How to clean a drill press chuck

Evap-o-rust

Cheers,
Brad

-- Brad in FL - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid

Evaporust…
I need 10 gallons to fully submerge the 13.5” diameter DP table in the container I have. That’s $200 of Evapo. I’ll settle for H2O, $0.50 worth of baking soda and patience.

Can the chuck be submerged?

-- Eric

I didn’t submerge. I brushed on in a thick coat, and let it do its magic…

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

LOL – Thought you wanted to clean the chuck, not the table! Don’t see why you can’t submerge it in water as long as you get it good and dried out after.. not sure I would want to use electrolysis on it though.

As for needing 10 gal of evaporust.. you don’t.. just think outside the box a little bit :) Here is a jointer table that is roughly 28”x16” and took less than half a gallon to completely de-rust:

Pour it into an empty gallon paint can and you can dip all your smaller stuff (like the chuck!).. make a little basket out of hardware cloth to make it even easier. Since it’s reusable, a gallon of the stuff lasts a good long while and cleans a lot of metal over it’s lifetime. YMMV.

Cheers,
Brad

-- Brad in FL - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid

If you are trying to clean a table then you can do so with some WD-40 and some steel wool. If you are trying to clean the chuck, I would use a wire-wheel in a hand drill or attached to a bench grinder.

The entire chuck can be disassembled. If you really want it clean you will do so. I would not immerse the chuck in water or evap-o-rust unless you are planning to replace the bearings. Either liquid would remove the grease inside the bearings and thus dramatically reduce their life expectancy

Storage tote lid. That’s pretty slick. To clarify… I already AM doing electrolysis on the table. I needed info on how to do the chuck next.

In the meantime, I put the chuck half submerged in CLR.

Minorhero- thanks for the infor about the grease and bearings…. I was kinda wondering if that were the case. The chuck works fine. I’m just trying to “pretty-up” my new toy. I think I’ll see how the CLR works then leave the chuck alone to be on the safe side.

-- Eric

You can get very good results with just a wire wheel on a bench grinder. Here’s the before and after on the chuck I did for my 1952 Craftsman DP resto:

After the wire wheel, hand rub it with some Mother’s metal polish and buff.

If your using CLR on your chuck, I’d spray it down well with WD-40 after to displace the CLR, IMHO.

Work Safely and have Fun. – Len

@jtbinvalrico,

That thing is shinier than the bumper on a ‘58 Buick. ;-)

-- Mother Nature should be proud of what you've done with her tree. - Len ...just north of a stone's throw from the oHIo, river that is, in So. Indiana.

”The chuck works fine. I’m just trying to “pretty-up” my new toy. I think I’ll see how the CLR works then leave the chuck alone to be on the safe side.”

The picture above tells the story. If it’s only “minor surface rust”. You could do as shown in 30 minutes or less.

Why would you want to submerge it in Water? That does nothing to remove Rust. It’s what causes Rust. IMHO CLR is JUNK. It will probably wash out the Grease that’s in there now. As GrandpaLen said WD40 to get it out of there. Then do the Wire Brush Routine, blow that out, and work some Lithium Grease in there to make sure it’s Lubed Up.

OH! Sorry. I just saw the part about leaving it alone after you take it out of the CLR to be on the safe side. UUHHMMM? Okay!

jt: BEAUTIFUL JOB on that Resto!! Nice work.

Rick

-- ENJOY YOURSELVES GUYS!!!

A chuck is made up of the jaws and a threaded split ring that is lightly greased. I wouldn’t do anything that would remove the grease unless you feel like driving the chuck apart, cleaning, regreasing and driving it back together. Without a press it’s doable, but it ain’t easy. WD40 is not a substitute for grease, by the way.

dhazelton,

”WD40 is not a substitute for grease, by the way”.

Thanks for clarifying that for Eric.

The WD-40 reference was to displace the water based CLR which Eric stated he had submerged the chuck in, not that the CLR or the WD-40 would ever purge or dissolve the grease from the chuck. It was not offered as a substitute/replacement for grease.

Work Safely and have Fun. – Len

-- Mother Nature should be proud of what you've done with her tree. - Len ...just north of a stone's throw from the oHIo, river that is, in So. Indiana.

So what I gather from all this is, if I come across a used drill press for sale, I’d be wise to avoid one with a rusted chuck. Seems like a lot of work just to get it up and running well.

-- Brian in Arlington, TX - Laziness is the foundation of efficiency.

Scrubbing metal with steel wool will deposit particles of the SW into the metal and cause more rust. Use a scotchbright pad and WD-40.

-- Regret- the feeling you get just after you do something really stupid.

I wasn’t taking a jab at you Grandpa Len, I understood the ‘water displacement’ purpose of the suggestion. A lot of people think WD-40 is an oil though, so that’s why I said that.

BTimmons, I bought a $15 Craftsman identical to the one pictured above. The jaws were messed up so I drove it apart by holding the quill shaft in a vice and driving the sleeve off with a piece of PVC pipe that was the right diameter. Anything is doable, and can be done cheaply. If you need new jaws and split rings for a Jacobs chuck they are about $60 or $70 for the parts, but I figured I got a new drill press that beats anything out there for under a hundred bucks.

4 Days Ago On Post #6

” I think I’ll see how the CLR works then leave the chuck alone to be on the safe side.”

Well? I guess He left it alone. Despite 8 further Posts that offered GOOD Information.

”on the safe side.” ? ? ? ? ?

-- ENJOY YOURSELVES GUYS!!!