Makita Drill - Chuck Replacement?

[In My Garage]

OK, I bought this Makita 3/8" Reversible Drill back in 1984. It now needs a new chuck as it started binding a few years ago and it only got worse.

Back in the old days, the chuck in my Black & Decker would spin off if you put a pin in the chuck hole and took a hammer to it.

The chuck in the Makita is held in with a screw inside the chuck. I tried to unscrew it with a quality bit. No way, so I drilled the head of the screw off. That should release the chuck you would think. Is it a taper fit onto the shaft of the drill?

Has anyone worked with one of these chucks before and has first-hand experience?

 

[The Cobbler]

the screw is LH thread, that's probably where you had trouble. as long as you got all the head off , you should be able to get the chuck off. Use a large allen wrench chucked in the chuck and whack it with a hammer a few times
I had one that was stubborn and I had to cut the chuck off with a grinder disc. I think it was probably Makita

 

[neophyte]

Some non-hammer drills do use tapered arbors rather than a threaded arbor, but in the case of Makita, it would likely be a threaded arbor.
As The Cobbler pointed out, the screw would be a left hand thread screw.
Thread locker is and was sometimes also used,
And minor corrosion, plus the fact that the arbor thread has been tightening itself for most of the drills life can also cause the chucks to get really tightly fastened to the drill arbor.

 

[In My Garage]

Use a large allen wrench chucked in the chuck and whack it with a hammer a few times.

Saw that on YouTube the other week and forgot all about it.

I just gave that a try but the L-wrench was small, but I'll check with my neighbor to see if he has an old worn out L-wrench that is larger. If it is tapered, it usually sounds like a shotgun when coming off having taken magnetos off dirt bikes.

 

[RTM]

My Makita 14.4v cordless and 9.6v cordless both have LH threads on the fastener inside, then the quick whack on a 1/4” Allen wrench in the jaw knocks it right loose.

 

[In My Garage]

My Makita 14.4v cordless and 9.6v cordless both have LH threads on the fastener inside, then the quick whack on a 1/4” Allen wrench in the jaw knocks it right loose.

The LH thread is what the local Makita shop told me. Thread direction crossed my mind when I was going at it. I guessed wrong.

And according to them, the chuck is screwed to the shaft on the drill, just don't know if it is RH or LH. I asked it is is a taper fit like on my drill press and lathe, and he said no.

 

[darkzero]

I've never seen or heard of a handheld drill with a taper mount. They're always threaded mount. And the chuck is always a RH thread. They're not made with LH threads cause it'll unscrew when drilling. The retaining screw is LH thread for the very same reason, to prevent the drill chuck from unscrewing off the spindle.

 

[The Cobbler]

I agree with the RH threads on the drill shaft

 

[In My Garage]

I've never seen or heard of a handheld drill with a taper mount. They're always threaded mount.

When I had a Black & Decker drill back in the 70s, it didn't have a screw holding the chuck so you never know how these things are put together from one manufacturer to the next.

And the chuck is always a RH thread. They're not made with LH threads cause it'll unscrew when drilling.

I guess so since most of the torque is in that direction even though it is a reversible drill. Although when it gets stuck and you need to reverse it...

I'll give the chuck another whack. If not, the Makita repair shop who is trying to sell me a new chuck, I'll let him take it off before I spend some $$$.

 

[neophyte]

I've never seen or heard of a handheld drill with a taper mount. They're always threaded mount. And the chuck is always a RH thread. They're not made with LH threads cause it'll unscrew when drilling. The retaining screw is LH thread for the very same reason, to prevent the drill chuck from unscrewing off the spindle.

Fein still produces corded drill with taper mounts. I believe the drill use a B taper mount. The drills also come with higher precision, Rohm Supra chucks.

Metabo may also produce or have produced drills with taper arbors. I’m not sure whether they still do.

Older Wold power tools made in the UK also sometimes had taper arbors on the hand drills.

The taper arbors can be more accurately machined, and therefore cause higher precision for the drill and chick, which was important for precise drilling in industrial settings, or if the drill was mounted in a drilling stand. And drilling stands were sometimes used in industrial manufacturing.

Taper arbors are not appropriate from hammer drilling or drills with an impact mechanism for screw driving, so threaded arbors are more common nowadays.