Spindle taper on pillar drills

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The Bear

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Hi all

I'm looking at investing in a pillar drill. Can anyone explain the relevance of the spindle taper for the chuck, usually given as MT/2, MT/3 etc?

Cheers

Mark
 
The higher the MT number the larger the bore of the taper. This won't have much bearing on a pillar drill except that a larger MT will generally indicate a heavier construction.

It has a lot more significance on a lathe spindle where it will affect the diameter of work that can pass through the headstock or size of auger that can be fed through the hollow tailstock.

If you have other machines with MT tapers then its worth trying to keep them all the same so tooling can be swapped between machines.

BTW the spindle taper is for the chuck arbor not the actual taper in the chuck this will generally be a jacobs taper or "B" taper. Some drills will just have a male tapered spigot that the chuck fits onto in which case they will state J or B not MT.


Jason
 
'Invest', excellent way of looking at it, I must think of my purchases that way.

Not much significance that I'm aware of, apart from letting you know what chuck to buy if you need a replacement. It might have something to do with spindle size, and thus general beefyness?

edit: i.e. what they said better^
 
Thanks for all the quick replies. So it doesn't really matter I guess, I've looked at ones that are MT/2 and MT/3, just didn't want to invest in something I later regretted through ignorance

Cheers guys

Mark
 
If you are looking at something with No 3 morse taper, it suggests it's a big beast and probably therefore industrial and well-made. Only downside is that you may find it slightly more difficult to get accessories with that taper, because MT2 is more common. And if you want a lathe with that taper, it's going to cost you the proverbial arm and leg.
 
Sorry Mark not trying to hijack the thread but while we are on the subject does anyone know how to tell (ie. Measurements etc.) sizes of mortise tapers as I have a fairly large pillar drill and it needs a new chuck but I cant see any sizes anywhere so I have no idea what replacement size to buy?

I don't understand MT's to well the drill has the male part and the chuck (16mm) has the female!

Regards

Lee
 
seaco":2pg1clfx said:
I have a fairly large pillar drill and it needs a new chuck but I cant see any sizes anywhere so I have no idea what replacement size to buy?

I don't understand MT's to well the drill has the male part and the chuck (16mm) has the female!
That sounds unusual to me. Usually, the drill has the female MORSE taper. Many chucks do have a female taper, but it's not Morse, but a Jacobs taper of some sort. And to join the two, you have a Morse to Jacobs adaptor, which is Morse on one end and Jacobs on the other.
I don't think I've got a listing of the dimensions of the Jacobs tapers anywhere, but No1 Morse is a bit over 1/2 inch at its thickest by about 3" long, No 2 is about 3/4 at its thickest by 4" and No 3 about 1" by 5" (VERY roughly!).
Jacobs tapers are steeper taper and the common ones are less than an inch long.
 
Hi Dick

Thanks for the info as I've said I don't understand MT's much maybe this pic may help maybe it is Jacobs?

3-16 B16 S3

STA72581DesktopResolution.jpg


STA72583DesktopResolution.jpg
 
According to the latest Axminster catalogue (p544) the female Morse taper is 12 mm wide at its widest point, MT2 = 18 mm and MT3 = 24 mm.
 
If you look at my first post I mentioned "B" tapers. The B-16 ob the chuck refers to the female taper inside the chuck

As the largest dia of a B16 taper is approx 16mm I waold say that the taper in the drill spindle is MT2 which measures approx 18mm (this is the second dia above the chuck.

You either need to buy a chuck complete with MT2 shank/arbour or just buy a chuck with B-16 mount and get a set of chuck removal wedges and hope you can break the taper.

Either way you will need to remove the MT2 arbour from the drill, if you wind the quill right down there should be a slot to insert a tapered drift

Jason
 
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