Revisiting the Cheap eBay Collet Chuck | It's Pretty Bad 

James, one way to think about any inexpensive offshore piece of equipment is to treat it like a kit. Yes, the kit comes pre-assembled so you know how it is supposed to look when it is done. It is still always necessary to disassemble the kit, finish any incomplete work and re-assemble it the way you want. Essentially what you ended up doing in this video. Thanks for posting.

Good video but from the looks of it (and maybe its deceiving in the video), you are tightening the chuck way too tight and that's probably why you are get the tooth deformation on the pinions. A 5c collet chuck doesn't need to be tightened like a scroll chuck. In years of using collet chucks I've never had a collet come loose or a part slip with more than what I can torque with one hand on the T-wrench with the shaft between my middle and ring finger. On a collet chuck, you dont have centrifugal force trying to loosen the chuck and the grip on the part like you do with a scroll chuck. On average, a typical pneumatic and/or hydraulic 5c collet closer on a high end CNC's with automatic bar feeders usually have a closing pull force of between 1700 and 1900lbs. Now when you consider the thread size of the OD thread on a 5c collet, 40lb-ft of torque on the retaining nut (ring gear in the case of a collet chuck like you have) with average dry thread friction values is 1940lbs of pull force on the collet. Add in the roughly 4:1 gear ratio of that gear set and you only need 10lb-ft of torque on the t-handle at the absolute most.

As hobbyists, it makes sense for us to buy the cheapest thing we can. Once we figure out it works for us, we can buy better quality tools. Yes it can cost more money in the long run but I'd say about half the time the cheap tools work just fine for they hobby work I do.

I’m sure you don’t hear it enough but Thank you for what you do. You have given me the confidence and knowledge to step my foot into machining. I am Getting ready to purchase a lathe and eventually a mill. You are a wonderful teacher. Just finished watching the Electronic leadscrew series and the way you break things down makes this hobby a whole lot less intimidating.

I was just mounting my cheap 5C ebay chuck the day you made this video. Excellent timing! I decided to take mine apart also. For what its worth, my cheap chuck was a 25 dollars more than yours, but came with three pinion gears that seemed be harder than yours as was the crown gear. The crown did not have a thrust bearing and it was uniformly faced. All in all no grinding dust inside. I did polish the pinions up a bit and fettled all the gear teeth for good measure. Getting about 2/10s runout with a 3/8 pin in the collet. Thank you!

Hi James, I bought one from BANGGOOD in China about three years ago and I'm reasonably certain it was about $120 US. It came without a back plate for my Myford ML 7 so I made my own. It felt a bit rough so I opened it and found, like you, a bunch of rough edges everywhere. Unlike yours mine was that closely machined I had trouble getting the scroll out. Mine doesn't have a needle bearing. The gears are "hard" and I had to use a stone and diamond files to clear the edges. Files sorted the main housing's surfaces. I reassembled it and it felt much better. I made the register between the backplate and chuck about 0.020" smaller so there's a small amount of possible movement between the two. I chucked a piece of 1/2" drill rod in a collet, snuged up the three mounting bolts and then using a soft hammer moved the chuck until I measured less than 0.0005" runout on the test bar both at the face and about three inches out. I then tightened the bolts and repeated the test with the same result. As good as I will ever need. I've not used it alot but so far I've not detected any changes in the "feel" of the chuck . I guess it all depends which "bin" they came out of. Thanks for the video. Regards from Canada's banana belt. 👍🇨🇦☃️

Great cue to start a new project: Make some pinion gears and a ring gear.... I guess if you buy these its similar to buying one of them mini lathes as a hobby. The hobby in that case is improving the mini lathe :-). If I ever get the room to get one of those though, i'd probably do it :-)

There appears to be atleast two manufacturers of these super cheap collet chucks (and a million resellers of course). Just a week ago I bought a $200(Canadian) 5c chuck and it appears to be identical to the one Stefan got. Obvious differences being the outside was machined to make the parting line invisible unlike yours where it has been chamfered. Additionally, like Stefan's mine has no thrust bearing on the inside and a single dowel pin for aligning the two halves instead of roll pins. Like Stefan's everything on the one I bought has been hardened to nearly 60HRc and well ground on the running surfaces which will give it a good lifespan if everything is kept well lubricated. Seems like the chuck shown in this video has much softer parts and the bearing is there just to compensate for this. To anyone reading this looking to buy a cheap 5c chuck watch Stefans video and try to find one identical to his as it will last far longer. Obviously it is still a cheap tool, I had to spend about two hours with diamond files and stones deburring everything then cleaning it again, but after that process it runs super smooth and will last. Cheap tools are great as long as they cut costs in the right places...

