I have a Pac-Bay Power Wrapper with the Deluxe chuck and I like it a lot except for one thing-the rod slipping out of the chuck or loosening when either powerwrapping or drying. I have tried various methods to prevent this (which actually is caused by the rod either not being level or having too much bend). I have tried using masking tape and electrical tape, using a hose clamps, etc. None of these adequately held the rod. One thing does work for me every time-EVA foam.
If I'm building a new rod, the absolutely last thing I put on is the butt-cap and I make sure that the butt of the blank is not obstructed by epoxy or anything else. I take a scrap piece of blank and cut it to a length of 10"-12". Make sure the piece of blank is tapered. On the "big" end of the scrap blank, I take a piece of EVA about an inch long, having a diameter smaller than that of the scrap blank and epoxy it to the end -(I find it easy to make several of these at a time using different size scrap blanks). Slip the narrow end of the scrap blank into the butt of the actual blank and make sure the fit is secure. Place the EVA into the chuck and tighten the chuck as much as you want. Whether power wrapping at high speed or just drying at a slow RPM, I have never had the chuck come loose even a millimeter.
For repairs or on rods that already have a butt cap attached, a larger diameter piece of EVA slid snugly over the outside of the grip will hold the same way. EVA is dirt cheap and comes in lot's of diameters. Try it and see if you don't have similar results. I would be curious to know your experiences with this method. David Spence, Cape Custom Rods, Beaufort, N.C.

or a large rubber band

I had to have mine replaced. The new 1 is much better ( so far).

Hey David: Have you tried rubber tourniquets? These work great. The 1 x 18 in can be cut down to the size you need and they are cheap.Hopes this helps.

I have the same problem. Bought the deluxe chuck at the expo two years ago. Was great for two months then started loosening and slipping. I tried various things. What has worked best is a combo of two things.

1 - I cut a piece of cork tape and taped the jaws of the chuck. So the cork tape touches the blank or butt cap/gimbal. This allows for compression.

2- I always wrap one or two rubber band around the blank or butt cap/gimbal before inserting it in the chuck.

Since doing the above two things I can count on one hand the times the chuck has slipped over the last two years.

Ditto the rubber band here. I save the ones from brocolli and/or asparagus from the grocery store and they seem to be the perfect size.

I also just finished 4 big trolling rods with aluminum gimbals. They were a nightmare for slipping loose because the gimbal was slick and tapered. The customer wanted gimbal covers anyway, so I ordered the RGB28s for gimbal covers and put them on...problem solved.

Matt Smith
Greensboro, NC

David,
I have had the same problem - both with the pac bay deluxe chuck as well as shureline, and taig conventional machinest chuck.
I think that the basic problem is the point of the jaws on the chuck. There is simply not enough area of the chuck to guarentee that the chuck will maintain contact.
It is not a problem with the adjustment of the jaws changing. I have marked the jaws and I have never seen an issue where, when once tightened, that the actual adjustment of the jaws changed. However, for certain rods - especially if there was significant taper on the section of the handle being held by the chuck - the handle would work loose over a long period of rotation.

I happened to have purchased some extra sets of jaws for some of my chucks and decided to do some experiments.
1. The first thing that I tried was to make each jaw face exactly 90 degrees with respect to the jaw itself. i.e. grind off any pointy section of the jaw. Of course, this does began to limit the item that you can chuck into the jaws. Since the jaws are now faced off at 90 degrees, the size of the item that you can chuck into the jaws will be determined by the width of the jaws, and where the edges of the jaws now interface or close with each other.

2. Further testing revealed a vast reduction in the amount of slippage on these jaws that had been faced off at 90 degrees.

3. On the next set of jaws, I used a 1 inch diameter sanding pulley driving a belt sander. i.e. the sanding belt and pulley allowed me to make precise inward depressions on each of the chucks. Since the chucks have to hold objects at 90 degrees, this grinding of the jaws took a bit of time, calipers to check and recheck the facing of the jaw face, to the jaw hold down screws. Then, after the jaws were finished, it took a bit more final grinding of the chuck faces to insure that there was 0 degreee runout in any object being held in the jaws. i.e. if the faces of each of the jaws weren't 100% uniform to the jaw hold down screw, any object would - wobble - or have runout - when tightened into the chuck.
I simply used a constant diameter pipe that was being held in the chuck to tweak the jaws to get 0 degrees of run out on the chuck.

