Jacobs No 34 chuck

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I recently purchased a No 34 Jacobs chuck from large commercial seller. I was somewhat disappointed by the chuck, very poorly finished, compared to some of my old Jacobs chucks. Run out was good, but I was so disappointed that I returned the chuck for a refund.

I can't imagine that the respected seller was pushing fakes. So have Jacobs started sourcing from the Far East and I just got a bad one?

Andrew.

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Jacobs are buying from the Far East, nearly every large engineering company seems to be going that way.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

I think Jacobs may have gone the way of many others, they offer their expensive top of the line quality gear at top prices, and also offer lower priced fare of lesser quality. The latter most likely sourced from China or surrounds. Their good ones seem to be branded as their "industrial grade" and cost 80 Quid and more. They seem to have others for 20 Quid or so.It might be a case of you get what you pay for, regardless of the name stamped on it.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Relevant addresses, and a declaration of the ‘’Quality Policy’ on this page: **LINK**

http://www.jacobschuck.com/about/

MichaelG.

[peak4Participant @peak4]

I did a factory tour back in 2008

See also from "28 days Later".
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/millhouses-engine-sheds-jacobs-manufacturing-sheffield-south-yorks-april-2013-september-2015.122672/

Bill

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I paid about £50 for the chuck, so somewhere in between the £20 and £80. So which quality did I get!!!!!!

Andrew.

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

The quoted quality policy refers to catering for specific requirements. The 34 series is of long standing and is listed as a heavy-duty industrial chuck, ie not one intended for hand-held tools. As such I would have expected it to be of very good quality.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

One would like to assume : **LINK**

http://www.jacobschuck.com/plain-bearing-keyed/17.html

BUT

MichaelG.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I recently took a chance and bought a 5-20mm keyed chuck with an R8 arbor to use it on for £36.50 from RDG. The finish and runout are excellent for a cheap chuck. There is no indication on the box as to whether it is of Indian or Chinese origin.

There have beed adverse comments on the quality of current Jacobs branded chucks on the forums in the USA, also.

Edited By old mart on 24/02/2023 15:44:01

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Jacobs 34

This says made in China, there is no reason that China cannot meet the Jacobs quality but maybe Jacobs don’t pay enough or specify tightly enough. It looks like the made in China is on the box and not on the chuck so once the box has gone it’s just a Jacobs chuck

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 24/02/2023 16:54:56

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Jacobs hasn't existed as a real firm for some time.

They were bought by one of the tooling conglomerates whose policy is to use the reputation of purchased brand name to charge high prices for, at best, barely adequate for the market products sourced from low bid Far Easter suppliers. Especially at the retail end most purchasers won't understand the difference between properly engineered lasting quality and something that will, probably, work for a while. Most folk inn the target market won't be set up to properly inspect and test a chuck beyond basic concentricity, and how many even do that. The cost of refunds and returns is cynically built into the business model. It's a lot. I'd guess around 30% is allowed for.

Generally the difference between low bid suppliers and proper, high engineering quality ones is in allowable tolerances and quality control. Low bid works to wider tolerances and much loss QC inspection rates. Unlike the real cheap end of the market things are made from OK materials on decent machinery so the probability of producing at least acceptable goods is high. Mix'n match of wider tolerance band components means at least some will be good enough to help support the brand reputation.

Has to be remembered that large firms are purely finance driven. It's interesting to examine the company and plant buying and selling machinations of VW Group. Thats where they make their money. Car production is basically an add on that makes the finance stuff possible!

Once an engineering based company is run for the finance it's basically dead. May take a long time to die. General motors has taken half a century but its now entered its dead spiral as part of Stellantis.

Even a cursory examination of the de-industrialisation of Britain shows that it's been driven by our finance plays. Whether the steady company consumption of GEC under Weinstock followed by its spectacular final implosion attempting to become a "fibre telecoms" company. The cynical Staverly acquisition of most of Britains machine tool companies. Or the many lower level failures and sell off of lesser names. Such as Jewett, Napier et countless al. The machinations of the finance heavy board of Westland Aircraft during the run num to WW2 are sobering.

Out of curiosity a friend recently dismantled a Bosch battery drill and it's apparently identical, except for the colours, low end (LiDL?) counterpart. Identical right down to the control printed circuit, components and all visible part numbers. Including the motor. Quoth he "£100 is a lot to pay for a different batch and colour scheme."