Love coming back to watch these chuck videos after buying a Bison set-tru 5c collet chuck🤣

Seems like a nice project to cut new pinions and face gear once it wears out. It would be cool to see that.

Just learned a neat trick in a Fireball Tools Video today: when putting a threaded piece in your lathe, wrap wire around it in the grooves of the thread, and you won’t mar it.

Hey James, a big thank you for this one, and for your electronic lead screw project. I found a new use for the ELS as I was working on mounting one of these 5C chucks. I was power feeding to face my new spindle adapter and didn't notice that I was about to hit the end of travel on the cross slide. When it hit the end, the stepper stalled and the stepper controller errored out well before anything got stressed. No stripped gears and easy recovery. As far as the 5C chuck goes, I'd say mine came in ever rougher than yours. Having watched this, I tore mine down for cleaning before doing anything else. There's no thrust bearing in mine, just ground flats engaging. I found the same casting roughness in the pinions and the main nut. Two hours of cleaning, deburring and bandaging (amazing how sharp a square ground edge can be) and it was back together and smoother. I faced the adapter and that showed dead nuts on for runout of the face and edge. Drilled and tapped mounting bolts, no drama. Mounted the chuck and had 0.007" runout on the nose. Arggghh. Fiddled with it for a couple of hours till I figured out that the rear face of the chuck just wasn't square to the bore, concentric but cocked a tiny fraction of a degree. A 0.003" shim in just the right spot and the runout is now down to 0.0005", consistent along the length of the chuck and a chucked piece of stock. Anyway, thanks again for the work you do on the channel. I find your videos and projects like the ELS immensely useful.

I bought the exact same chuck after watching the first video. I did tear mine apart when I got it and polished the gears with a soft 3m deburring wheel followed with a red scotchbrite wheel. I also made the back plate about .01” smaller than the chuck body ID so I could tap it around and eliminate runout. With a ground pin I got it to .0003 runout…lol. I haven’t used it as much as you have but so far mine is working fine, and I would buy it again for the money and convenience of have a collet chuck.

Thanks for doing this James: it's always helpful to see what's "under the hood" before we start to take something apart ourselves. I chose to go he ER collet route for flexibility and cost, and now I'm glad. I' guessing that they used grease on the thrust bearing since it wouldn't see the light of day for a while ("use oil when you can access it regularly, use grease when you can't"). Even with the oiler, not much lubricant will find its way in between the thrust washers and get to the needles. I used to use white Lithium grease based on the recommendation from LMS, but after seeing how thick it gets over time (and learning first hand how difficult it is to get thick/hard Lithium grease off of the mating surfaces in my apron) I've switched to Super Lube™ for my lathe, mill, rotary table, etc. Sherline recommends this (oil or grease depending on the application) for all of their equipment. I use Starrett instrument oil for any precision applications. Thanks again, Charlie.

As far as stopping wear on soft parts is concerned the best solution I have found(so far) is moly-grease.....

I didn't expect the gears to be cut that badly! Surprising it didn't already strip a tooth

The question becomes more about the difficulty involved in making new gears. It's not the easiest thing to do but with an end mill, a hobbing cutter, and a dividing head it's definitely possible...

So sorry about your experience with this chuck. I bought a ER40 collet chuck and have had great experience with it so far. It was about the same price and included a set-tru plate in the CAM-4 setup. I really think the universe owes you a great, classic lathe. I was fortunate enough to luck into a DeValliere H140E lathe. There’s no substitute for mass.

There is a technique to use on all scroll chucks which will give you better holding with less torque on the T-handle, and preserve your chucks for longer life. Your collet chuck has two pinions for a reason - use both, alternate tightening as you draw in the collet. As you tighten on one pinion only, the scroll tilts to create misalignment slack in the ring gear at the other pinion location. By alternating on the pinions, you remove that slack causing the collet to hold tighter with better alignment, and with less force on the T-handle. Less torque on the T-handle avoids over-tightening damage to the gear assembly in the chuck. The same technique on all your Jacobs-style chucks (typically 3-pinions, or key positions) will also give you much better results in holding drill bits to prevent them from slipping in the jaws. Failing to tighten all three pinions frequently leads to damaged drill bits, and damaged jaw teeth. Misalignment slack in the scroll loosens the grip when you power the chuck. Then allowing the tool (drill bit or other) to slip in the chuck jaws. Same principle applies to lathe and mill chucks, and all scroll-type closers.

