Recommend me a keyless 5/8" drill press chuck

[A&P mechanic]

Hello,

Will you recommend a keyless drill chuck and part number that would fit my drill press please?

I would like to install a keyless chuck on my drill press. I have a Porter Cable 8 amp 12 speed floor mount drill press from Lowes. The paperwork shows a 5/8" drill chuck. I watched a YouTube video on how to remove the chuck with a removal tool (triangular shaped metal). I do not have one of those removal tools either but I will buy that too.

I am looking at various keyless drill chucks such as Rohm, Llambrich, Albercht and Jacobs etc. When I purchase one, it does not have to be the best but I would like a reliable keyless drill chuck. My drill press is made in China and is just a general purpose drill press for home use. I am unsure what to buy as my concern is that I may purchase something that does not fit since I have not swapped out a drill press chuck before. Thank you!

 

[LeeG]

I've had an Albrecht 5/8" keyless chuck on my drill press for the past 4 years or so. I really like it. You will need a MT2 - <whatever taper is on your chuck> adapter. My chuck was J6 taper.

 

[no704]

The removal tool is nothing special, just cut out a hunk of 1/4 steel. Remove your chuck so you can identify what MT you have. Shars makes decent stuff at a good price point, plenty good for a drill press.

 

[tarmy]

This…but expensive (lower photo)…I also bought a keyed chuck at the same time…and don’t even use it! Make you a good deal on that if you are interested. You also need to figure out what size your taper is too…

 

[u2slow]

As the other guys said... main thing is to match the taper.

My big Delta press came to me without a chuck. It was supposed to have been a 5/8". I got a 3/4" for it instead (key type). The speediest bit changes don't matter on a machine this size - its about grip. Keyless is for battery drills IMHO.

 

[Duster346]

I got a 5/8" keyless chuck from Grizzly and have had great luck with it.

 

[A&P mechanic]

I just knocked the chuck out with a brass punch. It shows 1-16mm JT3 on it. A google search shows that a JT3 is a M2 taper. Therefore, I should look at a MT2 taper keyless 5/8" chuck right? This place is a wealth of info! I appreciate the offer Tarmy but I am interested in keyless.

I was at Lowes yesterday and saw that this drill press was on sale for 200 because it was rusty, so it followed me home. Now I am cleaning it up and upgrading the chuck.

 

[GeoBruin]

I believe JT3 (Jacob's Taper) refers to the taper on the chuck side. The arbor has another taper (the one you have now exposed). Is there any indication what that taper might be? MT2? MT3?

Otherwise, you should be able to measure the arbor and look for one of these combinations of dimensions:

 

[paulsomlo]

I just knocked the chuck out with a brass punch. It shows 1-16mm JT3 on it. A google search shows that a JT3 is a M2 taper. Therefore, I should look at a MT2 taper keyless 5/8" chuck right? This place is a wealth of info! I appreciate the offer Tarmy but I am interested in keyless.

I was at Lowes yesterday and saw that this drill press was on sale for 200 because it was rusty, so it followed me home. Now I am cleaning it up and upgrading the chuck.

I'm not sure than JT3 implies M2 - there are two different tapers here that are relevant; one is the JT3 which interfaces with your drill chuck, the other is a Morse taper that interfaces with your drill press. Although M2 is probably correct, you should confirm that by measuring or checking the drill press specs - it'll be either M2 or M3. When you go shopping for a chuck, you'll find chucks that require an arbor and chucks that have the arbor integral.

 

[seber]

I'm not sure than JT3 implies M2 - there are two different tapers here that are relevant; one is the JT3 which interfaces with your drill chuck, the other is a Morse taper that interfaces with your drill press. Although M2 is probably correct, you should confirm that by measuring or checking the drill press specs - it'll be either M2 or M3. When you go shopping for a chuck, you'll find chucks that require an arbor and chucks that have the arbor integral.

I'm pretty sure you will not find a chuck with integral arbor. Every chuck I have ever seen has and internal Jacobs taper. You can separate the existing arbor and chuck and reuse the arbor on whatever chuck you buy. It can be very difficult to separate, but being new, it should be possible. When they get a lot of use, they get tighter.

 

[A&P mechanic]

Just measured it and it is an MT2 as shown from the calipers. .703” is close to .700” and .590” is close to .572”. I’m happy and just learned something new.

Now, I will start searching for a deal on an MT2 keyless chuck. Thank you!

