David,

Good thing you told me about the end mills (slot drills), I would have
put then straight into the chuck. I think there is an Arbour that came
with the machine, I'll see if I can use this with the slot drills I have.

Happy to help. **IF** I understand what a slot drill is, you will want
to mount it in either an R8 collet, an ER collet, or anything else folks
here tell you is ok.


To change the chuck over to the arbour I assume you loosen off the bolt
up in the motor pulley

You will find two nuts - it's the small/top one, _not_ the 2+ incher.
You might need to hold the big one (an adjustable slot wrench works for
this) as a poor man's spindle lock.

But yes, loosen the nut on top The nut is part of the draw bar. To
avoid injury (still trying to forget how I learned this!!!g), loosen
the draw bar so that it turns freely, but back off only a couple of
turns, not all the way. Now tap with the mallet (lightly at first) to
dislodge the arbor. Try to turn a little and tap (perhaps even with the
palm of your hand once it's loose) as you go. The idea is to release
the arbor a little at a time rather than in one big movement that can
hurt you or the table. Note that you still need to be careful once you
fully release the drawbar, but it will hopefully be fully released vs.
breaking away unexpectedly.


and give the shaft a tap ? (this is my
interpretation of the pseudo English instructions that came with the
machine).

Try rubber and then brass if it's really stubborn. Confession: the
first time out, I had to resort to an ordinary hammer after furious
pounding w/ a rubber mallet. As I suspected, the "real" hammer did the
job with the **GENTLEST** of taps; don't over do it. In general, the
draw bar does not need to be very tight, so if you are having to whack
like a madman every time, stop overtightening the thing. Mine comes
loose w/ a rubber mallet.


When I put the chuck on, I just tapped it on the tapered shaft
with a rubber mallet. I assume this is wrong and I should
have loosened the nut on top of the tapper, press the chuck onto it and
then tightened the nut ?

Not sure I follow. IF I follow, the taper was in the machine, and I
would have preferred that you remove it as above, and then mount the
chuck on the taper. To do that, make sure the female and male tapers
are clean, then twist them together until they are about as stuck as you
can get them by hand. Turn the whatever it's called on the chuck to
retract the jaws into the body(!!), then put the chuck down on a piece
of wood on your floor, and use a mallet (preferably a dead blow) to
whack the arbor into the chuck; one really good shot should do it. If
you have only a metal hammer, use wood or something to cushion the blow
to the arbor; better yet, buy a dead blow hammer. Some recommend
putting things in the freezer, but given the advice above, I got mine to
stick on the first try.

Having been through that exercise, you see a big reason why chucks and
transverse loads do not mix.


If this is how it should be done, do I need to loosen the belts first ?

Not until you want to change speed. The drawbar fits inside the
spindle, so the pulleys and belts are blissfully uninvolved.

Back to the collets, I strongly recommend an ER (probably 32) collet
set, if you can at all afford it. Rather than type like a madman, I
will refer you to http://groups.google.com with the following search:

ER 32 collet chuck group:rec.crafts.metalworking

Long story short, it is a great way to the business end of a colleted
endmill and a chucked bit at about the same distance from the spindle
and therefore from the work. It also allows you to change tools
quickly, and closer to the work than you can w/ R8 collets. Since round
column mill-drills are not forgiving about moving the head, it is a
welcome edge. Note that R8 collets are much cheaper than ER.

Ask around here about endmill holders before you buy anything.


Thanks heaps for all the assistance, I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Bill