LOL, "Do you feel that?" Yes James, I feel it buddy, I feel it... 😉😂

James, the collet chuck that Stefan took apart is from a different manufacturer. I purchased the same version the Stefan has, and it is good. You can see the difference. There is an almost invisible split line on on the better one.

James, I was just doing a little bit of reading about hardening cast iron and I found that you can either induction or flame harden cast iron to increase the surface hardness. Apparently lathes still use that method for their castings. Might be worth looking into it to get more service life from that gear and the pinions. Gilles

It does seem amazing how these are so well made in some areas and not others, one would think that little bit extra wouldnt change the price that much, such a shame

I just bought the same Bostar 5c chuck, good disassembly tutorial. A few years ago I bought a 5" index head kit from India. Same deal out of the box it's seriously lacking any internal lube, and lots of grit debris. Once I spent a day with disassembly, deburring contact areas with a stone , and adding generous lube the unit scrolls very smoothly. I won't be having issues. The absolute key here is to disassemble your unit BEFORE any usage and take the time to fix all the rushed and neglected secondary cleaning and deburring that should have been done at the factory. Cheap is cheap and you get what you pay for. You just have to be aware .

I just bought one from Precision Matthews for at least twice that much but it is the adjustable type. Tried to adjust it with no movement. I took the chuck apart from the included backing plate to find almost no measurable difference between the backing plate center hub and it's mating "hole". In other words; no room for movement! Someone forgot to finish machine the hub to allow for adjustment. PM was surprised as well as I was. I took 20 thousands off and got the movement I needed to dial it in. Got it within 1 1/2 ten thou. I'm happy with that! But all this makes me wonder if I should also take mine apart to check for grit ect. that might be there. The first issue was pretty careless quality control, what else is possible? Enjoy your vids, keep them coming I'm learning a lot.

Nice work and thanks for the well filmed story. Buying a Chinese mini lathe taking the chuck apart for cleaning was needed. The Chinese mini mill came with totally dry axial bearings for the X travel, a destroyed and not functioning set screw was drilled out using left hand drill bits. Adjustable parallells... full of dirt...

Mine felt a grabby similar to what you described. It got better after a teardown and cleaning but still not $500 chuck. As you said you get what you pay for.

This is why I went with a ER32 collet chuck for the lathe. Works with the collets I have for the mill, but doesn't rely on nearly as much mechanical quality. As long as the threads and taper are okay (and they are on mine) then it's good to go.

Nice work in getting it to a more usable state. The one i have needs the same treatment. Something in the inner threads binds on collets. Great stuff James.

Not sure if some of this is covered in some other comments. ( Ramble alert) The pinion seemed to drop in a lot when you pulled the retaining pin. Maybe it is depthed too shallow, and only the tips are engaged. You can drill and tap another retaining pin hole (in the body) on the opposite side of the pinion that will force it deeper into the crown bevel gear. More tooth engagement will greatly increase the time before a tooth fails. Add an other washer to the needle bearing stack? Reassemble with lapping compound in teeth, and give it some spins, then clean and reassemble. Also, find a good quality 5c collet and Lap the internal threads of the nut. Additionally make a quick external thread lap for your collets. The cheeper collets can have a bad scale finishes on their threads, and this will greatly increase the torque required to tighten the chuck. Finally, with the asmymetery of the crown ring nut, one of the pinions will have less slop then the other. For the final "gronk" to set the work piece, use that pinion( it will have better engagement). This should not affect run out like in a scroll chuck. Happy turning.

Great videos, I'm learning a lot! When saying that the manufacturing process is "optimized", ask yourself "optimized for what?" High accuracy, 'value' quality for moderate cost, high quality, durability, saved $ on the design process, lowest possible manufacturing cost...

