The Craftsman 17" Drill Press

A few days ago Lord of Lava Island on discord asked about our drill presses.  I reported my Craftsman 17 inch has a lot of runout.   I was living with the runout but once I told the world about it things chanced in my mind.   

So I took a DTI to it.  One inch from the chuck I was measuring 5 thou runout.   I swaped in the 1/2" Nova chuck I use on the wood working and Atlas lathes.  Same bar same location showed less then 1 thou run out.

Tried to unscrew the MT2 from the drill presses 5/8" chuck.  Failed.  But now realize that it could well be a  JT33 taper and I can possibly drive it out with a punch between the jaws.  A new MT2-JT33 taper is only $14 while a new chuck of decent quality is more like $50 and up.

The atlas came with a MT2 1/2" chuck    I should check it while I am at it.  

TO BE CONTINUED