Used Albrecht chuck - when to give up

J

jwmelvin

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A while back, I bought a used Albrecht 130 chuck, $75. It was smooth and cleaned up fine but the jaws were chewed up, leading to obvious alignment issues. Here's a picture of the jaws:
jaws.jpeg

So after letting it sit for a while and looking for a set of jaws, I finally decided to buy some from McMaster, $140. I'm feeling pretty good about it and posted my new purchase after using the chuck and feeling pretty good about it. Then I measured...

I held a dowel pin in the jaws and see about 0.007" TIR. Ugh. I tried a couple dowel pins, 3/16" and 1/2" diameter. Both give about the same results. I even checked with a couple different indicators
TIR.jpegTIR2.jpeg

I measured about 0.002" TIR at the back of the shell (just below the upper knurled collar in the picture). That suggests that the arbor itself is probably okay, and I measured the arbor when I initially disassembled the chuck and remember it being very good.

So now I'm questioning what to do. I see a few options:

(1) Call it good enough and just drill holes. I don't view a drill as a precision instrument and the chuck is smooth and grabs well. But it's pretty disappointing.

(2) Send to Royal, the main distributor, for rebuild or replacement; limited to $385 for a new chuck, if refurbishing this one would be more expensive than that or would not give good results. Given that I just spent $140 on jaws and don't imagine I can return them now, I obviously wish I just sent it to them in the first place. It may be the only way to get an in-spec chuck out of this. I do have another Albrecht that I could put the jaws in I guess.

(3) Disassemble again and try to figure out which additional parts need replacing. I can replace a few parts for less than sending it to Royal, but not all of them (available from Royal or McMaster). I'm not experienced enough to know what is likely the issue, but I can measure to investigate. Here's the assembly drawing:
Albrech_Chuck_Refurbishing.jpg


I appreciate hearing about any experiences you may have with these or guidance how to avoid wasting more money.

-jason
 
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How does the inside of the hood look like. That’s what’s controlling the jaws. You said that the body is giving you .002 runout I would think that should be at a minimum. .002 runout on body makes me think at least .004 on the jaws. I’d try taking it apart again and look for the cause. Mount in spindle and take reading with chuck disassembled and start adding parts. How were the balls? worn at all???
 
jwmelvin said:
I see a few options:
Click to expand...
# 4 . Next time in Fallston , pick one out of my tote . You saw how many I have . :grin: Or , # 1 . Drill chuck is not considered a precision tool , and you already posted it completed your job on the other thread .
 
You could try putting the jaws in different positions and retest. Just keep track of everything as you go.
 
Cadillac said:
How does the inside of the hood look like. … Mount in spindle and take reading with chuck disassembled and start adding parts. How were the balls? worn at all???
Click to expand...

I could see where the jaws meet with the hood ID, in that the hood shows some wear. Perhaps that’s the next part to replace. I didn’t measure the balls but they looked fine.

I will try measuring during selective assembly.


Shootymacshootface said:
You could try putting the jaws in different positions and retest. Just keep track of everything as you go.
Click to expand...

I may try that too. Since the jaws are new, it shouldn’t matter, at least not to the extent that I’m seeing.

mmcmdl said:
# 4 . Next time in Fallston , pick one out of my tote . You saw how many I have . :grin:
Click to expand...

If you can identify one that meets a certain TIR, perhaps. Otherwise I’d be going down another road of unknown destination. I think I may have learned a lesson about buying used tooling.
 
R8 or straight shank ? 3/8 , 1/2 or 5/8 capacity ?
 
I will measure the runout in mine tonight and report it here. Use a carbide endmill if you have one. The shanks are held to incredible tolerances.
 
Could be runout in your collet then.

Try lowering the chuck down in your collet and measuring runout of the straight shank right where it enters the collet.

.... unless that's how you measured 0.002" runout of the body ....

I've got several of those same Albrecht chucks. I've never bothered to measure runout, but it's never been problematic for me. I'll measure a couple of them tonight and report back if I remember.
 
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