My MT2 drill chuck got stuck in my lathe tailstock. I did not want to crank *too too* hard trying to push the arbor out for fear of damaging feed threads. I finally got it out by taking apart the tailstock and heating the ram (if that's the right term) with a little propane torch. Tapping a rod thru the ram then popped the chuck out. Tapping the rod did not work until I added the heat.
My question is how do I prevent the chuck (or other arbors) from sticking (that much) in the first place?
You didn't mention what kind of lathe it is. On my South Bend, when I retract the tailstock ram, when it gets almost fully in the tapered tool is ejected if the ram is withdrawn sharply enough.
GWE
Same thing on my Atlas and most other lathes. Keep the taper clean and oiled and remove it when it's not being used. The self ejection feature is very common on better made lathes. Bugs
The one cavat on this is...if your tool has a tang at the ass end. If it has no tang, for example a live center..it can be quite problematic even with high end machines. My Hardinge HLV-H is an example. I had to make a pickle fork to remove un tanged centers...and the one time I put in a #2 dead center..it was 4 hours getting it out and ultimately involved a welder...... I finally drilled the dead center and stuck in a bolt for an impromtu tang, so I could use it regularly.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
Don't worry about cranking too hard. The morse tapers are suppose to be self locking yet they will usually pop right out when you fully retract the tailstock. If for some reason your tailstock is designed to release only tapers with driver tangs then you may have use a fork. I use a slim line open end wrench which fits over the protruding portion of the morse taper. Then the tailstock spindle is retracted into the tailstock casting the wrench serves as a spacer to pop out the MT.
Having read the posts to date makes me uneasy. I have an Atlas 10F lathe and have been using the tailstock this way for many years. The auto ejection feature on my lathe always works. Occasionally the hand wheel slips when attempting ejection, so I have to tighten it up. A nuisance, but not enough of a problem to have ever taken the thing apart to see if a key is missing or something. I wonder if the root problem is that the taper in the ram is a little bunged up making it necessary to hammer the tooling into place? Might be worth it to blue up a known good taper and check for fit. HSM used to have an ad for some green plastic morse taper cleaners. They look like a straight flute reamer, but are made of some kind of plastic that must have a fine abrasive in it. I have one for Morse #2 and one for Morse #3. Once every couple of years I run then into the headstock and tailstock just to tidy up the bores. If I had to vote, I'd choose the pickle fork over the heat any time.
HSM had an article a few years ago written by a guy who had trouble with the tooling coming loose in the tailstock. So he drilled and tapped a hole all the way through the ram in the area where the tang would be. Then he lock-tited 2 set screws into those holes so they would stop the tang from turning if the the tool did come loose. Not a bad idea.
Pete Stanaitis
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lens wrote:
The Lathe in question is a new Wabeco D3000E. I know they are not that common so FYI:
BTW. I discolored the ram a bit when I heated it but everything seems to fit back together OK. Did I upset the hardening or anything like that? If so, can I (or should I) do anything about it?
I had a similar problem with my Clausing and an interchangeable point live center (all the others are long enough). My long-term solution was to make a brass threaded plug to screw into the back of the shank (which was already threaded) to make it just long enough for the ejection to work properly.
For the short term, the solution was simple. The tailstock ram in the lathe (a Clausing 5418) has a slot milled into it from one side to the other for a drill drift. While I could not use the drill drift (the center's shank was even too short for that), I could reach in with a bronze rod and transfer a hammer tap to the end of the shank.
Enjoy, DoN.
It looks like the Morse taper drivers tangs are not needed according to your link. My experience has been that any dings make tapers not stick so don't waste you time with a cleaner. You need to eat your Wheaties and not be so afraid of using a little muscle.
I forgot to say that my MT2 arbor did not have a tang. From what DoN said, maybe that was the real problem.
Your lathe doesn't need them.
It may need one (or some projection) to extend far enough back to self-eject when the tailstock ram is cranked all the way back.
It doesn't need to be a true tang, as long as it extends far enough back to hit the end of the leadscrew a faction of a turn before full retraction.
Enjoy, DoN.
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