Drill chucks & MT arbors

[tekno.mage]

I'm after clarification about the morse taper arbors used with drill chucks. My lathe has a MT2 taper in both the headstock & tailstock, and I've looking for a suitable drill chuck to use in the tailstock. After checking a few catalogues & some websites, I find most chucks use an arbor which fits the chuck on one end and the relevant morse taper on the other.

The arbors are also available (much cheaper than buying chuck + arbor), and as I have few decent drill chucks already (for various drills etc) I'd like to be able to obtain a suitable arbor for some/one of these. The only problem is how to identify what arbor will fit my existing drill chucks (and on quick inspection they are not all the same). Some of the chucks are quite old as well and I'm not sure of make or origin.

Are drill chuck fittings totally proprietory or are there standard types which can be identified by measurement etc? One problem of online buying is you can't just take a part in and ask for something to fit it!

Any help will be gratefully received.

tekno.mage

 

[jasonB]

Drill chucks can have several types of mounting, Jacobs taper of which ther eare several sizes, B tapers of which there are again may sizes but your MT2 will only likely take one of about six tapers and then there are the treaded chucks, again with several sizes/pitches.

If yopu can give a few measurements or see if anything is stamped on the chuck that could narrow it down

Jason

Edit, JT & B taper sizes can be found here

 

[TEP]

Hi t-mage, rather than mess about trying to find arbors to fit your chucks, you could try one of these instead. I have 3 of them and you can't beat them for wood lathe work.

PS - welcome to the forum.

 

[Bodrighy]

That's what I use though mine cost £10.

I have to ask, what on earth is a wobbler chuck?

Pete

 

[TEP]

Don't get too wound up Pete, with postage they cost about £10.50 by mail order. They usually sell them for a tenner at the shows, but I did buy 2 for 6 quid each a while back when they had a offer on at one show.

The wobbler is used to centre up work in a metal lathe, although don't ask me how to use it.

 

[tekno.mage]

Thanks for that link, Tam - those chucks are at really affordable prices & from a supplier I'd not known about before (which of course means checking them out for any other interesting things...)

Thanks also to Jason for his link to some really useful Jacobs chuck technical inf, and his explanation of the different types of fittings.

I don't know what a wobbler chuck is, although I do have some wobbler bars in a socket set!

tekno.mage

 

[jasonB]

The wobble is held in the chuck of a mill or lathe and set to rotate, the workpiece is wound in until it starts to make contact with the wobbler head. At the point where the workpiece edge is exactly in line with the wobbler head it will suddenly flick out of alignment. At this point the reading on the handwheel dial is noted and then the work fed in by half the wobbler head diameter, this then puts the edge of the workpiece directly in line with the spindle axis. It's simpler than it sounds.

I don't use mine much now as I have an electronic one that lights up when it contacts an edge

Jason

 

[lurker]

I'm fortunate enough to be able to get to Proops shop.
I go with cash and usually come away with a smile on my face.

I can vouch for these chucks they are OK for wood - dubious for precision engineering though. I have a couple of them and have no complaints

Proops stuff is:
20% great value and a few real gems
60% about what you pay for but buyer be aware of limitations
20% cr*P