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What's On Your Workbench?

#6,321
mapleglo said:
It looks like my Black & Decker drill press may be on my workbench soon.

View attachment 5342975

When I went to drill an 1/8" pilot hole in my pry bar, I could not chuck the drill bit. The chuck started jamming. It will chuck the 1/4" or larger bit fine, but it jams when I try to go smaller. Do you think it's worth trying to replace or disassemble the chuck (Does it even come off?) or should I just replace the whole thing? We got this close to 20 years ago for free - my husband got it through work as a "5 years of service" award.

Any advice from the collective here?
Click to expand...

Hey Nexy;

Here's a thread from 2015 where we talked all about drill press chucks and Jacobs tapers.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/je...i-need-a-new-chuck-what-should-i-get.1193596/

Your Black & Decker drill press probably has a JT3 taper, which is the metric size very close to JT33. That's what's on most small import drill presses made in the last 30 years.

Also, check out eReplacementParts.com. They have exploded view drawings and parts lists of most common homeshop tools and machines. And you can order the parts from them.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/je...i-need-a-new-chuck-what-should-i-get.1193596/
 
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#6,322
Bruce Johnson said:
Hey Nexy;

Here's a thread from 2015 where we talked all about drill press chucks and Jacobs tapers.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/je...i-need-a-new-chuck-what-should-i-get.1193596/

Your Black & Decker drill press probably has a JT3 taper, which is the metric size very close to JT33. That's what's on most small import drill presses made in the last 30 years.

Also, check out eReplacementParts.com. They have exploded view drawings and parts lists of most common homeshop tools and machines. And you can order the parts from them.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/je...i-need-a-new-chuck-what-should-i-get.1193596/
Click to expand...

Thanks Bruce. Unfortunately, the ereplacementparts.com website doesn't offer the chuck for my drill, but there was a chart in the thread you linked that showed the measurements for various tapers. I'll measure mine and see if I can get a replacement chuck that fits.
 
#6,323
The closest taper measurement to my existing shaft is the #3 Brown & Sharpe taper. The spec is 1.5" long and as far as I can tell, my shaft is 1-1/16 inches long, so it doesn't appear to be a perfect match. But the 0.3125" smallest measurement/0.3753" largest measurement appears to be spot on. All of my electronic calipers have failed, so I'm measuring it manually - the old fashioned way :P

It wouldn't surprise me if this is some one off, impossible to find type chuck as they might have bought some kind of a close out on chucks when they made this drill press, to save money. And I can't seem to find any #3 B&S taper chuck that is reasonably priced. So yeah, I'll be shopping for a new drill press. I'll likely buy another cheap one, as this lasted close to 20 years, through lots of abuse (used as a drum sander kind of abuse).
 
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#6,324
My usual rule at Harbor Freight is "nothing with a cord", but their floor model drill press doesn't look half-bad for around $200, and they run sales all the time. @Bruce Johnson is probably horrified by this suggestion! I see a fair number of HF tools used on jobsites, treated as disposable. I needed a oscillating blade cutter for precisely (1) job and got one on sale for $12. The blade was also $12! It still works 2 years later, so....

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I've seen what appear to be the identical drill press for sale under a few different brand names, so it must be the same Chinese factories cranking them out and just putting a different badge or paint color on them. The only thing I don't like on the Delta is the depth-stop. My old Craftsman had the simple threaded shaft with adjuster wheels attached to the shaft, it just worked. The delta has the rotating collar on the quill handles, which works, sort of. I find I can easily force it beyond the "stop", so something is awry with that system. On the plus-side, all the modern drills use spiral return springs that can be easily replaced, the Craftsman has a weird system that uncoils a compression spring (that broke after 74 years) , and that spring is essentially unobtanium.
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#6,326
Since the only thing wrong with your old press is that it won’t close down all the way you can always fixture it for drum sanding purposes permanently and save the new one from that abuse.

mapleglo said:
All of my electronic calipers have failed, so I'm measuring it manually - the old fashioned way :p
Click to expand...
I haven’t bought an electronic one yet. I figure as long as I can still read a vernier scale my brain won’t get soft. Or, at least, not too soft. Okay, maybe it hasn’t helped at all!
 
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#6,327
A few quick notes about drill presses & drill chucks;

Nexy, that's got to be some metric series taper. It wouldn't be a Brown & Sharpe. B & S tapers are old time, mostly found on American milling machines circa 1900-1940. And mostly collets going into sockets in spindles. My 1907 LeBlond mill uses B & S #7 collets. My 1952 Barker benchtop mill uses B & S #3 collets. But I've never seen B & S taper used on any drill press spindle.

