How to remove Jacobs chuck from Rockwell drill press

Is there a slot in the quill to stick in a drift?

To rule out the obvious, is there an oval shaped slot cut into the quill that you can insert a drift key (ie. rectangular piece of metal with a taper on one side)?. If not, have you tried using a tie rod separator (ie. a tapered fork intended for car repair that you insert between the chuck and the drill body)?

Sorry for the goof. Jacobs makes "U" shaped wedges for removing their chucks. Most supply houses stock them. They cost $6 or $7.

Chuck P.

I have one of these sets (they make different ones for different tapers). I never figured out how to use it. There is too much space between the top of the chuck and the bottom-most surface on the drill press. Am I supposed to make a spacer?

I don't think there's any slot in the quill.

Jim wrote:

[ ... ]

It is presumed that there is a shoulder on the spindle just above the chuck. It is important that the wedges match the size of the taper (you should be able to find a marking on the side of the chuck saying something like "J33" (Jacobs 33 taper) or similar. If the wedges are too big, they will just slip past the shoulder.

And there are some cases of arbors which have no visible shoulder (usually when a smaller Morse taper is going into the quill, and a larger Jacobs taper into the chuck.) An example would be a JT-6 or a JT-33 with a MT-2 arbor.

Note that while some suggested that you look for a slot for a drill drift to extract an arbor, what they did not tell you is that it may not always be visible. *Sometimes*, it is -- on an extension below the quill. But -- *sometimes* it is not.

On my drill press (a floor-standing Taiwanese model from about

1978 or so) it is not visible until you use the feed levers to advance the quill a few inches. Look on the side of the quill, and you may find a pair of slots opposite each other by 180 degrees. If you find that, you should find a second pair of slots in the internal rotating part. You may have to rotate the spindle by hand to make those line up with the external ones.

To remove my arbor (MT-2) from a larger chuck (JT-6 or JT-33), I would have to drill a hole through the arbor for a cross-pin, and add a spacer between the cross-pin and the chuck body to support the chuck removal forks.

There are other ways as well -- with a chuck which has an arbor instead of being mounted directly to the spindle. One is to mount a drill bit in a drill press vise ponting upwards, and bring the fully opened chuck down over the bit to drill a centered hole through the chuck into the cavity which is the Jacobs taper. Then remove the arbor from the drill press spindle, move it over a big heavy vise, support the chuck with the vise jaws, and use a punch through the just-drilled hole to drive the arbor out.

But if you have an arbor which can be removed from the spindle, and are changing the chuck, you may need a different arbor to adapt to a different chuck taper anyway, in which case the separation of the chuck from the arbor is just an exercise to prove that you can do it -- or perhaps to save the arbor for some other later use. :-)

Good Luck, DoN.

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 03:02:05 GMT, "AL" calmly ranted:

Only if you want them to work. ;) Improvise, man! That's the heart and fun of being mechanically inclined. We get to make "stuff". If a tool doesn't work, we think up a new one for this problem and new uses for the tool. When one solution doesn't work, we think up a new one. We keep the ideas flowing until the solution is at hand.

Just Do It! Put into reality that which Goldberg could only pen!

I suspect a J33. I would try a pipe wrench on the chuck, set the handle where it can smack the column (protect with a board if you want) and flip the power switch quickly. May need to bump it a few times, but should pop it loose with the least beating and banging.

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