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Are new production Jacobs Super Ball Bearing chucks still good?

guythatbrews

Titanium
Joined
Dec 14, 2017
Location
MO, USA
I need a couple of drill chucks and I like these. I made the mistake of trying to save on an Accupro 0-1/2 and it was Accucrap. The ball bearing part just kinda disintegrated.

Older chucks are available on Ebay. Some look good, some not. You can more or less see if the jaws are damaged and also the gear. But MSC has them on sale so there is not much savings on Ebay. That is unless the new ones are not as good as the old ones.

Does anyone have any experience with the new chucks?

Thanks!
 
Earlier posts indicated that the China-made SBBC's weren't great, and not comparable to the US-made versions. No direct experience, all mine are older.
Thanks! Sorry I didn't check earlier posts. They are plentiful so my bad.

Look like the consensus is probably not that good anymore and that is a shame. I will try to find old ones in good shape.
 
I recently accidently bought a China Jacobs super chuck off Ebay. What a pile of fuck. It just screams "I'm a worthless, sloppy POS".

I have about 2 dozen real superchucks, a few look real, real old, like 1920's-ish and they still get used everyday and work flawless.

Side by side, the new ones are trash next to the old ones.

BTW, the China ones are laser marked whereas the good ones are stamped. Easy way to distinguish them apart.
 
I think I have a couple of the old ones in my pile of stuff to sell off.
I will check when I get back out to the shop if you would be interested.
 
Well, once I used Albrecht chucks, all the others I have including older Jacobs chucks stay in the rack.
 
I put 2" spade bits into my 0-1/8" Albrecht. Sometimes it twists the spade body in half, so I have to back off the feed a little...

I've been looking for an MT5 arbor for my 0-1/8" Albrecht without success. I don't want want to stack adapters. I feel like too much rigidity will be lost that way.
 
The old Ridgid Supreme chucks I believe were made by Rhom, Germany.
You can still buy from Rhom but don't know if they are the same quality as the old ones which I think were one of the best key drill chucks made as good or better than old Jacobs. They still pop up on E-Bay, there's a real nice 1/2" one on now for $59. I have a 1" old one I use regularly still tight and accurate prob 30 or so years old. The size 26 Rhom is 370 euros now.
 
I went to the liquidation of the last Jacobs plant in the US when it closed in SC. Sad to see. They had a bunch of the new at the time, laser marked stuff laying around in the plant. Pretty poor next to the stuff they made in SC up to the end.
 
After purchasing the first 14N Ball Bearing Chucks made in China- after Danaher, the jerks that owned Jacobs shut down US manufacturing, it was immediately obvious their quality disappeared. Three 14 N Chucks, the chuck keys were NOT interchangeable. So I went to LFA, and have used them for at least ten years. BUT the last ones i purchased didn't say made in France and they felt just like the cheap POS, Jacobs makes in China. I've purchased well over 200 of the same chuck over the last 20 years, and can tell a POS when I see one. So I'm back to using Jacobs 14N, and TELL the US government that the drill chuck I provide is the ONLY part in my machine tool set, made in China.

I would have LOVED to see the equipment used to manufacture drill chucks at their auction. BUT to make a drill chuck that's precise and sell it for 150 bucks- it's probably more profitable to flip burgers at McDonalds.
 








 
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