Did almost exactly the same procedure to my chuck purchased about 3 years ago; this first thing. Cleaned lots of burrs on the gears, cleaned, relubed with oil. The gears did not seem to be too soft, managed to dull a needle file. On mine, the main gear looked a bit better (save for burrs). I prefer oil and lots of it to flush out as much crud as possible as often as feasible. On my SB 9, I machined the thread nose adapter register a couple thou undersize to allow for runout adjustment. Still all is good, key works pretty smooth, runout as measured with collets and ground pins is sub 1 mil. For normal work from 1/2" 1" dia I find this chuck better than my worn out 3 jaw even though the overhang is quite substantial.

For what it's worth, all I had to start with was absolute junk but, through a combination of sweat equity and long hours, I built machines I could never have afforded in order to get into business. My big lathe had been in a fire and was "slightly" twisted, the ways in some places were worn down over .070. I had an old Ford car, 3 speed transmission for speed control. My machine shop looked like something out of Pakistan. But I was able to get into a business that took me from living in a 13 foot trailer with an outside shower. Hot water was produced on the propane stove via a galvanized bucket to a leafy estate in horse country, send my kids to fine Universities, and summer vacations at Lake Como. Don't give up, Never Surrender.

Based on your last video, I was finally ready to pull the trigger for the $150 (next check). The first time procrastinating paid off... I guess I will keep looking for a used quality one. Thanks- your timing is great! I would bet if someone with a hobby shop made quality replacement gears, they would sell.

I'm sure a lot of people have said this but why don't you face the ring gear and change out the shim. Since you have a machine shop, why not make 2 new tightening gears and harden them. Your next big purchase should be a surface grinder. I bought a used Boyar Schultz 818 for $200. Granted it needed to be refurbished but that in itself is a great project and gets you into the fine art of metrology, scraping, and such. More fun in the shop.

The fact that there is more ware on one pinion and on one side of the bull gear perhaps means you have been using mainly that side to tighten the chuck... just something to think about... Paint the pinion ends contrasting colors to make sure you are using them both... Oh and cast iron gears are cut after casting the blank...

After i received my chuck I took it apart as you described. I also saw where the ring gear was ground wonky. There was no thrust washer in the recess on mine. I have a friend who's in the heat treat busniess and gave him all the part to see what could be done. Their expert said the 3 pinions were hard but the ring gear was soft. Now at the cross roads, either I return it as defective, keep it as is and run it or have it heat treated and then se how it works. There are no replacement chuck any place in this price range, and most do not come with a backer adaptor in 1 3/4" X 8 threads. I'm temped to have them heat treat it if it won't cost a small fortune. I post back in later......

This is hilarious. I bought one of these chucks a decade ago. Mine did not run true when I bought it. I had to make a tool post grinder and regrind the interfaces between the chuck and collets. I watched your previous video yesterday and was surprised how true yours ran. RU-vid suggested this today and it looks like mine may have been better than yours after all!

I bought one of these as well. My spindle nose runout is 0.0002” however I’m having similar issues and haven’t taken it apart yet. After watching this I’m going to convert it to an air powered draw tube.

There are a couple of things you can do to increase engagement of the gears. It looks like the pinions back out when the locating pin is engaged. Put a new pin on the other side of the pinion that locates the pinion in a little more... You could space the ring gear out a little also.

Looking at the comments, I think some people here are missing the point. A "cheap" tool is only a poor investment if the results of its use are inferior. I am not saying a tool that works more smoothly or handles more easily is not worth more money: it is. The important point about these import collet chucks is their performance is excellent. Their run-out is well under .001", which for most hobby lathes is just fine. Would I like to have enough in the way of discretionary funds to pay $500 for a lathe chuck that only sees occasional use? Of course I would. The fact this chuck performs well enough for my needs without breaking the bank means it is worth it, and if I can spend an hour or two and maybe a few dollars improving its performance, well then that is worth it, too. Will I at some point need to replace this chuck? Maybe. I am not all that young, however, so there is an excellent chance it will outlast me. In the mean time, it does its job.

About the time you were putting this on your lathe, I was buying a Bison 5c for my own lathe. I have not regretted that choice even a little.

I half way thought when you showed the pinions and gear that you would machine new ones for the heck of it. Great video. Thanks

Thanks James for the video and tare down of the chuck. I purchased a 80 mm 4 jaw from LMS. It only lasted 4 months before I started having problems. I disassembled the chuck and found the adjustment screws for each jaw had the threads broken off. Was really disappointed in it. Like you said the material is too soft. I have not been able to find replacement screws.

