Adding a morse taper to drill press.

[PJs]

Wow Tony you are gonna fit right in here! This post particularly hits home to me as I picked up a 49'-50' King Seeley/Craftsman bench press about a month ago and have been restoring it...all the while wondering how this might be accomplished. Your press looks to be 70's vintage but the 5/8" spindle and rack are almost identical.

Unfortunately my spindle has a stop at the taper end that appears to be blind pinned. This pic is not long after I got it apart with only minor clean up.



The pin doesn't show on the opposite side and I might assume it's either tapered or maybe a splined pin??

The impressive thing about your R8 version is it doesn't add too much to the original length with the chuck which would be important for a bench model. I rarely get anything over a 1/2 bit and have used Silver Demmings once or twice in my current press but not much room for work after that. Mine has the original Jacobs 6A "0"-1/2" chuck but someone along the way spun a few bits in it so it's only good down to 1/32-3/64 now. I may see if new "0" jaws aren't prohibitively expensive. Ultimately I think the runout would be better with a good R8 but somehow really appreciate the beefy vintage of it.

I am curious what kind of clearances you left between the rack throat and your quill extension and does it just butt up to the bottom of the old bearing recess?

Thanks for sharing this great mod that a lot of us have thought about!! ~PJ