Help removing spindle from "old" shaper

[John Bush]

I bought a '50s vintage Walker-Turner shaper from an estate and can't get the morris taper spindle out. The machine is in good shape so I am hoping there is no rust luting the spindle in the collet. I was mildly aggressive tapping a flatbar with a hammer but chickened out before I screwed something up. I tried penetrating oil but there doesn't appear to be access to the mating surfaces. Is heat a logical choice? Is a call to a machine shop in order? Do I use a bigger hammer? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks, John.

[John Eaton]

Keep applying the penetrating oil (I like Kroil). You should be able to put a couple of nuts on the threads and use some type of gear puller of all else fails. You may not get good results with heat (depends on the differences in steel). Post the question on www.owwm.org (http://www.owwm.org) as I'm sure you'll get better responses from the experts there.

-- John

[CPeter James]

BTW, the taper is properly named "Morse Taper".

From Wikipedia
"The Morse Taper was invented by Stephen A. Morse (also the inventor of the twist drill) circa 1864. Since then it has evolved to encompass smaller and larger sizes and has been adopted as a standard by numerous organizations including ISO as ISO 296:1991 Machine Tools -- Self-Holding Tapers for Tools Shanks, and DIN as DIN 228-1:1987-05 Morse tapers and metric tapers; taper shanks.

Sizes

Morse Tapers come in eight sizes identified by number between 0 and 7. Often this is abbreviated as MT followed by a digit, for example a Morse taper number 4 would be MT4. The MT2 taper is the size most often found in drill presses up to 1/2" capacity."

CPeter

[Jeff Duncan]

If the machine is in good shape and the locknut came off the spindle easily I doubt there would be rust or corrosion in the taper, but you never know?

I would get under there with a 5lb sledge and give it a couple taps. As said already thread a couple nuts onto the bolt before tapping it to prevent rounding the threads. Give it a couple of good whacks (don't go crazy on it though) and I bet it will pop. I have to do the same on one of my older machines, the smaller 16oz hammers just don't have enough oomph to break the seal.
good luck,
JeffD

[Lee Schierer]

On my drill press, I can pull the morse taper aprt with a pir of wedges my uncle made for me. On your shaper. Putone of the nuts back on the shaft and place a pry bar under the nut so the shaft is under considerable tension. While applying the tension, whack the nut. The taper should separate.

[Bob Fraser]

Hi

Try going in the other direction from heating it up.

By some "Freeze" or "Chill" Spray from and electronic service place,
and first freeze the taper, then try a tap or two, failin gthat give it a half an hour, and freeze the houseing, then tap.

It is suprising how useful contracting metal parts can be.
Bob

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

John,
Please do not strike the shaft with anything. Chatter is caused by a spindle that can be out only a couple thousands. First, be sure there are no threads holding the taper in place. There might be a threaded bolt from the drive pulley through the drive shaft into the taper. The spindle may also have threads above the taper itself. If you are absolutely sure no mechanical fastener is holding the cutter shaft, do this. Install a cutter and tighten in place. Raise the cutter so the bottom clears the table by an inch or so. Put maple blocks under each side of the cutter and lower it. Hopefully it will come free. Before you do anyhting more drastic, try to find a service manual. Someone at the Creek may have something that tells you how the spindle is installed.
Lastly, if you only have that spindle, why remove it at all. If it spins true and you don't have a different shaft, leave it alone.
Faust Ruggiero

[John Eaton]

Here are links to two WT Spindle manuals:
http://www.owwm.com/mfgindex/pubdetail.aspx?id=2173
http://www.owwm.com/mfgindex/pubdetail.aspx?id=1169

I thought they might help. Here's some of the text from that second one:
"To change the spindle to another size proceed as follows: Raise the motor and spindle until the motor shaft is above the table, place one of the spanner wrenches in the hole provided for it in the motor shaft, put the drift pin through the hole in the spindle directly above the knurled nut. Use the second spanner wrench and unscrew the knurled nut until it forces the spindle out of its socket."

I'm not sure if that will work with our specific application but I'm hoping to get lucky!

-- John

[Terry Achey]

I agree with John. I've never found a penetrating oil that works as well as Kroil. Regardless of how you extract, soak a few times with Kroil. Been using it for over 20 years and the stuff continues to is amaze.

Terry