very final tightening needed to do be done by hand.

[Tom M King]

Sounds like the outer part that tuns is bent from being tightened beyond what it could handle. If it's bent, there will be a smaller diameter perpendicular to the largest diameter. Take it off, and hammer the wider part a little at the time until it evens back out to nice and round. If it gets like that again easily from tightening, replace it with the best quality Jacobs you can find.

[Myk Rian]

You can open the chuck completely, then press off the sleeve. Clean the few parts, file off any burrs, lube and re-assemble.
Lots of videos and instructions on the net.

[Bob Wingard]

YUP ... what he said ^^

[Bruce Wrenn]

Look at a 1/2" key less chuck. I have one from Woodcraft on my 1/2" bench top that has been flawless in service. How often do you use a bit that has a 5/8" shank?