I bought a less expensive Ebay no name collet chuck for about 200-250 about 5 to 8 years ago. Kinda the same as yours but it had the re centering screws. No problems with it. The insides were clean and the gears not bad. I do think that with the setup that these chucks have, you don't need to crank down on the key. After all its a fine thread on the end of the collet and not a scroll like on a 3 jaw.

The "oil" fitting is often used for grease. I would not lube this with oil, as it will get slung everywhere. You could try putting some lapping compound between the pinions and gear and using your drill to accelerate the process. You could alsso look at hardening the pinions and gear.

Bruce here,thanks for the video if I do have to take mine apart for maintenance I now have a good idea how to do it.

Remember the old saying you get what you pay for I have the same problem with my closer it helped me get a few jobs done before it started to fail so it was kinda worth it Looking for a new one

Thank you for doing this: I've had one sitting in a box for months that I keep telling myself I'll break down/clean up/fix, but honestly after seeing how bad it must be inside I'm not sure it's worth it. In the end I'm glad yours at least runs true, maybe you'll get another year or so out of it and make it worth the discount price.

You’d be amazed how long those garbage gears can hold up. If they are in fact cast (should be at least forged in a proper chuck) soft is better than hard. Soft will deform, hard castings are often brittle and teeth will just crack off. I have a 3-jaw that must be the cheapest steel/iron chuck ever made. Everything but the jaws is soft, and the jaws are only moderately hard. It came in a lot of stuff I bought and went onto a welding fixture 5+ years ago. I use a 3/8” battery impact gun to tighten i (no key) and have abused and neglected it in every way. Ive even used it to crimp some 2ga battery cable ends on. It’s like the gear teeth reached a point of “deformation equilibrium” and have pretty much remained that way since. I can’t imagine your chuck being any worse than this thing is. Could have years of crunchy, poorly meshed life left.

enjoyed, to split the chuck, when you pulled the bolts, re-insert but loose, now tap the bolts down to break the chuck apart, no pry needed….

It could be an interesting project to make a new ring gear and two pinions. Just a thought, I'd be interested in it

Disappointing video? You just revealed a very important thing there. I appreciate videos like this.

Well now i do not feel so had i'd forgotten to go hunt one these things down. Last big project i worked on in my hobby-basement it would have been a great accessory to have had & reduced the amount of time i spent turning the multiple identical pieces in the 3-Jaw.

Interesting nonetheless to see the corners that were cut to hit that price.

I've got the one with 3 pinions on my lathe and it's working okay, and I use it all the time. I'm not sure what the gears would look like if I opened it up, probably similar. Mine is 4 years old now and its my daily go to. The big concern with getting a Sjogren speed chuck is on the data sheet I saw it weighs 19 lbs, now I could be wrong about that, but if it does indeed weigh 19 lbs, that is way too much weight on the spindle bearings of a light lathe, and you have to double check your swing. It'd still be nice to get one, but it could be a very expensive mistake, potentially $1600 mistake. Mine is soft, I know that, I have to dress the nose eventually and that is going to be a future project. There are some small impressions from debris, but for what i'm doing at the moment it doesn't affect what I'm doing right now.

Looks like the pinion gears got deformed due to insufficient engagement with part of the ring gear, because the ring gear was machined out-of-plane. Bad luck! Had you gotten it apart soon after your took delivery, you might have convinced the seller to send a replacement. I seriously doubt the factory cares at all about the pinions and ring gear, and only pays attention to runout and the finish on visible surfaces.

I just subscribed James because I've done this work in the past and one can get a super accurate devise by remanufacturing it; made in USA far east finished in USA here.

I bought one of these chucks and took it apart. It seems like Bostar took your review to heart. I did the file test on the gears, and the key-side gears were definitely hardened; I could only barely clean up the burrs at the end. The big gear was also machined far more acceptably. The majority of the burrs on the inside chuck face were cleaned up. (they missed one, but it wasn't bad enough for me to clean it myself) I can't say if it's good or bad until I start measuring TIR on the lathe though. I hope my copy holds true as much as yours.