 

[nadogail]

When I got tired of fighting the Chuck on my made in Taiwan (1977?) drill press I upgraded to a Jacobs from MSC. The Arbor taper must match the quill on the drill press, in my case a #2 Morse Taper. The Arbor sold separately connects the Chuck Taper JT3 to the #2 Morse taper in the quill. Your Morse taper drill bits will plug directly into the quill without the need for a chuck, you will need a Removal Tool to take the drill bits from the quill, I node mine from a piece of 1/4" aluminum flat stock. I tap it with a hammer to pop out the drill bits.

I thank the shops that let me hang around and ask questions when I was a kid.

 

[paulsomlo]

I'm pretty sure you will not find a chuck with integral arbor. Every chuck I have ever seen has and internal Jacobs taper. You can separate the existing arbor and chuck and reuse the arbor on whatever chuck you buy. It can be very difficult to separate, but being new, it should be possible. When they get a lot of use, they get tighter.

Oh? https://www.mcmaster.com/chucks/keyless-drill-chucks-with-integral-arbor-7/

 

[seber]

Oh? https://www.mcmaster.com/chucks/keyless-drill-chucks-with-integral-arbor-7/

I stand corrected.

 

[tarbellb]

Love me a good keyless chuck, couple of brands to look at would be:

Albrecht $
Rohm
LFA
Llambrich
and some Jacobs made in Spain which are rebranded LFA iirc

Llambrich 5/8" JK-Solid Precision Keyless Drill Chuck with Integrated 3MT Shank JK-16 MT3: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

Llambrich 5/8" JK-Solid Precision Keyless Drill Chuck with Integrated 3MT Shank JK-16 MT3: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

www.amazon.com

Amazon.com

 

[paulsomlo]

Love me a good keyless chuck, couple of brands to look at would be:

Albrecht $
Rohm
LFA
Llambrich
and some Jacobs made in Spain which are rebranded LFA iirc

Llambrich 5/8" JK-Solid Precision Keyless Drill Chuck with Integrated 3MT Shank JK-16 MT3: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

Llambrich 5/8" JK-Solid Precision Keyless Drill Chuck with Integrated 3MT Shank JK-16 MT3: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

www.amazon.com

Amazon.com

I have a Jacobs made in Spain on my drill press, it's a really nice drill chuck.

 

[A&P mechanic]

Is anyone familiar with KDG drill chucks?

The description says made in Germany on eBay. They look like nice drill chucks but I do not see the manufacturers website or much info about that brand from an internet search.

 

[A&P mechanic]

Ended up going with Llambrich and I am happy with it.

I also looked at Walstrom as they are 4 jaw USA made keyless chucks. The on the go quick change feature is unique if you watch a video on the Walstrom chucks.

For reference, I messaged the seller about the KDG chucks and they not German made. Seller didn’t know COO.

 

[tarbellb]

Good choice, I think you will be very happy with that chuck

 

[Firebrick43]

Good choice, jacobs chucks are owned and made in china, I am pretty sure even the keyless one that had been made in spain for years. They are utter **** now. The last new superchuck we got at work had such bad runout it went in the trash in less than a week. Started buy nothing other than albrecht and LFA chucks. llambrich is pretty good to!

 

[bsaint]

You're looking for a tenths drill chuck when your machine is accurate to thousands?

 

[dogdog]

You're looking for a tenths drill chuck when your machine is accurate to thousands?

you sure it's not the other way around... ?

 

[bsaint]

you sure it's not the other way around... ?

Tenths to me is 0.0001. What's tenths to do?

But ya I guess thinking about it you want the chuck to be lower run out than the quill or you'll have a large additive error

 

[dogdog]

Tenths to me is 0.0001. What's tenths to do?

But ya I guess thinking about it you want the chuck to be lower run out than the quill or you'll have a large additive error

not sure what the convention is now on these things, the way I learned it lots of moons ago... 0.1 is tenths , .01 is hundredths and .001 is thousandths .0001 is chasing those pipe dreams region ( I mean drilled holes)... I don't expect drills to be that precision...

what I meant was, anything over .01 of an inch precision on a drill press is chasing pipe dreams.

 

[GeoBruin]

not sure what the convention is now on these things, the way I learned it lots of moons ago... 0.1 is tenths , .01 is hundredths and .001 is thousandths .0001 is chasing those pipe dreams region ( I mean drilled holes)... I don't expect drills to be that precision...

what I meant was, anything over .01 of an inch precision on a drill press is chasing pipe dreams.

