# Rusted 5/8 inch drill chuck



## holtzdreher (Jul 20, 2016)

When my house and shop burned 6 years ago, one corner of the shop was unburned but had collapsed due to the weight of the structure above it. Everything in that corner had been soaked by the fire hoses and laid that way for a month or two until I got around to tearing apart the old wall and picking things up. I spayed the stuff with oil and stored it in the barn. Well I finally got around to sorting through the crates of stuff. There is this 5/8 inch drill chuck on a MT2 taper that I would like to salvage for use with my wood lathe. I soaked it in Kerosene, then light weight machine oil and I still can't get it to budge with the key. I was able to get the 1/2 inch chuck to free up with just soaking it. I don't need it bad enough to buy another, but I would like to salvage it if I can. Any tips? or tricks? I tried using a piece of wood and tapping the three "pincers" in ward. It looked like they budged enough that a very slight crack opened between them and the shell.


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Assuming you have all the kerosene and oil out have you tried heat? Not scorching red hot but enough to make the outer ring expand slightly. Maybe doing that a few times with tapping on it will break it loose.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

Blow all the oil out with brake cleaner then soak it in a mild acid like white vinegar or Evaporust, rather than oil which won't dissolve the rust inside the chuck housing. Leave it soak a few days. Then blow some PB Blaster inside it and let that soak overnight. If that process doesn't free it up, apply some propane torch heat to it and tap it with some sharp hammer blows to loosen it. Using the chuck key with a proper fit, tap the handle lightly to see if that works. Put an adjustable wood Jorgensen clamp on the key to retain it.
It's a 3 step process, chemical, thermal and physical. If none of that works, you end up with a great paper weight.


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## Biotec (Mar 14, 2021)

My first step would to be remove all oils. Note been down this road before. On a Jacob drill press chuck about 50 years old. It had gotten wet while sitting in storage also. It had been sprayed with some sort of oils I was lazy and use gasoline and blown dry. There maybe better ways to do this with a non water based solvent. Then put in a quart container with enough of evpo rust to covert. Let set and mix once in a while then use a small fish tank pump that could handle being in the evpo rust without any defects circulating the fluid around the part. It came mostly black but did cleanup. A little wiggling with the chuck key once in a while while in the solution eventually started to turn freely. Job done. About a week.
Have fun.


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## Dave McCann (Jun 21, 2020)

What kind of arbor does the chuck have? You might consider just replacing the chuck.

1/8" - 5/8" Drill Chuck with Chuck Key & MT2-B18 Arbor Heavy Duty - - Amazon.com

Of course one can always spend more.
Chum Power 1/8"-5/8" Special Heavy Duty Keyless Drill Chuck, JT33 Mount, Titanium Jaws - - Amazon.com 

Arbor choices are quite extensive; JT33, JT6, threaded mount, etc. or any of these converted to Morse taper 2 or Morse taper 3.


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