Drill press help! My ignorance is showing!

its held in with a morris taper. same way a lathe holds its centers. clean the taper inside and out and let it thoroghly dry. Then shove it back up in there and tap it in with a wood or rubber mallet. a few good raps should do it. make sure there are no burrs on the shaft.

-- hey honey! watch this!

Skeez is right (except for spelling). It’s a Morse taper, and like he said, be sure the surfaces are completely clean and oil-free when you tap it on.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Hey Milo???

You still putting it in?

Or have you started on another project already?

Skeezics and CharlieM1958 have said it all.

-- "Even small steps makes a distance." (Shawn Phillips, musician)

A morris taper? A taper, as in “it tapers in…”? So I don’t need to do anything except clean the chuck and the arbor of the drill press and tap the chuck back on?

OK, while I’ve got people answering Drill press question, I’ve always felt this drill press didn’t drill “true” straight up and down.

Could this have been because a past owner hammered the chuck back on?

Will “pressing” it back on fix the problem?

If not, is this the time to fix the problem, and if so, how?

Thanks guys!

-- Beer, Beer, Thank God for Beer. It's my way of keeping my mind fresh and clear...

you can slightly sand the hole and the taper with fine emery cloth to remove any burrs that may be in there. if it wobbled before it may have been from burrs or trash in the hole or on the taper. dont sand much! ;-] both mating surfaces should be clean and smooth. insert the chucks taper into the hole and bring the quill down to press it in squarely. then release the quill and give it a few taps with the mallet like you are driving a nail. dont hit it from the side or it may fall out again. by pressing it in first you get it in strait and tapping it will seat it tight. BTW charlie did ya notise I didnt mention the mo…...... word? hehehehe. my spelling is almost as bad as my typing skills.
:-]

-- hey honey! watch this!

yep

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

And while were on the subject of morse tappers you may have wondered what that flat piece of steel that also tappers down is for. It’s a key and on alot of drill presses it is attached by a chain. That goes into the slot on the side of the quill (the thing that the chuck goes into) to remove the chuck after you get it seated in. If you don’t have one a large screw driver can work. Just in case you need to remove it down the road!

-- Scott, South Carolina

Apart from the explanation given above that are spot on, what we should have asked is exactly where the chuck parted from the drill press.
The drill chuck is attached to the Morse adapter via a”Pin” that is also conical, it could have separated here living the Morse Adapter in the Drill Press Quill.
Or the whole Morse adapter – Chuck could have fallen off.

The difference? Your chuck has a metal conical pin sticking on the back.

Here you can see some examples of that:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2567/4012937669_605acc8430.jpg

What you need to do is make sure that there are no nicks or deformations on the conical parts also rust will not allow the surfaces to mate properly, therefore judicios cleaning with a very fine emery cloth and WD40 to remove any traces of rust.

To reassemble a chuck that has come loose you simply put the chuck onto the morse adapter and then make it seat by rapping the assembly (morse adapter down chuck up) onto a non marring surface (a hard wood or aluminun block) a couple times should do it. Hold the assembly by the morse adapter. It is the same as when you re-seat a hammer that has come loose by rapping the handle on a hard surface, the hammer head provides the momentum to re-seat itself.

To seat the morse adapter on the quill you just hold the chuck, rotate the quill until you can see through the key hole, align the morse adapter tail so that it will go into the quill and give it a sharp and fast movement upward if it is correctly seated the chuck will not budge if you pull it…

One more thing to add – when tapping on the chuck to seat it, make sure that the jaws of the chuck are fully opened and inside the body so that they aren’t taking the force of the hammer blows. You should tap on the body of the chuck.

-- Wag more, bark less.