Removing a drill chuck arbor

[Doozer]

In my mind, wedges are only for one thing.
Removing a chuck from a drill press spindle
where the spindle itself has the Jacobs taper.
If a chuck is on an arbor, TO ME it seems the
easiest way to remove it is with a punch or
pin through the inside of the chuck.
Sometimes with a Jacobs you need to drill a
hole down in there first (easy) and with a
keyless chuck design, you need to take it apart.
I get the impression that people here think that
taking a keyless chuck apart is like taking apart
a Swiss watch. Well not really. They have about
7 parts to them total, not counting the balls.
I have taken apart probably 20 Albrecht chucks
in my time. Just don't spill the balls is the hardest
part. These are way easier than trying not to
spill the balls on a Jacobs Super Chuck. I still
curse those. Mainly because you are pressing
them together/apart. The Albrecht chucks just
screw apart/together. And heII bent over a half
used up hooker, you should probably clean the inside
of your chuck once and a while anyways ! ! !

-Doozer

[djc]

This may work. Have you ever tried to do that?

I tried it on one that was tapped for a drawbar. So the split sleeve was solid and retained by a large washer and bolt into the drawbar thread.

The split sleeve and loctite is my best guess if the arbor is not tapped. The worst that could happen is that the sleeve will slip before the taper releases.

---

To follow up on the post above, dismantle the chuck inside a plastic container or inside a clear plastic bag. It will stop the balls escaping.

[BCRider]

I assume you've tried holding the tang of the morse portion in a vise and using a soft drift to try to knock the chuck off the jacobs portion? No luck there?

What about drill a 1/4" hole through the tang (which are often softer than the rest of the arbor) and then use a piece of pipe over the MT portion that seats against the chuck's inner shoulder of the main body? Slip the pipe over the MT portion then slip a piece of rod through the new hole in the shank and use wedge shaped flat screwdrivers as the "wedges".

[alanganes]

Been away from my computer all day, so first off thank you all for the replies. I'm just starting to digest them all.

The arbor is a 3JT on the chuck end and the tail is a 2MT. So yes, the protruding arbor end is smaller than the fat end of the JT as Miket553 noted. There is a groove in the arbor at the junction of the JT and MT and it is just above the chuck body. The groove is pretty shallow and is radiused so there is not a good square shoulder in there. But I did try a ghetto fork tool I made to try to wedge it off, but the tool I made was not quite up to the task. I'll check the dimensions that djc posted and see if that looks close to workable.

BCRider, I did try holding the tang of the arbor in a vise and tapping with a soft face hammer a bit but did not want to over-do that trick. It did not budge under what I felt was a reasonable amount of tapping. It's not a high end chuck by any means but is good enough for what it is and entirely usable. I'm willing to sacrifice the arbor but I know that's unnecessary, there has to be a reasonable way to get these apart without wrecking stuff.

What Doozer suggests about taking it apart makes sense to me. The linked article about that makes it look pretty straightforward and seemingly well within my abilities. I have a small press if I can get it to that point and access to a a much larger press if it comes to that.

Cross drilling the arbor as has been suggested is always a fallback option. As I said, the arbor was cheap enough to be expendable if it comes to that.

Thanks again to all who chimed in. I'll report back when I have tried some stuff...

[SLK001]

The arbor is a 3JT on the chuck end and the tail is a 2MT.

The tail end looks to be a 1/2" or 5/8" straight shank (to me).

Here's how I remove these:
1) Cut off the shank about 1" above the body of the chuck.
2) Chuck up the chuck in a lathe and drill a hole for a 3/8"-16 or larger screw.
3) Tap the hole for the screw.
4) Place a round piece of steel (a large nut, a iron pipe coupler, a short piece of pipe, etc) over the stud with the end resting on the chuck.
5) Put a flat piece of steel with a hole in it for your screw over the round steel in step 4. You can use extra washers as needed.
6) Put the screw in the hole and tighten it down. The lifting force of the screw will pop the old arbor out.

[mikey553]

The tail end looks to be a 1/2" or 5/8" straight shank (to me).

