Better Drill Chuck for My Lathe

A while back I picked up an import 1440 lathe, and over all I have been pretty happy with it. I wasn't 100% on the 4 jaw that came with it so the vendor offered me a below market price new old stock Bison to replace it, and also gave me enough trade in on the stock 4 jaw to be worth shipping it back to him. I damaged an oil port and he sent me a bag of them. The cam that locks the tail stock to the bed had roll a pin in it that was a little to short, and I replaced it with a longer one. My plan has been to replace that with a solid tapered pin, but the longer roll pin has been adequate. The gear and pulley cover made a vibrating noise when snugged down tight so I put spacers on the mounting studs, and snugged it down against those. No more noise. I'm listing its deficiencies because really that's all of them. Well except for this last one.

I'm not 100% on the drill chuck that came with it. Oh, don't get me wrong. I've used the heck out of it, and its pretty concentric... for a drill chuck, but I've slipped a few drills in the chuck. If I recall its either a

0-1/2 or a 0-5/8 chuck on an MT4 taper. Its tough. The chuck shows no sign of wear even though I have used a cheater bar on the chuck key a few times. I have worn a couple chuck keys. Ruined one when I welded on a permanent cheater bar. It just doesn't seem to hold as well as I would like when I am pushing the drilling capabilities of the machine. The lathe is only 3HP. 3HP isn't much for a lathe, but it is a lot for drilling I think. Anyway, I am wondering if there is a better drill chuck out there for this applications. Something that can grip those 1/2" shank stubby silver and deming bits with authority. Maybe a keyless chuck, and then use pin spanners in the holes. I have a 1/2" keyless for one of my smaller lathes and another in my larger (drill press) and they seem to both work pretty good, but neither machine is 3 HP. I think the little 8.5 x 18 lathe has a 1hp motor, and I am sure the drill press is only 3/4.

Anyway...

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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Looking at maybe the 1/32-5/8 MT4 integral shank South Bend at the bottom left on this page.

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The price seems pretty reasonable for the name, but I am aware that SB might not be the same as they once were. I have never needed grip range smaller than 1/32. I do drill some small holes on the lathe, but I tend towards carbide drills with an 1/8 shank for that type of work.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I have a lot of drill chucks. For keyless I like my Albrecht chucks the best. They far out-perform any other keyless drill chuck I have used. For keyed chucks I like the Jacobs ball bearing chucks. They can often be tightened enough by hand when using smaller drills. I also have a Wahlstrom chuck that gets used in the mill and in the drill presses. It is a bit odd in that it has 4 jaws. But its real claim to fame is that it can only be opened while spinning. So drills are changed without stopping the spindle. It has a collar that you grip and pull down to open the chuck. So if you need to center drill or spot drill before drilling, or if more than one size drill needs to ge into the same hole it is a real time saver. Eric

Reply to
etpm

I also like Jacobs ball bearing chucks. But like to buy them used. They a re not cheap. Might feel different if I was doing a lot of machining. Th e ball bearing Asian drill press chucks are also pretty good. Some of the Asian non ball bearing chucks are terrible. I bought a large floor model H arbor Freight drill press second hand. I think the owner sold it because t he chuck was so bad. I replaced the chuck with a ball bearing Asian chuck and it is a pretty good drill press now.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

That's a cool chuck - must get one.

Reply to
?nk

I use a lot of rotabroach type cutters these days for drilling shallow holes as they use less power to drive and I use them in the BP mill with a 3/4" collet and on the lathe, Harrison M300 3hp, with a modified MT3 to MT2 adaptor although I think you can buy holders for them. They work great and seem cheap compared to drills and the slug from the centre may be useful. I made the adaptor as when using larger rotabroach cutters in an adaptor in a 16mm max keyless chuck the torque would often jam the jaws and needed freeing, the modified MT3 adaptor precludes that problem as it has 2 grub screws that fit the Weldon flats.

Reply to
David Billington

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