Morse Taper on Drill Press Breaking Loose

[Tony Dentino]

The chuck on my drill press is falls off... usually at the wrong time. Is there a cure other than epoxying it in?

Tony

[Ruhi Arslan]

Did you try to push it against the table with a scrap piece of wood in between?

[Bill Huber]

Clean it really good inside and on the drill press with a good solvent.

If that does not work get some very fine valve grinding compound and put a little on the shaft of the drill press and then work the chuck on it a little. Then clean it again really good and that should do it.

[John Coloccia]

Clean it well, take rubber mallet and after you've seated it, give it a couple of taps. When I've had problems it's usually been because something was dirty.

Oh, before you tap, open the chuck all the way so the jaws aren't sticking out.

[Mike Sheppard]

What I do is get it damp and roll it in dust, then open the chuck all the way, and hit it with a deadblow. There must be better ways but that works for me.
Mike

[glenn bradley]

+1 on getting everything very clean and dry before re-assembly. After cleaning, opening the jaws all the way and positioning on the shaft I put a block of wood over it and tap with a small sledge. Lots of inertia, not a lot of whack.

Large bits with a bad profile (damaged or poor spade of forstner bits, circle cutter without a center guide, etc.) will apply an indirect pressure on the mating surfaces when drilling. This will "wobble" the chuck loose so check your cutters and methods in addition to the tapers.

[Matt Winterowd]

Try to turn the chuck different ways when you're seating it. It's possible to stick the chuck in some quills but have it bottom out (top out?) early because the little tab at the end of the chuck arbor isn't aligned with a slot at the top of the quill. The taper will hold on to the chuck but as soon as there's any torsional force along the quill axis, like using a forstner bit that's not meeting the work perfectly perpendicular, the chuck will fall right off.

Don't ask me how I learned this...

[Chip Lindley]

I spent an inordinant amount of time tapping the #2 Morse spindle nose of a PM1150 back to true. For that reason I hesitate to "tap" on it with any hammer to seat the chuck. The design of a Morse taper forces the two parts to become tighter as pressure is applied downward while drilling. Feed the chuck nose into a block of wood forcefully after mounting to seat it. This assumes that the inside/outside tapers have been cleaned, wiped dry and free from any damage that will keep it from seating perfectly.

Make sure you know where that drift key is before the final fit. It's the only way to separate the parts when seated as intended!