04-25-2015, 07:53 PM
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then I suppose. For once the planets were aligned correctly for me. 
I actually stumbled upon three good deals recently, so I guess I've used up my quota for awhile.
I have a couple of Jacobs 14N Super Chucks (1/2"). I have two because the first one I bought let out a rather distinctive "CRACK" noise one day when I was tightening up a drill bit in my lathe tail stock. The sleeve locked up and I had to fiddle with it for quite some time before it started moving again. I suspect it either cracked the bearing race or ball cage, -or- it broke a tooth on one of the jaws. At the time, it was cheaper to buy a brand new chuck than it was to buy a repair kit. So lately I have been thinking about repairing the original chuck (again) and picked up a piece of .500" wall DOM tubing to make a press sleeve to disassemble the chuck and investigate further. Looking at repair kits again, I happened upon an ENCO sale for a new 16N Super Chuck (5/8") which along with a 20% promo code, came out to be WAY less than the cost of a repair kit once again.
I've also had problems with using the SPI keyless drill chuck on my mill, when working on TALL parts. The chuck itself has been flawless in it's accuracy and function. But because I have a 'short' 3/4 size mill (compared to a Bridgeport) vertical space is somewhat lacking. So I have also been looking for a more compact drill chuck set-up. I settled on an Albrecht 130 (1/2") keyless chuck with a straight shank so I could get it up tight to the spindle and gain close to another inch of room in the Z axis. So now it's going to be a game of musical drill chucks. I'll put the new 16N on the lathe, and move the good 14N over to the mill for power tapping, and the new Albrecht for drilling on the mill. Still need to get into the other 14N though.
Another tool that I have been putting off until a recent sale and discount code popped up, is a speed increasing hand piece for my Foredom tools. It uses miniature ER style collets and cranks out up to 35,000 rpm. I have some 1/8" shank carbide PCB drills and end mills I've been wanting to play with.
I actually stumbled upon three good deals recently, so I guess I've used up my quota for awhile.
I have a couple of Jacobs 14N Super Chucks (1/2"). I have two because the first one I bought let out a rather distinctive "CRACK" noise one day when I was tightening up a drill bit in my lathe tail stock. The sleeve locked up and I had to fiddle with it for quite some time before it started moving again. I suspect it either cracked the bearing race or ball cage, -or- it broke a tooth on one of the jaws. At the time, it was cheaper to buy a brand new chuck than it was to buy a repair kit. So lately I have been thinking about repairing the original chuck (again) and picked up a piece of .500" wall DOM tubing to make a press sleeve to disassemble the chuck and investigate further. Looking at repair kits again, I happened upon an ENCO sale for a new 16N Super Chuck (5/8") which along with a 20% promo code, came out to be WAY less than the cost of a repair kit once again.
I've also had problems with using the SPI keyless drill chuck on my mill, when working on TALL parts. The chuck itself has been flawless in it's accuracy and function. But because I have a 'short' 3/4 size mill (compared to a Bridgeport) vertical space is somewhat lacking. So I have also been looking for a more compact drill chuck set-up. I settled on an Albrecht 130 (1/2") keyless chuck with a straight shank so I could get it up tight to the spindle and gain close to another inch of room in the Z axis. So now it's going to be a game of musical drill chucks. I'll put the new 16N on the lathe, and move the good 14N over to the mill for power tapping, and the new Albrecht for drilling on the mill. Still need to get into the other 14N though.
Another tool that I have been putting off until a recent sale and discount code popped up, is a speed increasing hand piece for my Foredom tools. It uses miniature ER style collets and cranks out up to 35,000 rpm. I have some 1/8" shank carbide PCB drills and end mills I've been wanting to play with.
Willie