Do you know where I can get a chuck with a 1/4" non-tapered post? Preferably a 3/8" (but any size is better than my current non-chuck-having arrangement).
"Do you know where I can get a chuck with a 1/4" non-tapered post? Preferably a 3/8" (but any size is better than my current non-chuck-having arrangement)."
You mean a 3/8" capacity drill chuck with a 1/4" diameter straight shank? No one as far as I knows sells a 1/4" shank, but I could Make one for you easily, email me.
What tool do you need a 1/4" shank for?
By the way dead electric drills, especially those of 50's era vintage, have good quality jacobs chucks that can be stripped and used for all sorts of projects. Usually there is a left hand screw inside the chuck, remove it, then insert an allen wrench short end into the chuck and tighten. Whack the long end with a large soft face hammer and it will spin right off the drill motor.
super_J, you can get a straight to Jacobs taper adapter. As an example go to www.mcmaster.com and search for 2811A15 If it doesn't take you to the catalog page for that part, click on the "catalog page" link. I see they aren't cheap, and I don't know if you can find them on Ebay. You certainly can find drill chucks cheap on Ebay, so you could buy the chuck on Ebay and the adapter from McMaster. They will definitely sell you anything you want, but you have to be very special to get their catalog. The web is usually better anyway.
On edit: I see the smallest shank is 1/2. I'm not sure you can go down to 1/4" Occasionally, I see the "precision" chucks that actually have a quill built in so you can advance the drill bit by hand. But those probably have at least a 3/8 shank.
Usually they (both straight shank chucks, and the sensitive feed adapter chucks) are 1/2", Albrecht makes one that has a 3/8" shank, but they are a bit expensive. The mills I sell have a 3/8" shank with 3/8"-24 thread (the common thread for threaded jacobs chucks) accessory available. But it's pretty easy to make a 1/4" shank for a thread mount chuck, for a taper mount it gets a little more difficult...getting that taper right is finicky turning...
Some morse taper to jacobs taper arbors have the morse taper section soft so they can be turned down...don't know about the 1/2" straight shank arbors - doubt that they are so hard that they couldn't be turned down with carbide bits.
This is the sort of thing I take for granted having a lathe - how I pity you latheless ones...
Those sensitive feed shanks are pretty slick, they are a non- (or rather free-)rotating collar with a spring loaded keyed sliding internal spindle so that you can feel when feeding tiny drills into work, that you would normally just destroy if feeding with the quill in a drill press or milling machine.
I'm effectively latheless because I took mine apart :( Dissassembly is the first step for a lot of makers, but I haven't outgrown it yet.
I should send you a circle of life pic of all my hammers. Wish I still had that little hammer/screwdriver combo tool from when I was a kid. I have the smallest ball peen hammer on up to a sledge.
Nick, I'm trying to get a small drill chuck with a 1/2" straight shank. How big are the shanks on the three smallest chucks in the picture above? Thanks
They are all 3/8", but you can get 1/2" straight shank arbors for any chuck. MSC has them, and you can find them with most other industrial suppliers. These are for taper mount chucks which can be more expensive.
If 3/8" will work, email me. I can hook you up with a used/cheap chuck and one of the 3/8" arbors I sell.
What accuracy and holding capacity are you looking at - and what's the application?