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Have you ever chucked up that big bit, say a 3" Forstner bit, and without thinking just line up your hole, power up the drill press and start drilling away only to have the drill press bog down and end up with the chuck slipping, or even falling off the taper?
Well, the fix is plenty simple.
First off. Avoid slipping the chuck at all. This means you need to make certain of the following.
#1. Your bits are good and sharp. A dull bit will grab the workpiece instead of cutting it. You'd bog down a V-8 engine with some of the bits I have seen people try to use on their dril presses.
#2. Your drill press is running at an appropriate speed for the bit in question. Wood Magazine offers up a GREAT drill press speed chart that can be found on their site at http://images.meredith.com/wood/pdf/...peed-chart.pdf
Once the damage is done, you need to recover. and it's not as hard as it would seem. This is also a great opportunity to inspect and lubricate the chuck.
#1. Remove the chuck from the drill press taper shaft. If it is already spinning, you should just be able to grab it and pull down to remove it.
#2. Thoroughly clean the chuck inside and out with a non depositing solvent such as Brake Parts cleaner, or rubbing alcohol. (care should be used on some newer chucks that may have plastic components. DO NOT use solvents on plastics!).
#3. When cleaning the chuck, run the jaws in and out all the way cleaning as you go to clear any wood dust, dirt, grease, and other nasty debris that gets into drill press chucks.
#4. Fully clean the taper.
#5. Apply a dry lubricant to all surfaces where metal is supposed to slide against metal avoiding the contact areas where the jaws contact the bit, and where the chuck contacts the taper.
#6. Fully retract the jaws.
#7. Place a flat and parallel sacrifical wooden piece on the drill press table. Insure it is at 90 degrees from the center line of the taper from all angles.
#8. Start the chuck on the taper, and raise the table to just under the chuck with the chuck nearly resting on the sacrificial piece, securely locking the table in place, and double checking square.
#9. Slowly lower the handle pressing the chuck onto the taper.
#10. Rotate the chuck 180 degrees, lower handle and press again.
#11. Rotate the chuck 90 degrees press again.
#12. Another 180 degrees, press again.
#13. Remove the sacrificial piece and lower the table.
#14. Install staight smooth rod on the chuck (I have some scrap 3/8" smooth rod, 6" long that I keep for drill press testing). Set up runout gauge on table / fence to measure runout, and measure your runout. Shouldn't be much if any. Last time I had to do this my chuck didn't measure any runout at all.
Well, the fix is plenty simple.
First off. Avoid slipping the chuck at all. This means you need to make certain of the following.
#1. Your bits are good and sharp. A dull bit will grab the workpiece instead of cutting it. You'd bog down a V-8 engine with some of the bits I have seen people try to use on their dril presses.
#2. Your drill press is running at an appropriate speed for the bit in question. Wood Magazine offers up a GREAT drill press speed chart that can be found on their site at http://images.meredith.com/wood/pdf/...peed-chart.pdf
Once the damage is done, you need to recover. and it's not as hard as it would seem. This is also a great opportunity to inspect and lubricate the chuck.
#1. Remove the chuck from the drill press taper shaft. If it is already spinning, you should just be able to grab it and pull down to remove it.
#2. Thoroughly clean the chuck inside and out with a non depositing solvent such as Brake Parts cleaner, or rubbing alcohol. (care should be used on some newer chucks that may have plastic components. DO NOT use solvents on plastics!).
#3. When cleaning the chuck, run the jaws in and out all the way cleaning as you go to clear any wood dust, dirt, grease, and other nasty debris that gets into drill press chucks.
#4. Fully clean the taper.
#5. Apply a dry lubricant to all surfaces where metal is supposed to slide against metal avoiding the contact areas where the jaws contact the bit, and where the chuck contacts the taper.
#6. Fully retract the jaws.
#7. Place a flat and parallel sacrifical wooden piece on the drill press table. Insure it is at 90 degrees from the center line of the taper from all angles.
#8. Start the chuck on the taper, and raise the table to just under the chuck with the chuck nearly resting on the sacrificial piece, securely locking the table in place, and double checking square.
#9. Slowly lower the handle pressing the chuck onto the taper.
#10. Rotate the chuck 180 degrees, lower handle and press again.
#11. Rotate the chuck 90 degrees press again.
#12. Another 180 degrees, press again.
#13. Remove the sacrificial piece and lower the table.
#14. Install staight smooth rod on the chuck (I have some scrap 3/8" smooth rod, 6" long that I keep for drill press testing). Set up runout gauge on table / fence to measure runout, and measure your runout. Shouldn't be much if any. Last time I had to do this my chuck didn't measure any runout at all.