Hello All,
It seems I have a bit of a problem with my General 75-200 drill press. When drilling relatively large holes (particularly half inch or larger with brad point or forstner/symptoms bits) and sometimes even fairly small holes (mostly in hard wood like beech and hard maple), the chuck has a tendency to drop off the spindle/shaft. It has done this virtually since the day I bought the drill press. Other symptoms include a loud squealing noise just before the chuck stops turning. If I back off quickly enough the noise will stop and the bit will continue drilling with light pressure, but eventually it sticks again (usually quite soon after) and most of the time drops off the spindle despite feeling quite snug when first installed.
I have tried thoroughly cleaning off the spindle and the inside of the chuck to ensure no dust or grease/oil, etc. is interfering with having the chuck seat properly on the spindle but this doesn’t seem to help. I have noticed that with time, a shinier ring roughly 1/32 of an inch or so wide has appeared around the spindle indicating some very slight wear, I believe. Is my chuck or spindle “toast” and in need of replacement, or is there something I can do to resolve this problem without resorting to parts replacement.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated as I am in the middle of building my “dream” workbench and was just about to start drilling all the bench dog holes in the top when this problem became worse (so now I’m stuck for the time being unless I can come up with a way of drilling these holes very accurately by hand…not a likely prospect).
Thanks very much in advance!!
Dru Dron
Replies
Dru, there's tons of advice on drillpress chucks Just check the archives in the lower left hand corner. Type in chuck problem/ drillpress worries, etc etc. Steinmetz I remember posting a few replies in that hread.
I used to have that problem with an old floor model drill press I had. The chuck would fall out of the morse taper. I cured the problem by lowering and tying the spindle down so I could get at it with a hand held electric drill. I drilled a hole and taped some threads then screwed in a bolt. Of course, the chuck could not then be removed but that didn't bother me one bit. After many years of using it like that, I sold it and bought a bench top model.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
OK I'll get in trouble in here AGAIN!..
I would clean out everything the best I could in the mating parts...
Go to a automotive store and get some valve lapping compound..
Make a fixture to hold your chuck to keep it from turning. DO NOT HOLD IN YOUR HAND unless lapping by hand. OH, and be sure your chuck is 90 degrees to the quill (Well, I call it the quill). I would put a large drill into your chuck. Drill down into a HEAVY block of hardwood. (This is to keep the chuck at 90 degrees) or whatever you have now..
Put some pins on the chuck key holes (good fitting ones)and make some blocks (drilled out to trap the pins) and screw down to the main block. Clamp the whole thing down somehow. MAKE sure the pins cannot fly out!
YOU DO NOT want a spinning chuck flying at you!
YOU DO NOT want a spinning chuck flying at you!
I would suggest lapping by hand. As in remove the belt and turning the quill by hand.. (However, I would cheat and use the lowest speed..)
DO NOT crank down on it.. Nice and easy.. Clean out with a solvent and do it again..Clean out with a solvent and do it again..Clean out with a solvent and do it again.. Get the picture?
You may want to get some machinist bluing also to check the fit..
If you lap off of 90 degrees you will get a perfect fit off of 90 degrees.
Just me and BE CAREFUL!
Yes Will you are in trouble-for re-answering the question, which for some reason has been duplicated-see my post #25948.3.
We are on the same wave length, except that 90* is not an issue in practice-the taper takes care of that. If the taper has been bored out of true (highly unlikely) then no amount of lapping is going to sort it.
You may notice that I said to stop when the shine has gone and most of the taper is "grey"-that is because if taken to extremes the spindle can bottom out and then it will never be tight.
This whole process should take about 20 minutes, including head scratching .Philip Marcou
Yes, there's a ton of info, but this post is the best I've seen on the subject (thanks, Trialnut):
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=25519.5
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Another option is to clean it off real well then smear some JBWeld on it and sock it back in and wait 24 hrs.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
Dru,
I solved my falling chuck problem by heating it on electric iron to expand it. Quickly put it on the shaft and press it down. When my chuck cools it contracts and doesnt fall off.
Stevo
I've periodicly had that problem. The last time it occured retracted the jaws into the chuck and knocked the crap out of it with a dead blow hammer to seat it. Personally if I continued to have the problem I would glue it on with JB weld. But that is probably the redneck in me.
Mike
DruRon -
A machinest once told me to use chalk on my lathe taper (Morse#2) to get a better friction fit. Seemed to work pretty well.
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