HF Mill question

Brock Cutlery

Brock Cutlery

Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
1,673
I picked this up on CL pretty cheap. The things actually spins true, but the chuck is out of what badly.
Can anyone tell me how to get the chuck off? I'm guessing it's a morse taper.
I can see there is a hole up top to slide in a pin to stop the shaft spinning. After that I am at a loss.
I have no mill experience.

hfmillchuck1.jpg
 
Should have a draw bar nut on top of the gear head you show in your picture. Just loosen that a turn or two and give it a tap with a hammer until it breaks free. Then remove the.drawbar and your chuck will slide out. I believe it is 3mt. You will need a spanner wrench but can also lock the spindle with a 1/4 round bar from the side. Go to little machine shop, they have everything you need if it.didn't have a spanner.
 
LMS is great and if you want to you can put an R8 spindle in it. im going to be gettign a good drill chick and have it mounted to a 3/4 stub so i can get into the mill with less moving of things
 
butcher_block said:
LMS is great and if you want to you can put an R8 spindle in it. im going to be gettign a good drill chick and have it mounted to a 3/4 stub so i can get into the mill with less moving of things
Click to expand...

I just installed an R8 to #33 chuck taper so I could mount a chuck I had from one of my lathes on it instead of the tailstock. Works pretty good.
 
You will need to buy a new chuck the stock one is useless,

Here is a user tip

Get a small air wrench from HF and use that to tighten and release the draw bar. It is one of the best time saviors.

I hang it by a bungee cord from the ceiling and just pull it down to change out tooling
 
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i must be doing theings wrong then i use the wrench to break the collet free then just use my fingers to unn screw things
 
Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that was a cap. Got the old chuck out no problem.
Now what do I want to replace it with? I am searching ebay and see a lot of chucks with R8 shafts. Is this what I want?
I want to try and stay away from the cheap stuff, even though it's going on a cheap mill. :| One day I'll move up.

Also, I am thinking I can use this to mill out the slot in a wa handle. What do I need? A certain collet and end mill?
 
Brock47 said:
Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that was a cap. Got the old chuck out no problem.
Now what do I want to replace it with? I am searching ebay and see a lot of chucks with R8 shafts. Is this what I want?
I want to try and stay away from the cheap stuff, even though it's going on a cheap mill. :| One day I'll move up.

Also, I am thinking I can use this to mill out the slot in a wa handle. What do I need? A certain collet and end mill?
Click to expand...

It depends on what you have to mount to the arbor. If you want to mount a drill chuck, I would recommend buying a used one of of craigslist, and mounting it to your R8 arbor, if you can't find it already on one. There is a large shop selling off its tooling in LA right now. Might be a good place to start to save some money. But the drive won't saver you time. :D

I wouldn't have been able to justify buying a new drill chuck that came with a lathe I already had, this time of year. My best option was to put it together from what I had, adding the arbor to adapt it to my mill.
 
ron_m80 said:
It depends on what you have to mount to the arbor. If you want to mount a drill chuck, I would recommend buying a used one of of craigslist, and mounting it to your R8 arbor, if you can't find it already on one. There is a large shop selling off its tooling in LA right now. Might be a good place to start to save some money. But the drive won't saver you time. :D

I wouldn't have been able to justify buying a new drill chuck that came with a lathe I already had, this time of year. My best option was to put it together from what I had, adding the arbor to adapt it to my mill.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that I can remove the HF chuck from it's arbor and put my own chuck on it? I have a Jacob's chuck from a craftsman drill press. I don't know if it will fit, but it might I guess.
 
Mill holder vs. collet. Apologies for my absolute ignorance on this.
I am trying to figure out what I need to buy for drill bits and end mills.
Should I buy collets for the size of each bit I intend to use? Should I get "holders" for each size?
Thanks for the patience folks. I feel pretty stupid on this. I've been reading and watching YouTube videos for hours and am learning a lot.
It's kind of amazing the mods you can do for one of these little machines.
 
You may be able to salvage the arbor?

This is what my chuck looked like when I took it off the MT3 taper.
ChuckDrillKeyedKeylessArbor.jpg


And this is the type of arbor I put it on once I got it off the old taper.
7-052-8.jpg


I currently only have collets for my commonly used end mill shank sizes. I purchased the R8 adapter for my drill chuck so I wouldn't need to buy a full set of collets for all the numbered drill sizes. This was a cost savings measure.
 
ron_m80 said:
You may be able to salvage the arbor?
This is what my chuck looked like when I took it off the MT3 taper.
And this is the type of arbor I put it on once I got it off the old taper.
I currently only have collets for my commonly used end mill shank sizes. I purchased the R8 adapter for my drill chuck so I wouldn't need to buy a full set of collets for all the numbered drill sizes. This was a cost savings measure.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ron. Any tips for pulling the chuck off the arbor?
 
Brock47 said:
Thanks Ron. Any tips for pulling the chuck off the arbor?
Click to expand...

A well seated wedge will separate a tapered chuck from its arbor.

Not all drill chucks are set on tapers. Cheaper ones can be threaded.
 
Brock,
First off. By the best chuck you can afford. Even a decent Albrecht found on Ebay will be superior chuck to a new import. Your mills might come and go, but you keep your good tooling. I would suggest going with end mill holders over collets. I think you will find that just a few sizes will be used so you may not want to purchase sets of mills and holders. In the future, when you move up to a better mill it will probably have an R8 or larger spindle, so don't spend too much on the MT holders. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.
 
Jonathans said:
Brock,
First off. By the best chuck you can afford. Even a decent Albrecht found on Ebay will be superior chuck to a new import. Your mills might come and go, but you keep your good tooling. I would suggest going with end mill holders over collets. I think you will find that just a few sizes will be used so you may not want to purchase sets of mills and holders. In the future, when you move up to a better mill it will probably have an R8 or larger spindle, so don't spend too much on the MT holders. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.
Click to expand...

In one of those rare alignments, the Jacobs chuck from my old drill press fits the HF R8 JT33 arbor. :)
 
I need some advice on collets. I have none at this point, but want to get a set for drills and end mills.
Any recommendations?
I like USA made tooling in general. I see a lot of stuff on ebay, but not much of it is branded.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks
 
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