stuck Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Right, Tonights rant is about battery drills that ruin expensive HSS drill bits! I have a 18V Dewalt battery drill with the ubiquitous keyless chuck and I'm sick of it trashing the shanks of drill bits every time it encounters the slightest bit of resistance. Has anybody managed to find a quality battery drill that is either fitted with a traditional Jacobs' chuck or has a keyless chuck that can stand up to the torque of the motor? Ta, Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan bomber Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 You're leaning on your drills to hard when breaking through a hole... I have no problems drilling 20+mm holes in a keyless chuck at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 I assure you that I'm not. It is however possible that my chuck is knackered as it's hard to tighten & undo. Edit: it has trashed drill bit shanks from new so I don't think it's down to abuse. At work we have a cheap Ryobi that is gutless but I never stall it (others do) so I don't think it's me being too aggressive with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertspark Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 I will ask the daft question..... Has the inside of your chuck when fully open got a screw that holds the keyless chuck onto the end of the drill motor shaft?? If so, change it for a keyed chuck.... This may not be an option on battery drills, but not knowing the dewalt, and having owned (once before it was nicked), a 24v Bosch SBS plus, which had a removable / replaceable chuck I would check with the chuck fully open... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 Hadn't thought of that Robert. Will have a look in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landy-Novice Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 if what robert is saying is correct, then you want one of these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Poore Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Never had an issue with Makita keyless chucks but to be honest whenever I'm drilling metal tend to use a pillar drill if possible - otherwise drill is on very low speed so reaction time should be ample to stop the drill before things start getting ruined. I know my Makita has variable torque so you can always tweak it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zardos Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Most cordless drills have an adjustable clutch on them, adjust the clutch down a few notches so that the clutch slips before drill bit turns in the keyless chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmgemini Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 I have a DeWalt cordless drill with a keyless chuck. I can't fault it at all. The chuck really tightens on the drill shanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 I have the xrp series dewalt with the metal keyless chuck and I don't recall having any problems. Do you you have a plastic or metal chuck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sparkes Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 ..... It is however possible that my chuck is knackered as it's hard to tighten & undo. ..... I think you have captured the cause there. When you 'torque' the chuck onto the bit you are losing some of the tightening force overcoming the friction of the chuck. So the chuck doesn't grip the drill bit very tightly. Another way of expressing that is to imagine you need to tighten a nut to 50lbf-ft to give the correct clamping force. The stud is rusty, or has a damaged thread, and the old nut is in a similar state. For whatever reason, it takes 10lbf-ft to turn the nut on the stud, before it starts to clamp. When you do tighten it to 50 lbf-ft only 40 is going into clamping the fixture, the other 10 was 'wasted' simply overcoming the friction on the thread. Somewhat oversimplified, but I hope it illustrates the point. Soak the chuck in WD40 (or similar), or buy a new chuck that works properly. :-) Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GW8IZR Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 I change Makita keyless chucks about once a year but the traditional chucks last almost forever.. but the convenience of keyless makes it worth while to me. Like most tools the jaws in the chuck do wear and once you pick up on a drill shank it gets slowly worse. Try a new chuck which will not be expensive - remember the screw in the middle is left hand thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M&S Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 We used Makita and Dewalt at work. Makita plastic chucks are rubbish, couldn't get them tight enough not to slip. Dewalt on teh other hand supplied metal chucks and they were easier and actually seemed to tighten more rather than slip. If yours is plastic I'd definiately get a metal keyless chuck from Jacobs (that's who makes them for Dewalt). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 The metal ones on the dewalt are described as self tightening so that would go with what you have experienced M&S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yalan Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 As above, I've got a decent dewalt 18v drill and always found the chuck to be excellent. But this was a high end dewalt with metal Rohm chuck. The cheaper dewalt drills with nicad batteries and plastic chucks are built to a much lower spec... I'd change the chuck for a decent branded one. I've also got a keyless chuck on my corded Bosch drill and that is terrible for releasing & slipping. Must change it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Two-Jacks Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Right, Tonights rant is about battery drills that ruin expensive HSS drill bits! I have a 18V Dewalt battery drill with the ubiquitous keyless chuck and I'm sick of it trashing the shanks of drill bits every time it encounters the slightest bit of resistance. Has anybody managed to find a quality battery drill that is either fitted with a traditional Jacobs' chuck or has a keyless chuck that can stand up to the torque of the motor? Ta, Mick. Sorry to hijack but when you say trashing bits (beware stupid question on its way) what does it do, score the shank? The reason I ask is I get the chuck slipping with my cordless and have just thought I hadn't used enough umph when tightening it up but embarrassingly didn't notice it knackered bits ..... J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landy-Novice Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 i have a 18v mikita 8391d which has a plastic chuck, i just do it up and away we go, no slip, nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yalan Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Something to do with drills having brakes or not? The good ones only need one hand to tighten whereas the cheaper ones need two hands on the chuck ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Yes J2J it can score the hell out of the shank. I have a Hitachi cordless that does just this, chuck is plastic outer but steel inner. No matter how hard I tighten it the drills still slip with moderate effort. My previous Atlas Copco drill had the excellent steel bodied Rohm chuck. I can't ever recall that slipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Grrr, double post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finnarne Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Hav you tried to put a drop of oil inside the chuck ? If the chuck is hard to tighten, then I would have tried a bit of Oil. I did on my, although inot a keyless chuck, and it helped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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