If the only problem with your current drill press is the chuck not closing all the way, that's usually caused by a metal chip being stuck up inside. Open the chuck up all the way and get in there with a pick or a Q-tip.

Those small import drill presses, like the Grizzly, are okay. I have three of them here in service in my Drill Press Battalion. They don't have much power or torque, but they are reliable and do most lighter drilling jobs with no problem. They aren't too good for drilling metal over 3/8" diameter. Hardwood with brad points, up to 1/2". Forstner bits up to 1".
 
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#6,328
Most modern drill presses (including the chinese import ones) tend to use morse tapers in the spindle (typically MT2 or MT3) and B-tapers at the chuck (usually B16 or B18). The B tapers are essentially smaller 'slices' of the morse tapers (see h'yah: Machine taper - Wikipedia, about halfway down).

There's usually some type of arbor that sits between the spindle and the chuck (like this). It's actually kind-of a smart way of doing it, as you don't have to change your tooling when you change machine or chuck; you just swap the arbor out. My drill press uses MT2 and I have both B18 and B22 chucks, so they're easy to swap out with the right arbors.
 
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#6,329
@Bruce Johnson
Any idea offhand why the depth stop on my Delta floor model drillpress doesn't seem to work? I can set the depth stop collar, tighten the little grub screw widget, and it will stop at the set depth, but it's like a "speedbump", rather than a hard stop. If I apply even light hand pressure, it rides right over the stop and keeps going. It feels like something is "camming over" the depth stop, like two inclined planes meeting, and one riding over the other. I haven't tried disassembling it yet to see what's going on, nothing obviously broken just visually. It's been driving me crazy, as I was using the depth stop all the time on the Craftsman.
 
#6,330
Gilmourisgod said:
@Bruce Johnson
Any idea offhand why the depth stop on my Delta floor model drillpress doesn't seem to work? I can set the depth stop collar, tighten the little grub screw widget, and it will stop at the set depth, but it's like a "speedbump", rather than a hard stop. If I apply even light hand pressure, it rides right over the stop and keeps going. It feels like something is "camming over" the depth stop, like two inclined planes meeting, and one riding over the other. I haven't tried disassembling it yet to see what's going on, nothing obviously broken just visually. It's been driving me crazy, as I was using the depth stop all the time on the Craftsman.
Click to expand...

Something isn't machined right, or is worn down. The threads that the grub screw goes in may not be quite deep enough, so the tip of the screw stops up too high on the speed bump. It should go deep enough to hit the side of the bump. The result of over-riding the bump too many times, you may have worn down the tip of the screw, and/or worn a groove in the bump.

Take out the grub screw and look at the tip. It's probably kind of rounded off. File or grind a small cylinder onto the tip, straight sides and flat on the end. You want the side of the cylinder to contact the bump, and not try to ride up over it.
 
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#6,331
Bruce Johnson said:
If the only problem with your current drill press is the chuck not closing all the way, that's usually caused by a metal chip being stuck up inside. Open the chuck up all the way and get in there with a pick or a Q-tip.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bruce, now that the chuck is off the drill press, that should be easy enough to do, and I can closely inspect what's going on in there. Maybe I can save this thing after all.
 
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#6,334
mapleglo said:
Well, I cleaned it up and it works much more smoothly now after soaking it in penetrating oil, but I didn't see anything inside, and I still can't close it past about 3/16". I did, however, see "JT33" printed on the side of the chuck - perhaps "Jacobs Taper 33"? Maybe I can order a replacement.
Click to expand...
Yes! Jacobs #33.

I know MSC has numerous chucks in numerous price ranges in that size and I’m sure other sources will, too.

Mystery solved! The rest is easy!
 
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#6,337
mapleglo said:
Well, I cleaned it up and it works much more smoothly now after soaking it in penetrating oil, but I didn't see anything inside, and I still can't close it past about 3/16". I did, however, see "JT33" printed on the side of the chuck - perhaps "Jacobs Taper 33"? Maybe I can order a replacement.
Click to expand...

Well, good! And there's your answer: it's a JT33 taper chuck, which is the most commonly available size.

I recommend one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/WEN-DPA131H-...=keyless+drill+chuck+JT33,aps,202&sr=8-6&th=1
 
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#6,338
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