Flexshaft Handpiece Jaws Misaligned

Hey everyone,

One of my staff was using a parallel split mandrel in a #30 handpiece today. As has happened once before, the split mandrel had become slightly out of round, started running a bit wobbly, and then centrifugal force forced it to bend enarly 90 degrees at the shank. No big issue, we all wear safety glasses and are cautious when using split mandrels now that we know that’s a possibility.

The issue is that the force of the mandrel bending appears to have damaged the handpiece. The chuck jaws are now out of alignment and I don’t know the best way forward in fixing this issue. Of course ordering a new one would be ideal, but I’m located a bit far from any shop, so fixing is preferable.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I think something is broken.
I would have to completely disassemble my handpiece to confirm this, but I cannot see any way to get one of the jaws to do that.

About a week ago Janetb posted about a handpiece repair service.
I saved the link to their site:

You might try contacting them with your question.

Keep us posted. I have used si.ilar handpieces for 40+ years, and worm out several, but I have never seen one ( even on larger electric drills which have similar jaws) do anything like that!

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Thanks for the link, i’ll give them a shout and see what they say. Appreciate it!

My initial reaction to seeing that would be to completely open the jaws, dip it in the ultrasonic for a bit to ensure there aren’t any bits of metal clogging up the works, and then seeing if they close back up.
If they don’t, then there’s a good chance that the jaws got forced to skip teeth, and I don’t personally know of a way to remedy that. The handpiece repair place linked earlier seems like they would probably be the best to reach out to if that’s the case.

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Yeah I’m thinking the jaws have skipped teeth as well. When i turn the chuck with they key it definitely feels a bit “clankier” than it should so i’m sure something was damaged inside when the spit mandrel decided to go wild.

Thanks for the input!

Hi,

Have you tried taking it apart? to have a look see?
I believe the body unscrews…keep track of what comes out, in what order…

I think I once had a broken/ cracked thingy in mine…

perhaps others can add to this idea…

Julie

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