I have similar 5C Chinese chuck (almost identical). No big issues. It could be machined better but once I have a grinding setup I grind it to few tenths so runout is minimal (out of the box its more then a thou indicated runout). Had it apart, I do not have the needle bearing. I had collets in and out a lot, I spin the chuck with a drill so the actual gear must have moved few hundred times, maybe a 1000+ so the pinions have moved round maybe 10,000 times each. Main deal is not to use it too hard i.e. the pinion is not made of something super - if you man handle it you may deform the teeth. They are delicate. The whole thing has mechanism of a 5" chuck so I don't see why anyone would think its like "hard to kill". Overall for the price I paid new it was a great deal, highly recommended, great buy. Just don't expect miracles for the price. I suspect it will have long life in a home shop as long as its not abused. The scroll I do not think is cut at all, I think it is pressed or similar - there does not seem to be any tool marks. I paid $150 CAD (so like 120 USD), so far it works great. I expect long life.

When it dies, make a draw tube and pull your colletts with that.

A familiar story …. ‘I bought something very inexpensive relative to other brands / options, I took it apart and found it is made of inexpensive materials and with poor workmanship. It functions, though not as well as a version x.x times more expensive. I got what I paid for.’

I love cheap stuff like that collet chuck and no it's not because "it's just as good" because it simply isn't BUT it gives me something to tinker with and call me odd but servicing tools is one of my favorite hobbies and it's always so satisfying to feel the difference a soft wire wheel and some good moly grease makes for rough parts like this

I bought the same one from Amazon, I've had no issues so far. I've had it for 2 years now and have had no issues. Granted, it doesn't get a ton of use.

Well, we all know there is no substitute for quality and expecting a $150 collet chuck to be something we know it can't be, the problem is with us who purchase cheap ass crap to begin with. We all know the adage, "Buy once, Cry once". Yes, you could cut new gears/pinions for video content, but the collet material is just too soft to hope it's a long term tool. Always interesting, and a great learning experience from your vids.

Hey the fun part you did off camera and without a Timelapse. Breaking the restoration laws over here

Been thinking of buying a cheap 5C for a while. Just as a cheap alternative. But I think I'll stick to my good old Pratt Burnerd KC collets ☺️ despite being old, they still look and perform like new. As you said yourself, you get what you pay for. ☺️

If you decide to upgrade your best bet is the Little Machine Shop 5C collet chuck. I bought all of the eBay ones and they were all cheaply made and soft like yours. The LMS was the only one that had hardened bevel gears and body as well as the ground face the Collett rides on.

Making a new ring and pinion gears sounds like a great project. I’ve also got a Chinese 5C collet Chuck but mine has ground ring and pinions, it came used with my lathe, seems similar to yours but mine is a set through style. Looked at Stephan’s video and mine is more similar to his with forged hardened gears and the whole body is hardened.

Not a chuck, but I recently bought a #3 to #2 Morse taper sleeve from Canada's equivalent to Grizzly Tools. I found the inside taper was 4 thou. out of concentric. The supplier sent me a replacement right away which was 6 thou. out! I suggested that they check their stock as I suspect the entire batch was bad. They gave me a full refund and were very good to deal with.

I use my Milwaukee M12 impact to remove the tap cartridges from mainly kitchen taps (faucets). They can really be well seized and the brass easily rounds off even with a decent spanner. But a couple of ugger duggers and they are out. Fantastic Milwaukee tool again

Your lucky. Mine was not threaded right to accept the collet. Can’t return it so now I get to learn how to make a makeshift tap to recut the threads.

TIG braze some aluminum bronze onto the teeth and machine it down to spec. It'll work fine, but probably way more effort than it's worth. Might as well machine a new pinion from harder steel at that point. My experience was the same as everyone else's: dirty inside with grinding dust and other particles, but the gears were fine. And no you're not over-lubricating it. It's not possible to over grease a very slow gear set like that. If anything, you're wildly under-greasing it. A thick (NLGI #2 or thicker) molybdenum disulfide grease would be most appropriate for this.

Next video, "So I bought a smelting furnace." Great segue into casting new parts from 3D printed plugs. ;-)

Hi James, I'm watching this for the second time and thinking about the "grabiness" when closing the collets. I would suspect the threads on the outside of the collet. I have a set of them from China and the threads are rough. I went over and "fettled" them with a small triangular file. Especially where the 1/8" location groove crosses the threads. All sorts of raged edges there. Again a flat file in the groove and triangle I the threads made a huge difference. I never checked the internal thread in the chuck but it wouldn't (or shouldn't) hurt to stick a finger in and feel, carefully, for any jagged edges. If you find any it will probably mean tearing it apart again to fix. But what else do you have to do with your time. Regards from Canada's banana belt. 👍🇺🇲🕊️🇺🇦🍌🇨🇦🤞

I bough one of these too. Had to grind the collet taper to turn true and even after that the run out isn't great. While I was grinding it I took it appart and cleaned it like you did. But I"m also waiting for it to die and justify a better one !

