Can I clean a drill chuck?

I was over at my parents' place and was drilling slate with a masonry bit using my dad's favorite drill. It's an OK machine, but nothing to write home about. Unfortunately, it happens to have great sentimental value for him. In the course of drilling, I was hosing down the stone. This blasted water containing powdered stone onto the shaft of the bit. I didn't think anything of it, since no water was getting onto the chuck or drill. Well, the spinning of the bit drew the slurry into the chuck. Now, the chuck won't operate well since it has grit in it. What are my options for fixing this? Thanks.

If it is a standard key Jacobs type chuck they are fairly easy to take apart and clean. You can use a vise and a piece of pipe, even plastic should work, as a press to do it. Hardest part will probably be getting it off the motor.
Search for dissembling Jacobs chuck.
Bill D

I am no expert on taking drill chucks apart, but they do come apart. A picture of the chuck would help.

The ones that I am familiar with have a sleeve with gear teeth on the edge for the chuck key. This turns and raises or lowers the jaws. That sleeve is pressed on to a gear ring inside the chuck. To get the sleeve off, its pressed toward the opening end of the chuck. Once the sleeve is off, the chuck can be disassembled, cleaned and put back together. The jaws have to oriented correctly to close together.

Tom

music321 said:

I was over at my parents' place and was drilling slate with a masonry bit using my dad's favorite drill. It's an OK machine, but nothing to write home about. Unfortunately, it happens to have great sentimental value for him. In the course of drilling, I was hosing down the stone. This blasted water containing powdered stone onto the shaft of the bit. I didn't think anything of it, since no water was getting onto the chuck or drill. Well, the spinning of the bit drew the slurry into the chuck. Now, the chuck won't operate well since it has grit in it. What are my options for fixing this? Thanks.

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Common as fly-poop problem in mostly-concrete Hong Kong.

The grit will usually come out without disassembly. Get out all you can with air first, then hot water and ignorant dishwashing detergent.

Some of what remains jammed will be acid-impervious flint or quartz grains [sand), some the cementitious and mildly soluble lime product binding them up.

Find a container large enough you can get nitrile-gloved hands AND the chuck and key itself immersed in. Fill with about two bucks worth of distilled white vinegar from the foodstuffs section of the supermart and "work it" gently, to free it up. The debris will crack, dissolve partially, or otherwise get knocked about and find its way out.

Now you want to get the mostly-water + 5% or so Acetic acid out. A slosh of rubbing alcohol, then off to WD-40, then kerosene, working it again until it operates smoothly. Spin it up in a pail to get it dry, and you should be good to go.

Only take it apart if this does NOT work. That can be an even MORE time consuming nuisance, and generally an avoidable one. The chucks are not actually that easy to bugger-up unless one tries to FORCE a jam. Or leaves them susceptible to RUST!

Just don't do either.

Going forward, a "slinger" helps. Think ballerina skirt. Any sort of disk, fabric-reinforced or plain sheet rubber is good. Goal is to spin away anything coming up-shank, wet or dry, before it reaches the chuck at all.

great info. Thanks. I'll have to get a slinger for future use.

music321 said:

great info. Thanks. I'll have to get a slinger for future use.

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Yah make 'em as you go. Cheap five-buck rebonded doormats made from recycled tires work. Most applications, square works as well as round. Lots of "donors" in the scrap. Keep 'em light and softish, though. Buggers can sting if they fly apart at speed!

Each drill or - more often paddle-stirrer for thinset, here - needs a different center-hole size. They have to grip, so a cross "X" cut covers several sizes. Just not all sizes nor "forever" in actual use.

Consumables, IOW. Beats me why some bright spark at Big Box or HF hasn't blister-packed them and charged a bundle for the convenience. OTOH, both tribes DO sell new chucks!

i just use a spray can of electrical contact cleaner. its basically a cleaning solvent that leaves no residue and evaporates fairly fast.
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spray in chuck til dripping and open or close chuck a bit and spray more in til dripping. between opening and closing chuck and spraying the cleaner in til it drips out 99.999% of time it cleans chuck so it operates freely. most chucks have tight clearances and turn tight when oil and dirt in them. the act of removing dirt and oil will normally free up the chuck so it turns easier. electrical contact cleaner will get oil out. you can try spraying alcohol if you got water in chuck

Dunk it into a small can of diesel.
Turn the drill on while submerged. (the chuck not the whole drill)

Pull out while spinning, wipe off excess.


The diesel is safe around the sparking commutator of the drill motor,
thin enough to wash the chuck pretty clean, and good enough
to leave in place as a lubricant.

digger doug said:

Dunk it into a small can of diesel.
Turn the drill on while submerged. (the chuck not the whole drill)

Pull out while spinning, wipe off excess.


The diesel is safe around the sparking commutator of the drill motor,
thin enough to wash the chuck pretty clean, and good enough
to leave in place as a lubricant.

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If the OP has worked the chuck after getting the goop in, then the goop has probably been worked into the chuck internals. A simple dunk will not get it out. Perhaps repeated opening and closing the chuck while in diesel may flush out the grit, then maybe not.

Tom

TDegenhart said:

If the OP has worked the chuck after getting the goop in, then the goop has probably been worked into the chuck internals. A simple dunk will not get it out. Perhaps repeated opening and closing the chuck while in diesel may flush out the grit, then maybe not.

Tom

Click to expand...

Yes, open and close it, keep flushing until the fluid runs clean.

Dunking, plunging, anything to get the fluid in all the leetle nooks.

The TubalCain guy or MrPete on youtube has a video on taking a chuck apart.

can of spray electrical contact cleaner (no residue type) been used to clean drill and lathe chucks and many other things in the shop for decades. usually takes like 10 seconds to free up a stiff hard to turn item.
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why would you take apart if it takes only a minute to get goo or dirt or thick oil in a chuck. i would be taking stuff apart many times per day.
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spray electrical contact cleaner is used almost as much as spray can of penetrating oil. some stuff likes a little oil other stuff so tight in clearances that any oil will made it hard to turn. take a micrometer usually if oiled with anything much thicker than mineral spirits it will just get way too tight to turn.