# Broken Chuck on 50+ year old Walker-Turner Drill Press



## Brian W. (Jan 5, 2020)

Hello - I'm new t the site & forum and a complete newbie to vintage machine tool maintenance.
I need help fixing an old Walker-Turner drill press.  The drill press belonged to my grandfather who passed away when I was 6.  My father had this in our basement most of my life and when my parents moved to a new home with no room for shop tools it wound up with me. Since I'm now 56 that means the machine is at least 50 years old; I have no idea how long my grandfather had it before he passed.
The motor runs flawlessly but a couple of months ago the chuck started to get really tight when opening and closing the jaws.  Now the chuck only turns with a great deal of effort and is basically useless - it feels like the mechanism is binding on the inside.
I'm reasonably handy, but I have no experience taking this machine apart and given its age if I break something I assume parts are not exactly easy to come by. I've done a little reading and I think that if I unscrew the collar above the chuck that the "quill" will tap out, but I have no idea if that's right or if I''ve got the terminology correct or what to do once I get the damn thing out.
I'd like to keep this running for sentimental as well as practical reasons.  Can anyone help me?


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## Ulma Doctor (Jan 5, 2020)

i'm not 100% sure, but by the looks, there appears to be a threaded collar above the drill chuck.
if you were to back off the collar, the drill chuck may simply spin off the spindle.
you'll need to hold the top end of the spindle to prevent rotation while turning the drill chuck clockwise, to loosen the chuck from the spindle


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## Chuck K (Jan 5, 2020)

Turn the nut down against the top of the chuck with a spanner and crank on it until it breaks the taper loose. The chuck will drop out.


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## pgwisn (Jan 5, 2020)

From looking at the badge on the drill press it appears to be made before 1939/1940.
By 1940 they started to put a number on the badge, mainly model numbers, but in some cases early serial numbers.

The vintage machinery site has photos, catalogs, and some history on the Walker-Turners:


			Walker-Turner Co., Inc. - History | VintageMachinery.org


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## Brian W. (Jan 5, 2020)

Chuck K said:


> Turn the nut down against the top of the chuck with a spanner and crank on it until it breaks the taper loose. The chuck will drop out.


OK.  By "spanner" you mean a curved tool with a peg that fits in the hole in the nut/collar, correct? Not something in my current tool kit so I'll have to locate one somewhere.


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## Brian W. (Jan 5, 2020)

pgwisn said:


> From looking at the badge on the drill press it appears to be made before 1939/1940.
> By 1940 they started to put a number on the badge, mainly model numbers, but in some cases early serial numbers.
> 
> The vintage machinery site has photos, catalogs, and some history on the Walker-Turners:
> ...


I started looking at some of those pages, but without a date range it was kind of a shot in the dark and all I had to go on was the basic look of the press.  Now that I have a better idea on the date it will help. Thanks.


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## Brian W. (Jan 5, 2020)

Ulma Doctor said:


> i'm not 100% sure, but by the looks, there appears to be a threaded collar above the drill chuck.
> if you were to back off the collar, the drill chuck may simply spin off the spindle.
> you'll need to hold the top end of the spindle to prevent rotation while turning the drill chuck clockwise, to loosen the chuck from the spindle


Thanks, but I've tried screwing that up and down and nothing changes.  I think the reply about using the nut/collar to force the chuck off is probably correct.  I will have to get a spanner for that because just putting a wrench on it won't be enough.


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## Brian W. (Jan 5, 2020)

Thanks for all of the suggestions.  I will try and find a spanner that will pop the chuck out.  Assuming that works and I get the chuck out, can the chuck be disassembled and repaired, or do I have to start trying to source a new chuck?  Can I even get a new chuck for this?


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## Chuck K (Jan 5, 2020)

That chuck has a very short arbor.  I think it's integral to the chuck. The chuck can be disassembled and rebuilt. Just press the sleeve off it.


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## darkzero (Jan 5, 2020)

This video by Tubalcain may help. Threaded collar with a Jacobs taper.


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## FOMOGO (Jan 5, 2020)

If you haven't already, you might try running some penetrating oil (Buster loose or similar) through the chuck to flush it out, followed by some 3 in 1 oil. Lying the machine on it's side might work best for this. Keep working it back and forth, and it just may free up. If that doesn't work a new chuck should be fairly easy to come by. Most likely an MT taper. Hope this is of some help, and welcome to the forum. Mike


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## Chuck K (Jan 5, 2020)

darkzero said:


> This video by Tubalcain may help. Threaded collar with a Jacobs taper.


