Vintage Drill

[RJSakowski]

If you can unscrew the chuck 1/4", it is unlikely that there is any secondary retainer. Can you see the end of the threads inside the chuck? If so, it may be that the threads were damaged by a drill bit spinning, raising a burr which would make it difficult to unscrew. It should come off with moderate force in that case.

A common thread on 1/4" chucks was 3/8 - 24 tpi.

 

[chip maker]

Won't it be if the threads were damaged That I could see cause the chuck to not screw on all the way but would still screw off??? I can see a few threads down in the chuck but not many.

 

[RJSakowski]

Won't it be if the threads were damaged That I could see cause the chuck to not screw on all the way but would still screw off??? I can see a few threads down in the chuck but not many.

If there are exposed spindle threads in the chuck, they could have been damaged in use of the drill. The chuck would unscrew until it hit the damaged thread and then lock up. Similarly, rust on the exposed thread could cause binding.

When I run into a situation like that, I will spray liberally with WD-40 and work back and forth to loosen. The travel will usually increase slightly with each cycle until the two separate.

 

[vintageiron]

I had an old Skilcraft drill that looked similar to yours. It had the same type of knurled thumb wheel behind the chuck. The chuck was junk so I wanted to put a 3/8" chuck on the drill so it could still be used if needed. When I knocked the chuck loose, the knurled wheel came loose from the gear box instead of the chuck unscrewing from the shaft. The knurled wheel had several holes in it, I took a spanner wrench, held the knurled part and put an allen key in the chuck and gave it a few taps with a mallet and the chuck came off.

I had to open the gear box up to see why the other part kept coming off, and found there was a cir-clip broken off on the inside that kept the adapter from unthreading completely. I replaced the cir-clip and all was good.

Drills without reverse don't usually have a hidden screw inside the chuck. There's no need if the drill never turns backwards.

 

[kd4gij]

The 1956 catalog part 1 on vintage machinery .org has that type drill

 

[chip maker]

I tried to find the picture you are talking about but could not come up with anything . I looked up the year but no pictures or info. I than looked at the 1956 catalog part 1 and still nothing.

 

[chip maker]

Just a followup on my drill. So I went ahead and removed the front housing and found that it is a gear box so I took a wooden dowel and jammed the gears and finally got the chuck to come off. All the threads on the shaft and also in the chuck were fine but I did chase both of them to get the chuck to screw on as it should without getting tight. After getting the chuck off I did figure out what the knurled coller really is for. There is a hole that goes thru this coller to hold it tight on the shaft but somewhere down the line this pin got broken and that is why it spun on the shaft. What it really does is give you a way to hold the shaft to remove to chuck. There is also another half drilled hole to install something to hold it harder if the chuck is really tight and you can't hold it by hand but right now it works just by holding it with your fingers. I am glad that this clean up has worked out to keep this drill around for a while longer. Being as old as it is and still runs fine and did belong to my Dad I am glad to have it. I don't believe I will ever use it for anything big but may use it once in awhile just to keep its juices going. Thanks for the replys and that gave me the heart to get it apart and repaired. Guess another thing that should be said is that the new pin was made on my lathe took 2 remakes as I screwed up the first two it is only .094 so was the smallest part I ever made on my G4000. Thanks again !!!!