A better mouse trap (or drill chuck)

Votes: 17
Views: 7747

My name is Troy McCurry.I was a Tool Designer for the Jacobs Manufacturing Co. from 1993 thru 1998. In 1998 Jacobs Manufacturing Co. moved all production off-shore. 300 American jobs left as well.I can only assume this was impacted by the cost of producing a drill chuck in the USA and competing with other companies manufacturing drill chucks off-shore.

Now ask yourself what if it was not that way?

Now we have the “Little Mac” style of Power drill chucks. This product is covered under patent # 6,637,756. From the commonality of parts to the compact styling and reliability features build into this chuck, you will find it to be a revolutionary concept design with 56 patented clams.

Simply put, I was able to reinvent the core internal parts and the jaw movement. These changes substantially improve the performance and reliability while reducing cost.

1.)Little Mac chuck jaws have no threads and can be thru hardened to around 58 R/c. This allows the jaws to have better grip torque and longer life.

2.)Little Mac can be disassembled to repair or replace incorrect or out-of-spec parts at initial assembly without scraping any good parts.

3.)Little Mac uses the same jaw in all three holes. This reduces the number of different parts required to build each chuck.

4.)The commonality of the internal parts for all chuck styles within the same family size makes tooling and manufacturing equipment cost dramatically less.

5.)Little Mac utilizes a patented mechanical locking feature at final assembly. This is not your standard press-together and hope it holds chuck.

6.)Little Mac’s patented assembly process creates a condition inside the chuck that eliminates jaw lock-up and makes for an extremely smooth operating mechanism. The manufacturing process of the chuck body helps to reduce drill bit run-out and increase the grip torque by drilling a complete jaw hole thru the body.

7.)The mechanical advantage utilized within Little Mac is an inline jack screw system that increases grip torque of the jaws to the drill bit by 80%.

8.)The chuck bearing is located in the rear of the Little Mac chuck. This moves it as far away from dirt and chips as possible. The commercial and professional versions of Little Mac have incorporated an o-ring seal and needle bearing. This helps spread out the load and increase grip torque. This is the only chuck that can make this clam.

9.)All the threads used in the Little Mac design are standard cut straight threads with no angled or interrupted cuts. They are a simple modification of a standard pitch thread that can be cut clockwise or counter-clockwise on any standard turning center.

10.)A complete line of 1/2” and 3/8” chucks are designed and stand ready for production. The Little Mac design can be scaled up or down to accommodate any size requirment.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Troy Mccurry
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    never
  • Troy's favorite design and analysis tools:
    PRO-E CAD DESIGN SYSTEM
  • For managing CAD data Troy's company uses:
    PTC Windchill
  • Troy's hobbies and activities:
    FISHING AND BOWLING
  • Troy belongs to these online communities:
    NONE
  • Troy is inspired by:
    My former place of employment went under while trying to fix a problem that their product has but they would not admite it was a problem. 300 american jobs were shiped over seas. The answer lied in turning loose of the old way of thinking and looking to new manufacturing processes that will allow new and creative solutions to old problems."IE" make a better much better mouse trap. Accept the problems your product has and find new fixes for them.
  • Hardware used for this entry:
    Dell notebook computer
    Software used for this entry:
    Pro-Engineer
  • Patent status:
    patented