My memory isn't real good. It's been a while since I had one of those old drills. The tubalcain video makes it real clear.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 5, 2020)

your WT drill press has a male JT33 taper built into the spindle and a threaded collar above the chuck. The threaded collar is screwed down onto the chuck to pop it off. If it's been on there a long time you'll need to use some penetrating oil and then some heat/ freeze cycles. I was given a floor standing version of your drill press and it took some home made wedges between the chuck and threaded collar to get it off (I skipped the heat/ freeze for some reason!).

Once you get it off you can press it apart. Make sure the jaws are about 1/2 out of the body, then use an arbor press or hydraulic press to press the center part down through the outer sleeve (or a bench vise if you have one big enough). You'll need a piece of pipe for the sleeve to sit on that lets the center part pass through. I typically use a socket of the right size to go over the jaws and press on the center part. If it doesn't want to press out, stop and check alignment or you can risk cracking the sleeve (not that I'd ever do that, oh no). Most likely you have decades old grease and some chips in there jamming things up.

If the chuck is truly toast, which I personally doubt, then a Jacobs 6A or any other JT33 taper chuck will fit.


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## middle.road (Jan 5, 2020)

My vintage Duro had the same chuck and it was messed up when I got.
I finally got it off which if I recall correctly involved some heat and a tie-rod end bar tool.
Clean it all up and I replaced it with a '33'.
Wish YouTube had been around back then. I spent a lot more time on it then MrPete's video shows...


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## pstemari (May 4, 2020)

If the spanner doesn't work (and I've never been lucky enough to see it work), you can pick up a set of wedges and use a c-clamp to press them together between the chuck and spindle. I believe both the JT3 and the JT6 wedges will work on a JT33.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## derf (May 5, 2020)

I had to change one out on my WT several years ago, and it had a Supreme Chuck with the " Superhold" ball bearing mount. There are 3/16" ball bearings between the threaded collar and the flange, and that is what holds the collar to the assembly. The balls are inserted via a hole in the side and retained with a set screw to keep them from falling out.


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## phubbman (Jun 12, 2020)

I've got the same press (a couple years newer than yours) with the same chuck.  You'd actually need two spanner wrenches - one for the spindle and one for the threaded collar.  You pull back the threaded collar down against the chuck and work the two wrenches against each other.  

OR the wedges / c-clamp method.  I've used both.  Your chuck may need a lot of persuasion to pop off the spindle taper, so the wedges may be your best bet if you haven't already gotten the spanner wrenches.  

Whatever you do, make sure you have a "landing pad" for the chuck to drop onto when it pops off.  An old towel or some rags on a block of wood directly under the chuck should do just fine.  You don't want it popping off and shooting itself, with some force, onto your cast iron drill press table.  Bad things can happen. 

Once you get the chuck off, it probably is best to pull it apart and clean it.  It sounds like it just has decades of old grease and dirt gunking it up on the inside.  It may free up with a liberal dose of wd40 or some light solvent, like lighter fluid, while working it open and closed, without taking it apart.  Given the age and symptoms, though, a proper cleaning would probably be best.  The prospect can be a bit mysterious / intimidating if you've never pulled one apart.  It certainly was for me, until i quit putting it off and went ahead and opened one up.  It's actually really straight forward.  There are numerous youtube videos on how to do it.  I also recommend going to the Jacobs chuck website and looking up their directions for pulling apart / replacing the jaw and split ring for their standard chucks.  That will set you straight, and the youtube videos will demonstrate how simple it really is to do.  I don't have a proper press, but i do have a good bench vise and a good woodworking vise that opens quite wide.  In a pinch, i've pressed them apart and back together again with some judicious use of a mallet and a block of wood.  

Best of luck with it.  Yours really is a nice drill press.  The ones with the ships wheel, like yours has, are a bit prized by the vintage tool crowd.  They're not very common and have a high cool factor.

paulh


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## Karlito26 (Feb 19, 2021)

By the way, you have a nice drill there with the captains wheel. Highly sought after from what I understand.


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