removing cordless drill chucks

[darryl]

This just an offhand question- how do I remove the chucks on these Dewalt cordless drills? There seems to be a screw of some kind keeping the chucks from unscrewing- a fairly common thing. Are these allen heads? I can't seem to fit a torx into them, and they're not phillips. Anybody know from experience? They almost look to be security screws, but I can't see it well enough.

[MattiJ]

I think I have seen everything from flat blade and phillips head to torx.

Note: it is LEFT HANDED screw
Note2: At least Makita tightens the chuck itself insanely tight and uses "permanent" thread lock. Last two makitas I ended up chopping the chuck to pieces with angle grinder.

[Black Forest]

I have never seen a drill chuck with a cord coming off it. Do you have a picture of one?

[Richard P Wilson]

OK, he could have said 'removing chuck from cordless drill' but then you would probably have said that you've never seen a drill bit with a cord----

[Beazld]

I think I have seen everything from flat blade and phillips head to torx.

Note: it is LEFT HANDED screw
Note2: At least Makita tightens the chuck itself insanely tight and uses "permanent" thread lock. Last two makitas I ended up chopping the chuck to pieces with angle grinder.

The screws in the chucks are LEFT HANDED threads, the threads on the drill are right handed.
here’s a quick link

https://youtu.be/-JdA1ZoNr5s

[darryl]

I've never seen a drill chuck with a cord either. But I did find an led light that I could get down inside the chuck to better see what's going on down in there.

I got these half dozen drills from a neighbor- he was throwing them away. Because I find chucks useful in the shop as holders for small taps, various deburring tools, etc, I thought I'd try to save them. The first one I looked at, well the screw head is stripped. No wonder I couldn't find a tool to remove it. I checked a few of the others- it is a torx after all. Two of them are stripped, and it looks like someone has tried drilling them out. I put a file to one screw I did get out, and I can file it, so I'll try drilling the other ones out too.

If I ever do find a corded cordless drill I'll post a picture. Come to think of it, I do have one. I thought I'd try to wire one up so it could be used without a battery. It works, but since these are high amperage, low voltage things, the power supply has to be up to the challenge, and the wire has to be thick. Keeping the wire flexible, but of a suitable gauge required me to make up the wires myself, and keep them short. For the power supply, the transformer is not a big deal, but you need a pretty solid capacitor to smooth the output and the rectifiers must be very high current devices- even a 35 amp bridge rectifier will lose more voltage than I'd like. Overall not a very good solution.

Something else I've found about cordless drills- even after lots of use and abuse, the motors are usually fine. The gears usually are too, but the engagement mechanisms for multiple speeds seems to screw up. My neighbor must be smarter than me- he threw these out-

[mattthemuppet]

a left hand drill bit would work wonders for getting those out, but MattiJ is right, they use a serious threadlocker on them too. Heat will release the threadlocker but by that point you've probably screwed up the chuck as well..

[old mart]

Once the central screw is either unscrewed or the head drilled off, a hex key near or equal to the chuck capacity should be tighened in the chuck, the gearbox set to low speed if possible and a quick tap with a mallet will unscrew the right hand threaded chuck. If the screw head is drilled off, it can be removed easily when the chuck is off. If you cannot get a replacement, don't worry, the screw is only there for when you run in reverse. I used to have some Dewalt 12V cordless drills and when one of the NiCad batteries failed, I removed the cells and connected 12 feet of cable with crocodile clips to use a drill corded when working on the car. The torch and flourescent light also worked with the cord.

[Baz]

Sometimes you can identify the head on a deeply recessed screw by putting some Plasticine on a stick to get an impression of the hole.

[BCRider]

a left hand drill bit would work wonders for getting those out, but MattiJ is right, they use a serious threadlocker on them too. Heat will release the threadlocker but by that point you've probably screwed up the chuck as well..

A regular right hand drill would work since the screws are left handed. The head will either disappear or the drill will bite in and unscrew the screw... No?



As for the thread locker.... If you're simply after the chuck and the drill guts don't matter you could take the drill apart down to where it's just the chuck and the last output shaft. Then heat the shaft with a torch and by connection the metal core of the chuck. Generally the thread lockers will ease off at a bit over the boiling point of water. And even plastic noses on the chucks should be fine with that much heat if kept away from the flame region.

I'd have the nice big as will fit L style allen key already in the jaws and tight for this so you're ready to give'er a rap and unscrew it while hot.

[oxford]

Note2: At least Makita tightens the chuck itself insanely tight and uses "permanent" thread lock. Last two makitas I ended up chopping the chuck to pieces with angle grinder.

Ive had to cut one off a Makita with the grinder as well.

I also had to cut one off a Milwaukee m18 at work. On a side note Milwaukee now uses a non standard 9/16-18 thread on their drills and there is very limited options for replacements out there. It’s either get another one from them(which I thought was junk from day one) or Rohm has one. The Rohm seems to be doing well and is an upgrade over the factory one.

[darryl]

While cleaning up in the electronics room I discovered the remaining materials I was using to make the wires. I think I'll make up one last set and pick one of the best remaining cordless drills and do as old mart suggested- make it a 12v portable. As for these ones I'll get the rest of the chucks off and keep them.

[mattthemuppet]

A regular right hand drill would work since the screws are left handed. The head will either disappear or the drill will bite in and unscrew the screw... No?

you're right, got my wires crossed - LH drills are for RH screws

[Willy]

Another option to power these old cordless drills is to make up a battery pack using some 18650 cells into the required voltage.
Make up a short cord with an automotive 2-pin polarized quick disconnect between the battery pack and the drill. Not really completely cordless anymore but you can keep the battery pack in a pocket so it would still be potable.

[darryl]

That's the system I had planned. I wanted to keep 3 or 4 drills active so I could have a pilot bit, chamfer bit, one more size drill bit, and a driver bit ready to use. The drills would nest into the battery box, which would have the power supply and ac cord with it. Plug it in when you can, and make it a good sized battery so you can work all day.