Here's how I remove these:
1) Cut off the shank about 1" above the body of the chuck.
2) Chuck up the chuck in a lathe and drill a hole for a 3/8"-16 or larger screw.
3) Tap the hole for the screw.
4) Place a round piece of steel (a large nut, a iron pipe coupler, a short piece of pipe, etc) over the stud with the end resting on the chuck.
5) Put a flat piece of steel with a hole in it for your screw over the round steel in step 4. You can use extra washers as needed.
6) Put the screw in the hole and tighten it down. The lifting force of the screw will pop the old arbor out.

JT3 taper has .811" at its biggest diameter. From the picture the shank looks cylindrical to me, more like .750" diameter. As far as I know all import shanks are hardened, are you sure we can tap the hole in it? If so and if we are willing to sacrifice the shank, it will work.

[mattthemuppet]

Just do as Doozer said, dismantle the chuck, remove the screw and pop it out with a pin. You can also give everything a clean while you're in there

[Mike Hunter]

Yes you can. I've drilled a bunch of arbors, mostly for a cross pin. One I had so tight I did the jacking from the rear and drilled and tapped the chuck for a bolt to jack from the front

[alanganes]

The arbor isn’t straight, is a 2MT, I think the angle and camera make it look straight. See the photo below after it was removed.

Anyhow how it looks like Doozer gets the prize today for first right answer.

After reading over that description of disassembling one of these I took a run at mine. This one is an Asian import I got quite a few years ago. Turns out it comes apart just a bit differently than the Albrecht but close enough to figure out.

The collar and hood came off without much trouble. The hood popped loose with just a light tap on an ill-fitting pin spanner that I made for a collet setup on my Sheldon lathe. Once the jaws came out, screwing out the spindle didn’t push the jaw guide out. That was held in with the black threaded “base plate” piece. I clamped the jaw guide in some aluminum vee blocks and was able to tap the base plate around with a punch in the divots you can see and it unscrewed under figer power after about a quarter turn. . Then the thing came apart. I didn’t drop any ball bearings. After that, there was indeed a gaping hole through which I was able to press the arbor out.

[Noitoen]

Dipping the arbor in liquid Nitrogen just short of touching the chuck would have worked without disassembly but then you would't have the opportunity to clean and lubricate it's guts

[Black Forest]

Oh God...Doozer was right. We will never hear the end of it! There is a first for everything I guess.

[alanganes]

Oh God...Doozer was right. We will never hear the end of it! There is a first for everything I guess.

Wow, tough crowd here!!

[alanganes]

Dipping the arbor in liquid Nitrogen just short of touching the chuck would have worked without disassembly but then you would't have the opportunity to clean and lubricate it's guts

I expect that would indeed have worked as well. While I had not thought to try that, I could have as I have access to lots of LN2 where I work. Maybe next time!

And you are correct, it would have not given me the opportunity to clean out the guts. While it was not awfully dirty inside, the original grease was thickened, sticky, and made the thing pretty stiff to operate. I expect it will be much nicer to use once I re-lubricate it and get it back together. It was long overdue for a clean out I guess.

[BCRider]

Oh God...Doozer was right. We will never hear the end of it! There is a first for everything I guess.

I KNOW ! ! ! ! We'll have to put up with him strutting around all day now ! ! !

Alan, the schmoo in the chuck is way over the top. It sure does need a cleaning. But when you put it back together note that the friction cone surface inside the hood is by rights supposed to be dry. Same with the mating surfaces on the jaws.

When I did mine a few years ago I could not stand the idea of dry steel in my slightly rust prone shop. So I used the thinnest wipe I could of fairly thin oil. As in applied then wiped off with a paper towel moderately well. It's still very smooth in operation some 5 years later so no rust and not enough oil to make it not tighten.

[old mart]

I bought a 20mm, 3/4" manual chuck and an R8 arbor for the rock bottom price of £36 and was pleased to find that it already had a 1/2" hole through the body. And doubly pleased when it ran 0.001" tir with 3 different size test bars in it. Even the Chinese get things right if they want to.