Thinking About Getting A Keyless Jacobs Chuck And Wondering…

For what it is worth, I have had hands on experience with several of Grizzly's keyless chucks and I am impressed with the quality. I just measured my 1/2" and it has .0006 TIR on a half inch pin. I have not had any problems with slippage with even moderate hand tightening. (they provide for a spanner wrench for extra tightening, if desired). The others were at my former workplace so I can't give a value for their runout but as I recall, they were under a thousandth as well. My chuck is a G8234.
 
No idea how great of quality that particular chuck is but since Jacobs has been aquired by Apex most if not all of Jacobs manufacturing has been moved off shore (Asia). For that amount of money I would personally search ebay for a good used Albrecht. I have a keyless Jacobs drill chuck but it's an older model made in Italy. The keyless chuck I use on my lathe is a Bison (Poland) that I got for $60 brand new on ebay. I have an import keyless chuck for my mill from Glacern, made in Taiwan, & is much cheaper than what that Jacobs is selling for. I'm very happy with the Glacern chuck.
 
I’ll be the monkey wrench. I’m not a big fan of the keyless chucks. I can’t get the feel of tightness as I can with turning the chuck key. And I have had Albrecht keyless chucks jam up on me holding something and they were hell to get un-jammed. I have not used a keyless for some time now. Every chuck I use now has a key and I’m happy…Good Luck, Dave.
 
You may also look in to a Rohm keyless chuck when Enco has one of their sales and free shipping offers. I have 2 Rohms and they are quite good.
After reading Bob's post regarding the Grizzly chucks, I am simply amazed they have that little of runout. Would be worth giving one a try. As Will said, a Albrecht would be a excellent choice if one could be had at a reasonable price. The good thing about the Albrecht besides accuracy is replacement parts are available and of the same quality. I have several tools from Glacern, all excellent quality, so as Will mentioned, I am sure that would be a fine choice as well.
Unless it is a old Jacobs in excellent shape, I would never buy another. Even the replacement parts are of lesser quality than the old made in the U.S.A. products.
As chips&more said, if I am using larger drills, I break out my older Jacobs 16n or 18n.

Darrell
 
18w said:
You may also look in to a Rohm keyless chuck when Enco has one of their sales and free shipping offers. I have 2 Rohms and they are quite good.
After reading Bob's post regarding the Grizzly chucks, I am simply amazed they have that little of runout. Would be worth giving one a try. As Will said, a Albrecht would be a excellent choice if one could be had at a reasonable price. The good thing about the Albrecht besides accuracy is replacement parts are available and of the same quality. I have several tools from Glacern, all excellent quality, so as Will mentioned, I am sure that would be a fine choice as well.
Unless it is a old Jacobs in excellent shape, I would never buy another. Even the replacement parts are of lesser quality than the old made in the U.S.A. products.
As chips&more said, if I am using larger drills, I break out my older Jacobs 16n or 18n.

Darrell
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Hey Darrel, I was amazed as well. I fully did not expect to see it that close. That, and some of the other quality checks on the 9 x 19 lathe we bought for work are what made me decide to get their 10 x 20 lathe for myself. I have to admit that I had some concern that the first purchase was a fluke but as it turns out, on a sample of three, they are quite good.

Bob
 
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My 40 year old Albrecht runs circles around 2 Jacobs, and 2 Rohms. I was the fool who bought a Jacobs a few weeks back thinking they were still of the quality of years back. Its not bad, but definitely a pretender. My second favorite chuck is a keyless SPI made in Taiwan, runout is miniscule and with the supplied wrench it can be cranked very tight when needed.

michael
 
I use a couple keyless chucks in the Bridgeport, both are Jacobs. At times when tapping, when I reverse to remove the tap from the work, the chuck will loosen. Not all the time but it does happen.
Pierre
 
I have had a few chucks do that through the years. Not all Jacobs. I have even had a couple that when there is some vibration will tighten up so bad I needed a a pipe wrench to get the drill out. The only chuck I have not had any problems with is my old Albrecht. That just keeps on going strong.
 
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