Overhauling a Jacobs Chuck by Martin Gingrich seca eo a king for laa supplement my South Bend 10K. During my search, Tlooked at a 15° South Bend chat! did not buy for reasoms I doa't remember. What I do remember isthe tailstack of the lathe had the lagest Jacobs chuck had ever seen. It turned out co be a No, 20N. Sometime later Tid acquire a 15" heavy lathe and have always had a hankering for a tailstock chuck larger than the typical L/P" capacity to hold large center drills, ete Recently, I attended a local machine shop liquidation auction and, lo, there was a box containing two Jacobs No. 20N ball bearing chucks (3/8 to 1" capacity! and jane No.18N chuck {1/8 to 3/4” capacity! [didn't have too many winners that day but did purchase that box ‘of chucks. (One of the large chucks was mounted on a No. 5 Mone arbor which was in excellent condition, and the other had a broken and welded No, 3 Morse arbor with a 3 x 4 sleeve. The No. ISN hada No. 4 shank in poor condition. Murphy's law strikes again! My tailstock takes a No. 4 Morse shank, so two of the three arbors hhad to g0. All three chucks showed signs of use, although the rack tnd tecth on the jaws looked very good. They showed a little wear on the jaws and some tight spots and roughness, chen the barrels were turned, which is unusual for 3 ball bearing chuck Incidentally, repair parts are readily available for Jacobs and other quality chucks. Check ‘with your local industrial supplier or mail orde: ‘supplies, such as MSC. It was evident that disassembly and a good clean-up and lubrication were needed. The following describes the procedure used to disassemble, clean and reassemble the Jacobs 20N (ball bearing) chuck. This procedure is typical for most key operated chucks ~ although, with the standard chuck, ‘you do not have to be concerned with the ball bearings, Which are loose on the older model chucks such as ‘mine, and have to be removed individually. On later Jacobs chucks they are caged, so there is no concern over losing the individual balls Start the disassembly by removing the outer shell. This is the part you rotate to adjust the jaws. It also has the circular rack of teeth to engage the key. The shell is a friction it and is pressed over the split nut that rotates with the shell to feed the three jaws in or out, similar to the seroll of che three-jaw lathe chuck. used a split bearing puller as shown in Photo 1, but a piece of hot or cold rolled stee! plate abour 3/8 vol /2* thick with a hole bored to clear the ehuck body would work even better. With the shel off, remove the individual halls from between the half nut and the bearing race, one at a time, by pulling them out of the loading slot. A piece of stiff ‘wire or seriber point is helptul for this. Be careful mot to Jose any balls. When all of the balls are out from under half of the split nut, then chat aut half can be removed Remove the remaining balls from under the other halt nut and remove tt also. Photo 2 shows the parts of the disassembled No. 20 chuck. Starting in the upper right-hand comer and going clockwise, the parts are as follows: outer shell, the three jaws, bearing race, split nut, and main body. At top ‘center is the No.18 chuck body with the jaws and bearing tace still in place The thee jaws can now be removed. You may want 10 ‘identify them and their position in the chuck body. The jaws must be installed sn the correct relationship to each 552 other and the split nut in the same manner as the jaws in «lathe scroll chuck. The jaws can also he identified by the space between the last thread and the shoulder, On iy chuck bodies, he bores for the jaws are identified by ‘series of |, 2, oF 3 small dots that appear to be etched on the boy. The lower bearing race may alsa he lifted off the body at this time for cleaning, After opening my chuck, I found chat the grease used to lubricate it had hardened completely. I tried washing with solvent which was only partially successful and wound up scraping most of the residue off with my Fingernail, Altera good cleanup, examine che wearing pares catefully, For best results, secure new pans to replace any with excessive wear. [also gave my parts light brushing ‘on alight seratch wheel to remove any grease residue, With a fine abrasive stone or cloth, remove any burrs or nicks on the jaws or body that may interfere with smooth doperacion and the chuck is ready to reassemble. ‘A few comments on reassembly: First, be sure the jaws are in the correct order, and second, be sure the nut halves are clean on the fractuced edges. The nut is intentionally broken after machining and the fractured cedges must mesh exactly when reassembling to insure the proper press fit between the shell and ¢he nut, Lubricate the balls and the race, as well as all sliding suriaces, with good quality grease. I used a silicone based grease in the hope it will not dry and harden, After all the parts are lubed and in the correct position, the shell is pressed back in place reversing the procedure used for removal, When reassembling the first No. 20 chuck, 1 found ane jaw was binding, At first [ thought the problem was in the body of the chuck, but further investigation showed! bent jaw. All three jaws also hac worn on the contact faces {Photo 4). 1 was able to straighten the jaw using a vise as.a press, but all the jaws were sprung slightly from excessive tightening forees. The proper procedure ‘Would be to install a set of new replacement jaws However, being a frugal (cheap| Pennsylvania Dutchman, {decided to try to salvage the jaw, To correct the wear, I made up a bolder and ground the contact face of each jaw by holding it in the lathe chuck and using a small grinder held in the too! post, This serup is shown in Photo 2. The lathe spindle did not rotate during this operation, The compound slide was set at an angle to match the contact suriace of the jaw, 3 Only enough grinding was done to clean up the contact surface. The same depth of grinding was maintained on all three jaws to retain concentricity. Purchasing new jaws would have been preferable for maximums accuracy and gripping force; however, the chucks are serviceable and the coat ‘was only my time, ‘The smaller chuck must have been used in a coolant application and when disassembled was a rusty mess. ‘The balls were badly piteed and the races dida't look 100 hot either. Fordered a package of 5/32" diameter balls trom Small Parts, Ine., and polished the race and nut as, best I could. After lubricating and reassembly it seems to work well and is serviceable, although, again, a new nut and race would have heen preferable Removing arbors is not always as easy as it appears to be Nearly all of the larger chucks used with machine tools are mounted on tapered arbors. In the case of my No. 20N, a No.5 Jacobs taper was used. Some of the smaller chucks, as used on power tools, ae screwed on and retained by a separate retaining serew into the end of the mounting shalt. This should be visible if the jaws are open, Many times the retaining serew has a lett hand thread. ‘The recommended method of removing ehucks from tapered arbors is by using a pair of tapered wedges made specifically for this purpose. However, this works only il there is 2 shoulder for the wedge to push against. In my situation, I wound up drilling through the bore and ‘upping the body and jacking the arbors out using agrade 5 SAE bolt. In the ease of the 3/4" chuck, a 9/16" bolt did che job, but on the 1” chucks, the arbors were so tight that I stripped the threads off a 5/8" holt and ad tose 03/4”. Even heat didn't have its usual loosening, eilect, although I was earetul not to get the hody too hot, Teven tried removing the arbor hydraulically, using grease gun for pressure, but was unable to reasonably achieve leak-tight seal between the houdy and gun and opted for the jacking bolt, ‘The result of all this industry (?} is three very serviceable chucks at a very moderate cost. So, if you havea chuck that is sticking or rough sn operation, don't be afraid to disassemble it and clean ie up. 1 willl ‘work hetter and last longer. We tend to take these ‘wonderful chucks for granted, but they do an excellent job of accurately and securely holding our tooling ~ year in and year out, It isa cribute to the inventor of the Keyed chuck ~ Arthur Irving Jacobs ~ that the design has changed very little since its conception in 1902, ‘Thanks, A.