I have one like this that's much worse, including what seems like bad collet threading. This does inspire me to tear it down, although I tremble at what I might find.

"well that's not ideal" - understatement of the century

I have the same one and i was able to get it apart and clean it, and stone it, lost of dust and burs where holes were drilled. i havent used it much since ive had it so its still pretty good so far

Interesting discovery and sadly not too surprising. Unhardened gears are a permanent problem, just poorly finished ones. I'm very sorry to see that. Nice work.

Thanks for the follow-up video. I'll still probably buy a cheap import but there are some that have 3 pinion gears so it may be one of them. I'll definitely open it up for a cleaning and deburring. It sounds like a great place for a moly based grease. I intend to get hex collets because several things I make for myself and friends require hex stock. It shouldn't take much pressure to hold hex materials securely.

You could always use some of the large piecs for spare material for future jobs.

It's clear that the ring gear's teeth are off center, either the core was placed off center when they made the mold or it was not correctly indexed when they poured it, either way it will never run true unless you go through the effort of trying to even up the teeth. At this point, as soft as those pinions appear to be, it is not going to last very long.

I don't know if you've also got one of those induction heater things... but this would have been a great project to harden and quench those gears with.

Just like you,I bought mine and was super impressed with the runout. The more I use it the less I am impressed. Mainly having to take the collet half way out for it to release my work. Maybe I'll try to clean mine up this weekend and keep hunting for a semi affordable collet closer

I’m glad my Monarch 10EE came with the factory collet chuck. One less thing to buy.

Hopefully this will extend the life of the chuck. I think the route to go down if you want a cheap collet chuck is ER series, I have a cheap ER40 chuck and collet set and it has been excellent. The simplicity of the design means it is much cheaper and easier to get a good product, you can even make your own if you are skilled enough. Less convenient for a shop trying to make money but ideal for hobbyists.

Yes, i feel that.

I would have used sooooooooooooooo much more grease than that so I laughed when you said I might be over lubricating it. Also I would have definitely oil quench hardened those parts.

The one I bought last year was bad too, full of shavings, grit and horrible grease, the main problem with it though was that 5C collets wouldn't actually fit in it, I had to strip it, grind the rear section with a toolpost grinder until it was a large enough bore (about 3 tenths) and then I had to lap the threads in the gear using grinding paste and sacrificial cheap 5C collet as about half of my collets wouldn't thread in. While it was apart I stoned off all the burrs and sharp edges and filled down the collet location pin as it protruded too far and some of my collets slots were not deep enough. When it was back together it took about 3 attempts to get it nice and 4 tenths of runout was the best I could get. I should have saved up for a real 5C chuck.

Good job 👍. I just bought a precision mathew er 40 collet chuck on ebay and I am very happy with the quality for the money

Not a disappointing video by any means. You may have been disappointed by what you found, but you did your best to prolong the life of the chuck. Not much more you could do, lets face it the cost of a "good" one of those chucks is pretty horrendous.

This material called "chinesium", and it's intended to bend and flow :D

Oh great... I ordered the same chuck same ebay vendor (CDCO tools) yesterday. Think I better take it apart as soon as it comes. Perhaps I'll shim the big gear for more tooth engagement.

Disappointment indeed. Thought you’d mill replacement pinion gears ⚙️ in the 11 minutes left of the video 😆 Wouldn’t want to deal with that soft metal either 👍🏻

Great content, love the channel. Bush the holes, make new ring and pinions, do another video. Booyah!

Love that you did this, jut a thought, why not try to make a chuck from scratch, and use this as a templet?

Your impact driver is sooo clean!

Well, you get what you pay for. This is why quality US tooling (or even Taiwan, Japan, Korea) is more expensive. The goal of offshore (PRC) manufacturers is lowest cost. What can they skip (precision, the right materials, and heat treatment) and still have a tool look good.

I sense a CNC project coming. One that ends with a diamond grinder in the spindle and about 1 million finish passes!