Grandad's gone, but not his tools. 1 What is this?

[Sam Johnson]

Grandad left me his Atlas 10D lathe with many accessories and an old Sears drill press with a small milling table.
What is this item. The outer diameters are cylindrical and are separated by a ball bearing. The left side has a female #2 Morse taper. The right has the two visible tabs, presumably to drive or be driven by something. Between the drive tabs it's internally threaded, presumably to hold something (a cutter?) onto that end?

What would this be for? Which end would be the driving end? Is it just a leftover piece from something he disassembled? If the tabs hold a cutter, why would the other end have the #2 MT? Could the tabs be on the driving end and be held onto the drill press or Atlas with a screw into the end?
Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[GeneT45]

Could the tabs be on the driving end and be held onto the drill press or Atlas with a screw into the end?
Any thoughts? Thanks!View attachment 480318

That's what it looks like to me. Adapter for MT2 drills?

GsT

 

[stupoty]

The outer diameters are cylindrical and are separated by a ball bearing.

Are you saying the MT2 socket end can spin ? or am I misunderstanding the ball bearing location ?

Stu

 

[Provincial]

It looks like part of a larger unit that has been disassembled. The ball bearing indicates that it was intended to spin freely unless the lugs engaged something. The diameter of the small end is unusual. Not metric or fractional. If it had been .625, it could have been a Morse Taper socket for a tailstock turret.

 

[IHinIN]

Could it be the bottom part of a drill press spindle?

 

[Jake M]

That is part a drill press spindle that came with factory "options". That bearing would have been the lower quill bearing. I'm 99 percent sure that's the exact part I saw a hundred years ago (give or take) at a summer job. Delta? Rockwell Delta? Full sized drill press, 15? 17? inch... Not sure, but there were multiple options and that I believe is thee part that was left over when they had me install a different chuck arrangement.

 

[Cadillac STS]

Looks like the insides of a tailstock live center. Live center with the cone off

 

[Provincial]

That is part a drill press spindle that came with factory "options". That bearing would have been the lower quill bearing. I'm 99 percent sure that's the exact part I saw a hundred years ago (give or take) at a summer job. Delta? Rockwell Delta? Full sized drill press, 15? 17? inch... Not sure, but there were multiple options and that I believe is thee part that was left over when they had me install a different chuck arrangement.

This makes sense. It would be a fairly simple way for the manufacturer to offer the same unit with a direct mount drill chuck or a Morse Taper spindle. The spindle would have lugs to match the ones on this part, and to change systems one would only have to remove the bearing retainer, slip off this unit, and replace it with the direct mount chuck unit.

 

[Sam Johnson]

The item is a single turned component with the bearing around it. (I suppose that's actually two pieces.)
The drill press is a Craftsman Model 103.0305 (image attached). It's got a Jacobs taper and chuck, with external threads that allow a milling chuck to be attached (also image attached.)

I looked closely at it, and partly disassembled it. I can't see any way to remove the Jacobs taper and whatever bearing is in there, nor any tabs or any way to connect a bolt into the end of the spindle. Maybe I'm just missing something.

The item was stired with the lathe accessories, so I liked the live center idea, but the Atlas tailstock also doesn't seem to have any way to accept it.

 

[Jake M]

I'd keep it. You might need it (or want it) one day. The Jacobs taper with the locking collar is your friend. I would not switch them without a good reason. (Which could happen, hang on to this part, but wait for a good reason). That is the exact reason my summer job way back when had me going through a drill press. It was "end of life", it had a morse taper spindle while it was on the production floor, they had me install the locking collar jacobs style (and basically "part" two drill presses together to get something out of nothing...) as the drill press was destined to live out it's days with an easy live by hanging a sanding drum on it. Morse (or Jacobs) tapers will come loose if you push from the side for too long. That's the reason for the now not so common locking collar. Kind of like a drawbar on a mill that might have a tapered spindle, except the threads are inside out.