South Bend Lathe SB1370 1/2-Inch by JT33 Drill Chuck

SEE UPDATED REVIEWS BELOW - (top is review on first chuck I sent back, updates below tell rest of story).----After reading so many great reviews I waited eagerly for the South Bend chuck to arrive as an upgrade to my drill press -- South Bend is a name always associated with high quality and the box and chuck itself looked like a nice item --- but I regret the chuck fell short of my expectations, even at this price. The Chuck was rough and gritty in operation right out of the box, not smooth through its travel, catching and jamming and was actually much worse than the no-name chuck I took off - - I was very perturbed, and still am - I can see this happening with things from HF but expected more from South Bend - but, like so many things these days it is not made in America and its been sold down the river for higher profits margins. Unless you spend extravagant sums for US made goods youre forced to accept what passes for quality in offshore products. I blew it out with air, ran lube through it and worked it in for awhile until I got it to a semi-useable state. Its better, but still sticks and hangs up sometimes when opening or closing it to change sizes - Its working but every time it jams just reminds me how disappointed I am to get something like this from South Bend. I deserve a replacement but don't want to pay return shipping just to probably be disappointed again. I still want to love the chuck, looks like a nice piece of you get a "good one" but now we have to play the odds on quality and it just wasn't my turn I guess. Im 56 and remember when you went to buy American products many years back, you could pickany one of an item off the shelf and they would all be well made - we didn't know how good we had it. I do believe these are nice chucks if you beat the odds and get a good one, but how many times does it take-?--- 1st REVIEW UPDATE: After more than a week of trying to oil and make this chuck work right, ive given up--- its going back for a replacement in hopes of getting a "good" one. I really like the chuck and the south bend brand, but my example just isn't right - it works ok for a bit then when you least expect it the thing jams etc. - cant believe any product from South Bend is this bad, I did not believe the one reviewer who titled his review "Junk" but now I see the reason. Hopefully the replacement will arrive this year and will work.>>> 2nd REVIEW UPDATE: I just received the warranty replacement for my first defective chuck (thanks Amazon) and I have to say all SouthBend chucks are not created equal. This second chuck is what the first one should have been, like night and day -- it works perfect, action is smooth and run out is extremely minimal at the nose or on a drill bit, not even worth mentioning in this price range. Its no $125.00+ Jacobs, but if you get a "good" example its a (very) decent chuck for the price and it only costs a fraction of the High $$$ Jacobs and thats not practical for a low $ press like mine. Sketchy asian manufacturing quality is a sad reality today, so if ya get a bad one SEND IT BACK FOR A REPLACEMENT till you are satisfied - I did and im not happy about having to wait, but im very pleased I now have an accurate, nice operating SouthBend chuck on my drill press. Previously this was a two star review, now its five - partly for the chuck and partly for Amazon making the return so easy - All is good now and this one gets a thumbs up from me.

The chuck has a nice weight and feel to it, and the key is a monster (good for holding torque). It operates smoothly, feels like it has nice tolerances, and I like the grip pattern milled into the outer ring. The machining and metal looks great, but some dings on a couple of the edges make it appear that it got dropped at some point before being put into a box. This is just for a drill press, and one that has a wobble anyway, so I'm not overly concerned. In fact, the chuck is probably the nicest part of the drill now :)The chuck comes oiled and bagged in a little box with a yellow plastic tray that would be perfect for putting in a drawer for storage if you were using it on a lathe or mill and needed to switch between tooling often. My tray was cracked and broken, which is fine for how I'll be using it, but you may want to make sure that yours is intact because it would be perfect for storage.

this chuck is a J33 taper it fits my delta 11-990 bench top drill press very nicely, after looking on the net i found that the delta bench tops use a J33 taper. all you do to remove it was to strike the upper surface of the old chuck downward with a wooden dowel and hammer to loosen the old chuck (you tube is your friend) you may need to rotate and strike a couple of times to loosen it, clean off the taper and the inside mating surface of the chuck with mineral spirits to degrease both surfaces, turn the chuck jaws retracted fully into the chuck body, place a block of wood on the press table and force down on the wood with the chuck firmly, i did this twice. seated nicely and is quite a beefy chuck. not too expensive and was a nice fix to a very worn press.

I took a chance buying a drill chuck at this price point, and I'm glad I did.Mine arrived in good condition, but a little crunchy at first. After cleaning off the shipping grease with WD40 and exercising it a few times, it runs open and closed very smoothly.I mounted it to a MT3-33JT arbor in the headstock of my mini lathe to measure runout with a long carbide spotting drill chucked in.<0.001" TIR (about 7-8 tenths) on both the spotting drill shank and the nose of the chuck. It runs straight and true. The collar is visibly out of concentric a little bit, which is not a huge deal. I wasn't so sure about the claim, "Accurate enough for your mill or lathe." Especially without a specified runout guarantee. But now I've seen it for myself.Overall, highly recommended. It's easily equal or superior to many chucks at twice the price.

The delivery was alright but, the product is great stuff ! Never disappointed with anything from south bend even if it is made in china, the quality is wonderful! way better than the harbor freight chuck that came with my mill, it also fits the taper shaft that came with my mill which also is carried on amazon, I read the reviews and here's how to make sure the chuck stays on the shaft, I drilled and tapped a 10-24 hole in the shaft ( pilot hole is already there) and used a 5/16 washer and a #8 flat washer and a button machine screw ( 10-24 x 1/2) in the bottom of the chuck to make sure the chuck stays on the shaft after tapping chuck onto the shaft, make sure to use some lock tight on it too! Works great and I am very pleased!

I gave this chuck five stars because of the quality to price ratio. I put this chuck on an old, cheap, bench style drill press. The original chuck was not the best in the first place and had issues all along until it finally fell into pieces. This South Bend chuck, though cheap, seems to be a really good product for the price. It is a cheap chuck, make no mistake! It isn't going to be as accurate or durable as a two hundred dollar chuck. However for a cheap fix on a cheap piece of equipment, it is fantastic. Seems to be made rather well for the price and I would recommend it to a friend for a similar repair or replacement. It is serving my purposes well.