Albrecht Chuck not Gripping Tight

[tq60]

We use ours often for small taps.

But there is a couple tricks.

First, if your mill has a spindle brake, use it to hold the spindle and use your hand to tighten the chuck, do this too for small drills, they are butter held this way.

Next, to NOT grip the chuck when hand tapping, only the ring above it.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[benmychree]

I agree with Dave, the keyless chuck is simply the wrong tool for the job, I have always used a Jacobs chuck for tapping, except for latge taps where I use a tap driver made for the purpose.

 

[rogerl]

In my experience, three jaw chucks aren't very good at gripping hardened shafts. I haven't used a three jaw chuck, keyed or keyless, for tapping in decades.

RJSadowski:
You said that you do not use a 3 jaw chuck for tapping in decades. What do you use? It seems like other people use 3 jaw chucks just not Keyless 3 jaw chucks.

Roger L

 

[benmychree]

RJSadowski:
You said that you do not use a 3 jaw chuck for tapping in decades. What do you use? It seems like other people use 3 jaw chucks just not Keyless 3 jaw chucks.

Roger L

Amen!

 

[RJSakowski]

RJSadowski:
You said that you do not use a 3 jaw chuck for tapping in decades. What do you use? It seems like other people use 3 jaw chucks just not Keyless 3 jaw chucks.

Roger L

I use a tap wrench and a tap follower. I do not power tap. I prefer the feedback from manual tapping. Tapping is usually the last or nearly last operation and I would rather not screw up a workpiece by breaking a tap. I am not on the clock so the extra time spent isn't that important.

Years ago, I did tap using the drill press and I did use a key type chuck.. For the most part it went well as I was tapping 1/4-20 threads in 1/8" HR steel. Even so, the tap would slip occasionally.

 

[woodchucker]

I power tap. I don't use a keyless. I only use the keyless in the drill press, not the mill or lathe. I had one time where the keyless tightened so badly on a drill bit, I worked for quite a while to get it back open. Fortunately I did.

The self tightening of a keyless is not what I want tapping. I want that slip. I want it to tell me if I hit a hard spot. I don't blind tap with power either.
I made a tapping head, I can let go of the collar and it stops tapping immediately. It holds the taps on the drive square. Since I added a VFD, I have not used it. I would if I had a lot of holes to drill.

I am just saying what I do, not disagreeing with RJ or John. But it's not what I do all the time. I do hand tap, have for years before I got the mill. And in this machinists world, there are many ways to do things. And there are quite a lot of ways not to do something. And sometimes you break the rules, because you just need to.

 

[darkzero]

What proper tool should I be using to hold a tap in my mill?

Here's one example, well a pair of them, expensive examples too. I was lucky to get them cheap. The larger one I haven't even used yet, I got it for a stoopid insane deal brand new a few years ago. Been sitting here in my room ever since I got it.

Not often that I use one unless I need to tap a bunch of holes. They take time to setup. Quicker to just hand tap or use a keyed chuck.

 

[mmcmdl]

Glad to see you up and posting Will !

 

[mmcmdl]

I don't use Albrechts in a lathe . I save these for the mills only but never tap with them . They're too darn expensive to ruin if a tap spins in them . A cheap Jacobs , not SBB chucks , are adequate for the job and can be picked up for $30 or so .

 

[rogerl]

Tonight I took the chuck apart and cleaned it up. It was very clean inside. The grease for the balls looked a little old. I put the chuck back together and it is working very nice. TQ60 suggested I use the brake to stop the spindle and then tighten the chuck. This worked very nice. I could get a good grip on the chuck and tighten it . I tried drilling some holes and the chuck held very good. Thanks everyone for all the information. I learned a few things about power tapping on the mill.

Thanks Again
Roger L