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"Frankenchuck" has weird thread

AreBeeBee

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I recently ran across a Fray 8-inch sweep brace in a Restore Habitat shop. In the Fray's chuck was what I call a Frankenchuck: a shaft with a square tang on the back and a threaded front end that fits into an ordinary wood drill chuck, letting the user mount and use ordinary wood drills in a brace. I have made two of these myself from surplus auger and drill chucks.

In this case because the threaded shaft was 1/2-inch in diameter, I was hoping to take off the nice little brass chuck (3/8" max capacity) and replace it with a 1/2" capacity chuck. However, it turned out that the threading on the shaft is 24 tpi.

Which raises two questions. Has anyone here on GJ ever seen a drill chuck that mounts on a 1/2-24 threading? Lots of options available (Jacobs and McMaster-Carr) for 1/2-13 and 1/2-20, but I can't find any with the 24 tpi thread.

Second, since this no-name 3/8 brass chuck does in fact mount on that 1/2-24 shaft, where (what drill) did it come from?

(In the photos, the shaft threads look like an Acme or other flat-top thread, but that's from camera jiggle on my part. They are indeed sharp-edged.)
 

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RTM

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AreBeeBee

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I think that was bought that way. I have several of those kicking around,most of unknown manufacturer. One of mine does go up to 1/2”, so they are out there.

None of my spare Jacobs chucks have that thread.

Doesn’t unscrewing the shaft open the jaws? So it’s an integral part of the design.

Not sure how big the OD is on this, cut 1/2-13 on it?

Yes, unscrewing the shaft opens the jaws, so the brass chuck is a straightforward one as if from an eggbeater drill. I checked my two biggest eggbeaters (a Millers Falls #2 and a Stanley #624), but their chucks don't fit onto the 1/2-24 shaft — too small.

My two homemade Frankenchucks (max acceptances: 3/8 and 1/2) used Jacobs chucks that mount on 3/8-24 threading, so I took two large but surplus auger bits that had 3/8" diameter shafts, cut them off short, and threaded the ends to take the Jacobs chucks. Worked great! But when I saw the shaft on this newly bought one was 1/2" in diameter, I was hoping to swap onto it a 1/2" capacity chuck. But so far, no go.

I have a couple of Lee Valley adapters, but I like tinkering with these things and I can't help feeling that the whole gizmo is sturdier if it uses larger diameter steel shafts.

I have a total of 10 braces*, and crazy as this may sound, for some projects I'll have chucked up (so to speak!) one or more auger or drill bits, one or more screwdriver bits, and a countersink bit. This lets the work proceed without spending effort and time swapping bits in and out. (I know, I know, but I like using hand tools....)

* All are 10-inch sweeps except as noted: five are by Peck, Stow, and Wilcox, one is a Worth* (made by PSW), one a North Bros/Stanley Yankee, one a 12-inch Stanley, and two Frays, both 8-inch, one of them a barebones, all-metal Spofford design.

Here are photos of the two earlier ones I made by cutting down auger shafts, threading them, and screwing on ordinary keyed drill chucks. The third image shows one of them in action on a piece of scrap.
 

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Cleave

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I have a chuck like that but not so pretty - 3 jaw keyless chuck that has a square taper tang to go in a brace.
 

Leviton

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I can't answer your questions, but I picked up a 3-jaw chuck very similar to yours (except for the brass) about 3 weeks ago at a garage sale and mine is also 24 TPI.

Mine has no markings of any kind.

3-Jaw Chuck.jpg
 
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AreBeeBee

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I can't answer your questions, but I picked up a 3-jaw chuck very similar to yours (except for the brass) about 3 weeks ago at a garage sale and mine is also 24 TPI.

Mine has no markings of any kind.

3-Jaw Chuck.jpg
Makes me wonder if there was some anonymous workshop out there making these things. I'm not a machinist, but I suspect these wouldn't be hard to make if one intended to use an existing chuck.

Does the chuck on yours accept up to 1/2 inch drill shafts?
 

bbbarracuda

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I can't offer anything constructive. But, does it perhaps fit a specific piece of equipment?
 
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AreBeeBee

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I can't offer anything constructive. But, does it perhaps fit a specific piece of equipment?
Leviton: Thanks for the info — in the photo it looks like it might go larger.

Barracuda: If you mean the 1/2-24 tpi threaded end — I dunno! From the looking I've done online, no chucks currently available (keyed or keyless) fit that threading.

It's possible that a 1/2-24 threading was used to mount a chuck on some make of eggbeater drill. But as I mentioned, neither a Millers Falls #2 or the equivalent, a Stanley #624, have chucks that fit that threading. These two models don't exhaust the universe of eggbeaters, of course, yet both are large drills with chucks on correspondingly large shafts — and neither uses 1/2-24 tpi.

And I'm puzzled over what other tool would make sense to attach to a brace using the standard square tang. Besides a drill chuck, brace-mountable bits include auger bits, reamers of all sizes, countersinks, screwdriver bits, dowel-making bits, and... That's where I run out of ideas. What other kinds of bits have been used on bit braces?
 

RTM

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