When machinist types say "tenths", they mean ten thousandths of an inch (.0001).

 

[bsaint]

not sure what the convention is now on these things, the way I learned it lots of moons ago... 0.1 is tenths , .01 is hundredths and .001 is thousandths .0001 is chasing those pipe dreams region ( I mean drilled holes)... I don't expect drills to be that precision...

what I meant was, anything over .01 of an inch precision on a drill press is chasing pipe dreams.

Yea you're right but we mean a tenth (10) of a hundred thousandths or 1 ten thousandths- not a tenth of thousand. That would be 1000 ten thousandths.

 

[nadogail]

I have had great service and advice from MSC.

 

[RoninB4]

The keyless chucks (IMO) are nice for quickly changing drill sizes but some of them fail to adequately grip the drill when hand tightening on the knurled portion only. Drills sometimes get buggered up on the shank and don't offer a good surface for the chuck jaws to "bite". I always look for a keyless chuck that has optional flats for a wrench or holes around the periphery to use a small length of round stock to use in tightening just a bit more than hand friction on the knurl. If the wrench/round is required on a keyless the speed advantage is gone. Keyed chucks are somewhat of a PITA if the key goes missing but I still prefer the positive grip of a keyed chuck for the most part. JMO.

 

[F-22]

Cheap keyed chucks are absolute garbage, while the chinese keyless ones are usually quite okay for nearly all home uses.

Even for a machine shop, a generic keyless is totally fine (or a Rohm) cause you use collets (er32...) for anything larger or if you need percision...

Albrecht is in my opinion just overpriced, and if a drill spins in it it'll still get ruined the same. For high torque and percision a collet is simply way better and totally inexpensive to replace.

 

[RoninB4]

Never used "generic" tooling (including drill chucks) that wasn't garbage. None of the Chinese tooling that makes it's way to this country is of decent quality. That doesn't mean they are incapable of making good quality tooling, it's rarely sold here. Using poor quality Chinese tooling in machine shops, all of it I've seen over 40 years, is regarded as a crappy disposable item and not very well thought of for any reason. You get what you pay for. Just my experience, hope yours is better.

 

[A&P mechanic]

To answer your question, I went with the higher end chuck mainly because I wanted to be able to use a wrench in case the bit ever gets stuck. The second reason is, I have a Chinese drill press. I will most likely upgrade someday to a milling machine or a nicer drill press. That is why I went with a changeable shaft. I liked the keyless chuck so much, I bought a used Jacobs off AWD. The Llambrich catalog showed a Jacobs equivalent number next to the Llambrich number, which made me think the chuck was rebranded Jacobs from Llambrich.

I was surprised to see made in Taiwan for the handheld drill chuck. I see the COO on the Grainger website for the Llambrich chuck JK13 R-1/2 is Spain while the Jacobs equivalent is Taiwan. Taiwan is still better than China. I am curious if the LLambrich one for the power drill is still made in Spain. Overall, I still like the chuck.

 

[liliysdad]

I have an Albrecht keyless and a Jacobs (Made in USA) keyed, both 5/8, for my drill press....and I prefer the keyed chuck by far. The Albrecht has been relegated to use on my lathe.

 

[tarbellb]

I have an Albrecht keyless and a Jacobs (Made in USA) keyed, both 5/8, for my drill press....and I prefer the keyed chuck by far. The Albrecht has been relegated to use on my lathe.

Can you expand on why

 

[PoorUB]

When machinist types say "tenths", they mean ten thousandths of an inch (.0001).

That is what I immediately think of too. Four years in a machine shop!

 

[PoorUB]

Yea you're right but we mean a tenth (10) of a hundred thousandths or 1 ten thousandths- not a tenth of thousand. That would be 1000 ten thousandths.

Sure, but no machinist I know is worried about runout in 0.1" of an inch. May as well use a yardstick at that point.

 

[liliysdad]

Can you expand on why

The Albrecht is a great chuck, smooth as glass. Its also very high geared, meaning it takes quite a few twist to go from minimum to maximum capacity. Further, keyless chucks don't lie running lager than bore tools, such as hole saws and Silver& Demings. On my drill press, I tend to run a LOT of various size, random tooling.

I can spin the keyed Jacobs from minimum to maximum very quickly, and use the key to snug it up. It doesn't car what I put in it, it just works. Every time.

 

[Steve_P]

Yikes, those chucks are insanely expensive.
As far as chuck runout, my early 2000s Taiwan Delta drill press has ~.001" . I was surprised it was so good.