Clive

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

I have a Jacob's 5/8"capacity chuck, from new many years ago.Seems OK for my use. More recently, purchased second hand £4 @a club rummage sale, an almost identical chuck, stamped "CVA". Just had to have it in memory of my Father who worked in their Portland Road, Hove factory during the war. Its actually better than the Jacob's since it will hold much smaller drills, down to no.51, if I recall. I use it on the Sharp mill in vertical mode and the Jacob's on the Myford tailstock. Chuck keys not interchangeable. CVA and their filthy smelly factory all long gone, replaced by smart clean EDF offices. If you find a CVA chuck, suggest you acquire it.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Don’t know what vintage this is: I picked it up at the Flea Market, today

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Made in Italy … by whom, I wonder ?

MichaelG.

[egaParticipant @ega]

MichaelG:

You remind me of my expensive walking boots "Engineered in Italy" but actually "Made in Romania"!

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I would guess that it was made by Porta. They are (were?) a very respected manufacturer of drill chucks. I have one and it is every bit as good as my older Jacob's chucks. They were still in business up to a couple of years ago. But who knows if they still are.

Andrew.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for that, Andrew

… I haven’t even taken it out of the cellophane yet, but it certainly looks the part.

MichaelG.

[Bdog507Participant @bdog507]

Good afternoon all.

Clive's point about old names being bought & cheapened happens all the time unfortunately.

My brother has moved some distance away & can no longer bring his motorbikes into my workshop to work on them. So he's in the process of buying a lot of hand tools. I pointed out King Dick as a good make of professional grade spanners & sockets. Until recently they were made in Birmingham. He rang the new owners of the name & they said that current stock is UK made, but in future new stock will come from the far east. So that's more British manufacturing down the pan.

If you have an old but good Jacob's chuck look after it. I have a couple of 2 morse chucks that came in a box of odds & sods that I acquired. They were both stuck solid, but after a good soaking they freed up, & they both work pretty well. I use them to save wear & tear on my Albrecht chucks. Albrecht chucks are excellent, but eye wateringly expensive.

Cheers.

Stewart.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, looks like Porta are still in business Porta

Regards Nick.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

That will do nicely for me, Nick

MichaelG.

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

I bought a 16mm keyless chuck with a 2MT that was advertised for £15 and looked the same in the photographs as those being sold at up to three times the price. Obviously, I knew it was Chinese but since it arrived and has been fitted to a Union pillar drill that I have tidied up, having found the machine on a scrapheap, I can't fault it. It grips well, runs true and look well finished. Well OK, a pillar drill isn't really any sort of precision machine so maybe its well suited to a cheap chuck but I have others of a similar type and appearance that seem to work equally well in my lathes so I am quite happy to have some 'cheap Chinese junk' at my disposal, except that it doesn't appear to be 'junk'.

[derek hall 1Participant @derekhall1]

At the risk of straying slightly off topic I fully agree with Clives comments on the 24th Feb above.

I work for a UK company that was swallowed up by one of the faceless US corporations called Danaher. They were the corporation that purchased Jacobs, this corporation own lots of companies such as Fluke and Leica for example.

Since being taken over some years ago, the quality and reliability of my company's products has deteriorated drastically, whilst the product is still being made in the UK there is a mirror factory in China and it will not be long before it all goes out to China.

Dollar is Danaher's god, they look to shave anything off a product to save costs and charge more, but they are not the only ones….

[PeteParticipant @pete41194]

While Jacobs may and probably did have chucks made to there specifications outside the U.S. (that made in Italy chuck) The bulk of there current chuck production is afaik now based in China and has been for well over 10 years. I pay close attention to what the professional machinists have to say about anything on that Practical Machinist forum.And I honestly can't recall anything good said from the time Jacobs stopped producing the U.S. made chucks and right up to today. And it wasn't just China bashing, there comments are all about poor quality, poor run out with some chucks, and the still very high prices Jacobs is expecting for a now vastly inferior product. They have also changed the design of the various models of chucks enough that even the chuck rebuild kits they sell today will no longer fit the U.S. made chucks. Jacobs seems to be trying to exist on there once good reputation to justify how there still pricing there products. Because of that, I very much suspect there sales are now a shadow of what they once were.

And fwiw, Rohm as good as there reputation is, appears to have at least 3 tiers to there corporate branded chucks that I've seen in reputable tool dealers. The cheapest show very low quality as well as really poorly done and indistinct roll stamping of that Rohm brand and any lettering on the chuck body. They even feel like low quality and full of grit just opening and closing them by hand. Without question, there quite obviously produced somewhere other than Germany. A second and much better done mid priced range that's at least somewhat ok for the one example of there keyed chuck I have. And a third premium level priced right up there with the likes of Albrecht. So buying any Rohm branded chuck will have a lot to do with what your willing to spend and the brand name on it doesn't necessarily mean it's always going to be of the highest quality.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Pete on 13/03/2023 04:01:12:

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[…] the brand name on it doesn't necessarily mean it's always going to be of the highest quality.

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Good summary of the world we live in

MichaelG.

[Author]

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