Took apart 4 jaw independent chuck, now it's hard to turn the screws

Mine had a screw next to the pin holding them in. Yours must be pressed in. Might be an interesting project to get them out without breaking them. o_O
 
I took my chuck apart before. It looks like the same type. I just used a small punch on the end of the pins. They are a fork around the threaded sleeve.

Joe Hynes
 
I took my chuck apart before. It looks like the same type. I just used a small punch on the end of the pins. They are a fork around the threaded sleeve.
Joe Hynes
I am with you, Jim and Joe, go for it! Anything that went together can come apart.

If you already know that the pins are resisting, I would make a custom punch, U shaped with wide flat ends to contact as much of the pin as possible. We don't want to peen the end of the pin.

From the picture it looks like the pins might already be peened a bit. If they are, use a Dremel to remove any burrs that would prevent the pin from clearing the screw.

With the custom punch, if you have a press try that first before getting out your big hammer.

There should be more satisfaction from fixing the problem than from any other approach.
 
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With the jaws out I would try throwing on a press and just put enough pressure to see what happens. Fully supported of course. Pb blaster is one of the best for freeing stubborn stuff. They should be able to come out but might me tight with crude from assembly.
 
I filed down the mating surfaces until the movement was nice and smooth on all 4 jaws.

Then I put the backplate on, cam locks, etc.. and now it's hard to move again. Not as bad as before, but still hard to move. I don't know what the backplate has anything to do with it.

I'll be filing down some more, little by little until I get the desired movement.
 
So, what happens if you loosen the screws on the back plate, does it make it move better? If so thats probably where the problem is. I would try it with everything loose then tighten different parts one at a time to see where the problem is.
 
I loosened up the back plate and tightened it up again and that worked. I have no clue why it did that. The bolts went from the head to the backplate and nothing else. It had nothing to do with the screws or the channels.
 
It sounds like the head warped due to uneven force on it. When I tighten a bolt circle I creep up on the final torque-ing to keep the pieces as flat as possible. By now it's just a matter of course to do it that way, beginning from when I started swapping studded tires on/off my skiing car.
 
Looks like I took off a bit too much metal on one of the jaw grooves. One jaw wiggles just a tiny bit when I move it side to side. I hope it dosn't affect it too badly...
 
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