Delta Drill Press Chuck Help

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

I was drilling some 3/4" holes in some 4" Ash with a forstner bit last night and the constant up and down motion of the quill to clear the chips made my chuck just fall off. It's a tapered spindle that holds it in place, it looks like it's just a pressure fit. Does anyone have any good tips on how to set it back in place?

[Mike Nolan]

I have a similar drill press. I made sure both pieces were clean, slid the chuck on by hand, then just tapped on the bottom of the chuck a few times. If that didn't work I would have warmed up the chuck to about 170 deg F before sliding it on.

[Eric Gustafson]

I have a similar drill press. I made sure both pieces were clean, slid the chuck on by hand, then just tapped on the bottom of the chuck a few times. If that didn't work I would have warmed up the chuck to about 170 deg F before sliding it on.

I hadn't thought of using heat to get a tighter fit, but wouldn't it be the opposite? Maybe put the chuck in the freezer, tap it in and when it comes to room temp it would then be a tighter fit?

[John McClanahan]

There's nothing wrong with the chuck. The taper is a wedge fit. Open the chuck all the way and tap it firmly a few times with a dead blow hammer to seat it.

John

[glenn bradley]

Clean the spindle and the hole with naphtha, alcohol or other competely evaporating stuff (no petroleums). Open the chuck to the point where the jaws are recessed, slip the chuck on, hold a scrap of wood in place and whack with dead blow hammer (many variations of this activity will work.

Less than true running bits can encourage this behavior (the falling off) but, being a new machine it probably just needs a good cleaning; mine did. Once I cleaned it up and tapped the chuck back on I have had no troubles.