A Hex Drive Chuck

**rgsparber** · Apr 13, 2020, 08:02 AM

For light duty work, it is handy to be able to drop a drill chuck into an electric screwdriver. By repurposing a spare drill chuck plus machining a spare hex bit, I made the desired tool in just a few minutes.

If you are interested, please see

https://rick.sparber.org/HexDriveChuck.pdf

Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.

Thanks,

Rick

**mklotz** · Apr 13, 2020, 08:29 AM

I have two chucks of that style, coincidentally both set up as mondo pin vises. Also, somewhere along the line I picked up another chuck of that style that already had a 1/4" hex on the screw used to close the jaws (like what you made).

It occurred to me that that latter chuck could be used in my electric screwdriver but, so far, I haven't encountered a job where that would seem to make sense. I have a very large collection of 1/4" hex bits so maybe that's why I can't find a reason to use something that requires the chuck.

Could you please offer some examples of work you might do that requires a chuck in the screwdriver?

**rgsparber** · Apr 13, 2020, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by mklotz

I have two chucks of that style, coincidentally both set up as mondo pin vises. Also, somewhere along the line I picked up another chuck of that style that already had a 1/4" hex on the screw used to close the jaws (like what you made).

It occurred to me that that latter chuck could be used in my electric screwdriver but, so far, I haven't encountered a job where that would seem to make sense. I have a very large collection of 1/4" hex bits so maybe that's why I can't find a reason to use something that requires the chuck.

Could you please offer some examples of work you might do that requires a chuck in the screwdriver?

I have one major use - to drive my hand crank coffee burr when it is set for espresso.

Rick

**mklotz** · Apr 14, 2020, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by rgsparber

I have one major use - to drive my hand crank coffee burr when it is set for espresso.

Rick

Thanks for the response.

The high torque, low speed characteristics of the screwdriver have numerous applications. I've already used mine to drive a scissor auto jack...

Car jack speeder

but that could be done without the need for a chuck.

Some other possible uses for the chuck version...

Slowly rotate parts while spray painting them.
Wire twisting.
Rotate a fishing line drier. (Drying lines after use helps prevent rot.)

**rgsparber** · Apr 14, 2020, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by mklotz

Thanks for the response.

The high torque, low speed characteristics of the screwdriver have numerous applications. I've already used mine to drive a scissor auto jack...

Car jack speeder

but that could be done without the need for a chuck.

Some other possible uses for the chuck version...

Slowly rotate parts while spray painting them.
Wire twisting.
Rotate a fishing line drier. (Drying lines after use helps prevent rot.)

I've tried to use it to quickly open or close a C clamp but the cross bar would not cooperate. I need some way to force it to stay in the center while I spin it.

Rick

**mklotz** · Apr 15, 2020, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by rgsparber

I've tried to use it to quickly open or close a C clamp but the cross bar would not cooperate. I need some way to force it to stay in the center while I spin it.

Rick

I wonder if something like this would work...

Imagine a cylindrical metal disk attached to a 1/4" hex shank. At locations zero and 180 degrees this disk has pairs of rubber fingers pointing up perpendicular to the plane of the disk.

In use the rubber fingers slip over the C-clamp cross bar preventing it from sliding from side to side. The fingers are stiff enough to transmit the rotary motion of the screwdriver to the C-clamp screw.

On reflection, replace the disk and fingers with a hockey puck that has a diametrical V-groove to engage the cross bar and a central hole large enough to "swallow" the enlarged clamp screw end through which the cross bar passes. That would be simpler to fabricate and you seem to have a large supply of pucks.

**tonyfoale** · Apr 15, 2020, 03:12 AM

Rick,

Unless all your photos are flipped left to right, they show a LH thread. That would be wrong for a normal chuck spinning clockwise (from the driving end). So is there something special with this type of chuck that allows or maybe insists on a LH thread?

**rgsparber** · Apr 15, 2020, 04:06 AM

Originally Posted by tonyfoale

Rick,

Unless all your photos are flipped left to right, they show a LH thread. That would be wrong for a normal chuck spinning clockwise (from the driving end). So is there something special with this type of chuck that allows or maybe insists on a LH thread?

Tony,

No LH threads, just flipped pictures to make them fit better.

Rick

**tonyfoale** · Apr 15, 2020, 06:20 AM

Originally Posted by rgsparber

Tony,

No LH threads, just flipped pictures to make them fit better.

Rick

Rick,

If one pic was like it I would have just assumed that it was flipped and not asked, but as all the pix showed LH I wondered if there was some magic in those chucks. Anyway you have satisfied my curiousity as well as restored my belief in the correct order of the universe.

**thevillageinn** · Apr 20, 2020, 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by mklotz

Could you please offer some examples of work you might do that requires a chuck in the screwdriver?

When I worked at a museum we would cut the heads off various diameter pins and spin them in to different substrates to mount objects for display. Some more modern drill chucks didn’t close down small enough for the pins. I have a chuck like this which worked with drill or impact driver for the purpose.