Stuck Quill Help

[Paul Williams]

The quill on my Delta 46-460 bottomed out on the lead screw and is now stuck. I have removed the quill and lead screw from the tail stock by removing the hand wheel and pushing it out the front. I have tried penetrating oil, tapping with a rod and hammer. and gently heating with an small electric heat gun. It is still frozen solid. Anyone have any good ideas?

Google shows me that I am not the only one to experience this, but I didn't find any good ideas about how to get it unstuck. With the issue with Delta parts availability I figure it is best to try everything I can think of before looking for a replacement.

Part of the problem off course is getting a grip on the thing without scratching it up, but I have been able to get fairly good force yet it does not budge. I would appreciate any suggestions.

[Peter Lamb]

The LAST remaining old Delta tech person was still ther when I called a couple fo months ago. He is very knowledgable. I would give him a call.
He may be able to save the day. He did for me. Good luck.

[David Reed]

No expert on the subject especially since I don't know the details of your quill design. Typically if you heat the female component it will expand and may come loose. Unless there are plastic or otherwise heat sensitive parts, bring out the torch. It my even help to immerse the protruding part of the male component in cool water to limit heating and expansion of this part. When you get them separated, perhaps a nylon bushing to prevent bottoming steel on steel.
FWIW

[Paul Williams]

Thanks David and Peter, I'll try both.

[Jack Brown]

Are you turning it the proper way? Me thinks it might be left hand thread.

[Paul Williams]

Jack, you are right it is a left hand thread, and a very fine one at that.
The heat did the trick, but it took a lot of it for a quite a bit of time before it let go. I held the front in a 6+ inch metal lathe chuck and made a fixture to hold the back in in my vise. After heating and while heating I used a bar across the large chuck jaws to turn the quill while holding the lead screw in the vice. I had to file off a few nicks that I caused before I came up with this holding solution, and I still have to polish it up, but we are back in service with no apparent defects.

[David Reed]

Good job. Now how to modify to prevent future occurrences? Seems like a nylon stopper/washer somewhere in the path could help.

[Paul Williams]

David. I tried a nylon washer, but think I need to find one that is a slightly tighter fit. I also thought about using a very small amount of the anti seize compound that we used on aircraft engine sparkplugs. I just happy I didn't have to try to find a new one.