Now, with each of the jaw faces undercut to a shallow depression, based on the 1 inch pulley on the sanding disk, virtually all parts of the jaw face contact the handle of the rod as it is clasped in the chucks jaws. Since the refacing of the aluminum jaws on each of the chucks, I have had 0 handles slip out of the chuck. This also includes handles having a very significant taper.

Note:
As a result of this change, I am now limited to holding handles in the chuck of about 3/4 inch or larger. If I have a plain blank or something smaller than 3/4 inch, I either have to build it up to 3/4 inch with masking tape, or use a different chuck.

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In previous attempts, with the stock chuck, I had used the narrow pointed chuck jaws - slippage. I had used the slightly less pointed jaws - slippage. I had used the pointed jaws, with the rubber faces from Pac Bay - slippage. I had used the stock jaws, with rubber bainds, masking tape, electrical tape - all had slippage. I had used the first model pac bay chuck with its stock jaws - slippage.

But, since changing the contour of the jaws, to the inward concave shape which allows virtually all of the face of the chuck jaw width contact the handle - no slippage.

If you don't have the grinding capabity yourself, you can take the chuck with its jaws to your neighborhood machinest and they can countour the jaws for you at a reasonable price, and also check the assembled jaws for runout and correct any errors in any runout that they may find. It may be well worth the effort.

Good luck
REW

p.s.
It would be nice if Pac Bay were to make such a set of jaws available on an accessory basis for their chuck to help out the builders having this problem.

I've used all the gizmo tricks. Rubber bands, tape, eva, etc.. and still had plenty of aggravation. Then I did the same as Craig F. and problem solved!

My only issue with the cork tape is permanent adhesion. The adhesive backing will not hold forever and if you fail to level
the rod after the cork pieces have been on a while they can slip too. Still, the cork tape is quick, easy, and it really works well!

I suppose gluing EVA pieces to the jaws would work too but it's not as hard as cork and adhesion issues would be more of a concern than
cork.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Raymond,
I also tried the cork tape on the jaws of the chuck. This certainly helped the problem but did not entirely eliminate the problem.
But by contouring the inside of the chucks jaws to match the contour of the rod handle, all of the problems have been solved. Also, there is no coating or finish on the inside of the contoured jaws. Since the shape of the jaws is the same as the shape of the handle, little pressure is required to hold the handle, and there are no marks left on the handle.

Take care
REW

Well Roger,

For me it did eliminate the issue completely as long as the cork stays affixed to the jaws.

What I found is that adding just about anything like eva, cork, etc. that gives the jaws something to compress down on instead of stopping against a hard object also allows the back compression on the adjusting wheel. This compression keeps the adjustment tight and the friction of the material on the jaws holds the rod from pulling out.

David's solution works well too. I used that method for a while but modifying the jaws themselves negates the need for the other gizmos.

Works for me and I'm surprised it doesn't work for you as well as is does for me and Craig but I'm glad you did find your solution.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Ray,
One of the reasons that I decided to try the "formed" jaws, was to minimize pressure on the handle. By forming the jaws to the shape of the handle, much less pressure is required to hold the handle securely, and thus lessen the chance for any marks on the handle.

I also had an issue with the cork always slipping off of the jaws and decided that I would rather not mess with it any more if there was a better way.

Take care
Roger

David
I had the same problem with my Aps wrapper ,tried the rubber band solution & it extended the time it took for the blank to work itself out . The next thing I tried was to make sure that the center line of the blank was the same as the center line of the wrapper , to accomplish this I used a laser level . This and the rubber band have solved all my problems . When setting the rod up for the first time I now take a lot of care getting the centers of the blank & wrapper in line


Hope this helps

Baz

No offense, but I was sharing what has worked for me, not looking for advice-but I certainly enjoyed reading everyone's ow solutions. I'm gonna try the rubber band just to see how it works but I'm still happy with the EVA on my wrapper. Thanks all!