Potential chuck problems
john lucas
About 5 years ago or maybe 6 I bought a Grizzly copy of the vicmarc 100 chuck. I already owned 2 and wanted to see if the Grizz was any good at about half the price. Then in 2013 I bought a Chuck Plus copy of the Vicmarc. The Grizzly has had what I thought was a rough spot where it got kind of tight about halfway open for just a turn of the key and then went away. This has been going on for a while. the other day the Chucks plus started doing the same thing.
I took them apart for cleaning and inspection and found that the pinion gear was worn pretty badly on the fat end with no wear whatsoever on the narrow end. Interestingly both chucks had exactly the same wear marks and it seems to be getting worse. I took all 3 Vicmarc's apart and there doesn't seem to be any where whatsoever. The pinion gear almost looks new on them.
I'm going to write the companies and see if I can get replacement gears. It would seem a shame to throw the chucks away after another year or so of wear. So as of right now I would no longer recommend these chucks to anyone. Spend the extra money and get the real thing. It shows in the long run. One of my Vicmarcs is well over 12 years old and has a huge amount of use since it was my only chuck for a long time.
