drill press chuck key

[kityuser]

people:

I need help! I need to call apon the ocean of experience available in here!!!!

As some of you may be aware, I was given a very nice old drill press a few months ago (which i have now discovered has a 1.5 ph motor on it )

BUT i have no chuck key, i don`t know how to find out what size it is, all i know is that it must be a little bit bigger than my power drill chuck key( because it fits in the hole, but is loose and wont tighten up the chuck properly).

how are chuck key sizes specified??

hole diameter? distance from hole to teeth of the chuck????

I have no idea

please help!!!
(cheers in advance)

 

[Anonymous]

Steven,

Not an ocean of experience, more like a puddle on this one!

Just to say, maybe this is more of an engineering thing. They use drill presses all day long and older ones too. Don't know if you've got any friendly engineering shops around you, perhaps pop in and nose?

Good Luck

 

[Anonymous]

Onle a damp patch of experience but may help?

If it's a 1.5 HP drill it will have at least a 16mm 5/8 Chuck that is the dia of the drill bit that will fit in the jaws. Power drills often have a 13mm chuck or less and therefore the key is smaller due to theoutside diam of the chuck.

If you check the dia of your drill (it should be printed on the chuck) this will tell you what size key you have to order.

 

[sawdustalley]

On the discussion of 'chucks' I have a silly self ejecting key, which you can't leave in the chuck.

Its a great idea, but I find I have to battle with it when doing the chuck up