Maybe 30 odd years back a 5/8" capacity Chinese Golden Goose branded chuck came with a new large mid + range hobbyist bench-top mill. Initially ignored as being most likely of (non)quality commensurate with the name, on being forced into using it I found it actually rather good and dead nuts accurate. When the mill departed to an owner more likely to accept its shortcomings the Golden Goose stayed behind and my "worst" (but still quite reasonable) Jacobs went with it.
I suspect durability of the Golden Goose isn't up to full on industrial standards but, if still made at that level, a perfectly acceptable choice. Especially if, like me and many other folk, keyless chucks are the day to day workhorses.
In the onesie-twosie, modification and repair manual machine tool world that I inhabit keyed chucks remain indispensable for those jobs where its either unsafe or impractical to maintain the end loading needed to keep a keyless chuck properly tight.
My common ones include:-
Producing tapped holes with the Bridgeport. Easier by far to drill then swop for a tap in the keyed chuck before moving on to the next hole position than going round with the drill them swopping in the tapping head. Half the time it seems the job needs to be moved on the table to do all the holes which makes going round with the drill first just that much more inconvenient.
Using hole saws. My keyless chucks don't like the standard hex drive end of the saw carrier and tend to slip endwise.
Sorting out of round holes or drilling on imperfect surfaces where careful feed is needed to get a true start. The combination of vibration and insufficient endload means a keyless has little chance of holding. If need be a keyed chuck will hold an endmill just fine to produce a true surface to start on. (Who's a naughty boy then!).
Clive
