Cannot find replacement drill press chuck key after move...can you?

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Viperfixr

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Okay, every military move seems to involve losing hard to replace things and this move was no different. I duct taped the chuck key to the drill press, and it (of course) was missing on this end. I've been to Lowe's and bought the 1/2" chuck key and the 3/8" chuck key, neither worked. Craftsman wants $17 for a darned "0V8A" chuck key, and I am pretty sure I can get a new one from McMaster for less. If only I could find *the* right chuck key size. I've been up and down Google's search results for the "JT33" chuck and using the press model number.[FONT=Open Sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] That doesn't equate to a chuck key size that I can find. Please help.

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The problem is "Craftsman". In my many military and post military moves, I have discovered the little things like chuck keys are proprietary. If I recall, the last time I looked for one, the offerings on the open market had the axial pin too small. Had to go to Sears to get the right one. You might also check ebay......
 
JT33 isn't the part number. Its the designation of the taper that the arbor fits into.

Unfortunately Steve's advice to take it off and visit ACE or HD is about the best you're going to get.
 
For what it's worth, I have that same Craftsman drill press. Right along side it is a Harbor Freight model (Central Machinery) 8" bench top
drill press. They both use the same key, and I can use either or in both presses.

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The silver lining to this cloud is that you'll find the lost key about 24 hours after you get a replacement. The only way to find it faster is accusing someone of stealing it. It you opt for that approach, it's usually 5-10 minutes till you remember where you put it.

Paul B.
 
The silver lining to this cloud is that you'll find the lost key about 24 hours after you get a replacement. The only way to find it faster is accusing someone of stealing it. It you opt for that approach, it's usually 5-10 minutes till you remember where you put it.

Paul B.

Truer words have never been spoken. LOL!
 
The silver lining to this cloud is that you'll find the lost key about 24 hours after you get a replacement. The only way to find it faster is accusing someone of stealing it. It you opt for that approach, it's usually 5-10 minutes till you remember where you put it.

Paul B.

That's exactly what I am afraid of! Usually 'missing' move things like this mysteriously reappear, even if years and moves later. Sadly I guess I'll pay Craftsman their $15 for a $1 piece of metal.
 
Hey Mark, I had the exact thing happen when my sister helped me move. I keep my chuck key on a piece of surgical tubing attached to the post clamp knob of the press so I don't lose it, and so I don't accidentally hit the start button with it still in the chuck (ask me how I learned about that..) Sis carefully removed it and packed it in that “special” place. When I looked around and saw the ridiculous price of just the key, and saw my chuck had worn jaws, I opted to get the whole thing, like this - https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-6JT-He...Key-Keyed-6JT-2MT-Arbor-MT2-JT6-/112405387507

It was just a bit (no pun intended) $ more, and I got a better tracking chuck.

Hang in there!

Paul B.
 
Sadly I guess I'll pay Craftsman their $15 for a $1 piece of metal.

Do you see how many teeth and angles that $1 piece of metal has? Somebody had to babysit a CNC mill for a couple of hours. Somebody else had to design a proprietary chuck out of that hunk of metal with a bunch of math to make your life harder when you lose it so you'll come back to "Craftsman" only, and someone else had to mine the iron ore out of the Earth. Then someone else had to process the ore in a steel mill. Someone else had to mine the coal used to provide the heat and energy to the steel mill. Someone else had to heat treat the piece of steel so it's harder and lasts longer. Then someone else had to keep an inventory of the material and add markup to that $1 piece of steel. Then someone had to rip the factory off with a fancy broaching tool at $30,000 a broach to cut that $1 piece of steel faster.

That piece of metal doesn't mine, smelt, math, and machine itself. I'm talking about a mechanical component, an engineered product bud. Plus Craftsman knows you only need one! LOL. Dollar piece of metal. Hundreds in labor to get there from nothing.
 
I duct taped the chuck key to the press like Han Solo in carbonite--didn't matter. They also lost the height adjustment lever, and that was screwed on. My Weber Smokey Mountain smoker is missing the bottom half. Where did it go? Who knows. If crap ain't nailed down, it will get lost in a military move. Why are military moves reportedly the worst? Simple...lowest bidder. And, when it comes to claim time, you usually get screwed on value. Rant mode off...

I bought a new chuck key and the height lever directly from Craftsman. Done. I may hand-carry the dumb thing next (and hopefully last military) move.
 
Dollar piece of metal. Hundreds in labor to get there from nothing.
Ummm, if that were true then the retail price would be (hundreds of dollars plus one dollar plus overhead including transportation) multiplied by the profit percentage mark-up.

CNC machine taking 2 hours to do that? Prototyping or ultra-high standard like military-spec, maybe, but would cost a heck of a lot more than that. For mass production, a company wants to spit those things out by the hundreds if not thousands per day, as fast as a piece can be produced by machinery.

I wonder if there's a "How it's Made" episode that shows a chuck key being made? Seen things like pliers being made which seemed to go from steel ingot (or whatever), through various machinery steps in a total time of perhaps less than one minute total time being worked on by the machines (it might take many minutes to go in one end and out the other, I'm talking about the actual moments it's being worked on and not the time moving its way in-between those moments, also not counting cooling times or heating times or drying times as those tend to be done totally automatically while on conveyors running at the desired speed along some specified distance).
 
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