Keyless cordless drill and drill bit slippage

[Clarence Martinn]

Got a HART cordless drill that I bought a while back, and it works really good. But, I recently noticed a problem. I was drilling out a broken bolt in a wheelchair, and noticed that when drilling through the steel with the largest bit I had; the keyless check would lose it's grip around the drill bit and just spin. I tried tighening the chuck up around the drill bit as tight as I could grip it, but still would not hold that bit drill bit tight enough .


Is this a common problem with keyless chucks ?

[Jim Becker]

Keyless chucks are a thing where quality can be a factor...nature of the beast.

[Frank Pratt]

It's definitely a problem with cheaper chucks.

[Randall J Cox]

I had that problem with a new Milwaukee cordless drill. Got on their web site and they even had a built in button on why you were invoking a warranty item, (drill bit slipping). They obviously had lots of these issues. And yes I was really cranking down on getting the chuck tight. Anyway, sent it back and they sent me a new drill, did the same thing. I finally came to the conclusion that the motor brake was stopping the drill so fast that the momentum of the chuck weight was loosening it. Once I started using the variable speed trigger to just slow the drill down slowly, the problem went away. So if I had a series of holes to drill, I just slowed it down a bit between holes instead of letting it stop by taking my finger off the trigger. My workaround works for me. Randy

[David M Peters]

I have the same problem with my M12 drill on small bits, even after getting a new chuck.

I'm definitely going to try Randy's workaround.

[mike stenson]

I replaced the M18 drill chuck (totally unimpressed with Milwaukees recent chucks) with a metabo chuck. Problem solved.

[Jim Dwight]

I like Randy's idea too. Decent cordless chucks can also be tightened more by hand after I've snugged it by running it forward with my hand on the chuck. My Milwaukee M12 can, for instance, and the DeWalts I use at church sometimes. That doesn't always fix my loosening chuck problems but it often helps to give the chuck another fraction of a turn by hand with the drill off.

[Tom M King]

Back in the mid 1980's I bought the first cordless drill I ever saw for drilling out stainless steel rivets on sailboats-Makita 9.6v. You have to use Cobalt bits. The chuck that came on it was hopeless, so I changed it to a good keyed chuck. I still use that drill for the same job, and it's worked great since the chuck change. The stick battery has been changed a number of times since then.

The keyless chuck on the current model Makita cordless drills I have work okay, but they can easily hurt my hand tightening them.

What is a good brand to change them to?

[mike stenson]

I've had good experiences with Metabos, specifically PN 636620000. It's impact resistant, so I can toss it on any drill I have if needed.

https://www.metabo.com/us/enus/accessories/chucks/keyless-chuck/impact-resistant-chuck/keyless-chuck-futuro-plus-s2m-13-mm-1-2-636620000.html

[Tom M King]

Thanks. Found it on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Metabo-636620000-16-Inch-Reversible-Keyless/dp/B0002YYZ8C/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAjw9LSSBhBsEiwAKtf0n9tS4ranb t3imzSfRwEVA3xkK6yIhM6YFzfs9trFaZubCgup_ZIYbBoC06k QAvD_BwE&hvadid=529507228300&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9009793&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16924820346229979882&hvtargid=kwd-299468260468&hydadcr=255_9915205&keywords=636620000&qid=1649273028&sr=8-1

[Jason Roehl]

I’ve always tightened keyless chucks by gripping the chuck and running the drill. And I’ve found that it almost always needs to be tightened by running the drill on the lowest speed setting where it has more torque. If I tighten it by running the drill in a drill speed, it will often slip.

[Rob Sack]

I have two different series of Milwaukee 18 volt keyless chuck drills. One series, of which I have two drills, both have the slippage issues resulting from the electric brakes creating too much torque, causing the chuck to loosen. I took them back to the West coast Milwaukee factory service center in Anaheim. When I explained the problem to the tech behind the counter, his snide and condescending response was that I wasn't tightened the chuck tight enough. I said, OK, show me how it should be done and I handed him one of the drills. He put in a medium sized forstner bit and preceded to "show me how it's done." He pulled the trigger and quickly brought the bit up to maximum speed and released the trigger. No problem. He did it a second time and again, no problem. However, on the third attempt, when he released the trigger, the chuck loosened, the bit went flying, almost hitting another tech and put a huge dent in the drywall. He handed it back to me and said the drill was within factory specs. That was the last Milwaukee battery drill I have purchased for myself and my employees. We now use Makitas with zero issues.

[Zachary Hoyt]

My old DeWalt 18v has a metal keyless chuck that I like a lot. Instead of having two parts that counter-rotate the whole outside turns, either against the brake or if I use the drill motor to tighten and loosen the chuck. Because it has more surface to grab I can get it tighter. On the rare occasions when I have worked with someone else they have usually not been able to loosen a keyless chuck after I tightened it, so perhaps I am using too much force.

[Michael Schuch]

Try cleaning the chuck out with acetone if it isn't plastic. If it is plastic maybe try alcohol.