How clean 3 year old gummy Delta 17-959L drill press chuck

My Delta DP has the original 5/8, Jacobs key type chuck. The original manual said very little. It did not say anything about cleaning the chuck prior to use. I did not. I used it the way it came figuring the slight stiffness was due to being new.

The chuck has been getting more and more difficult to turn by hand. It is now to the point that turning the chuck by hand turns the entire mechanism, including the motor. Sticky goo is seeping down from between the "collar" used to adjust size and the cylinder that contains the jaws.

The Delta manual says nothing about cleaning the chuck (or anything else except the table). The Delta web site has no information about this. It is Saturday and Delta is not answering the telephone except to tell you when to call.

My inclination is to get a clean empty food can, pour in some thinner and let the thing soak. Later slosh it up and down in clean thinner repeating as indicated by thinner color. That should give me a dry chuck. Many years ago I repaired typewriters (you know, those mechanical things with levers and without electric hook-up) dry was good. (WWII I took a test receiving code for 10 minutes, no errors permitted, at 102.2 wpm on a dry LC Smith typewriter).

Is dry good for the chuck? How should I lube it?

I sure managed to use a lot of words to ask two simple questions.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
I've cleaned mine using aerosol automotive brake parts cleaner. I was amazed at how much gunk (technical term :rolleyes:) dripped/oozed out of it.

Then I blasted it wit compressed air, and put a couple drops of light machine oil (I use sewing machine oil) between the body and the adjusting ring - NOT on the inside of the chuck(!).

In my dusty (and seldom cleaned :eek:) shop, I need to de-grunge (another technical term :rolleyes:) the chuck every couple years or so.
 
Break cleaner works great, but my skin doesn't do so well with it. Mineral spirits works well to remove most kinds of cosmaline. I've also found the citrus motorcycle chain cleaner from advance auto is a nice and low odor product. Cleaned my grizzly stuff up great.
 
http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/JacobsChuckRebuild.ashx

I've done this more many times over the years when I worked as a tool & die maker. You can get rebuild kits to replace the jaws and bearings. Takes about an hour.

Your chuck probably will do with just a cleaning. All of the ones I rebuilt were production tools that had several thousand hours of heavy use. Also, most production chucks cost several hundred dollars, compared to the typical hobby use chuck.
 
thanks roger never seen the insides of one of those before and figured that if they turned hard it was just the chuck..never dreamed of cleaning one up..
 
Glad to help fellas (and gals......in case Cynthia is looking:D) Jim, I didn't take the photos, found them at OWWM or what ever, so I can't take credit but like I said, I've done it many times. The industrial chucks have a split bearing race and a bunch of loose ball bearings so you really have to be careful. Also the jaws have to be removed and replaced in the same sequence so they all operate in the same plane otherwise one will advance before the other and not be concentric. Pay close attention when taking apart and mark locations on the chuck. Good luck.:thumb:
 
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