lens wrote:
My MT2 drill chuck got stuck in my lathe tailstock. I did not want to
crank *too too* hard trying to push the arbor out for fear of damaging
feed threads. I finally got it out by taking apart the tailstock and
heating the ram (if that's the right term) with a little propane torch.
Tapping a rod thru the ram then popped the chuck out. Tapping the rod
did not work until I added the heat.

My question is how do I prevent the chuck (or other arbors) from
sticking (that much) in the first place?

Don't worry about cranking too hard. The morse tapers are suppose to be
self locking yet they will usually pop right out when you fully retract
the tailstock. If for some reason your tailstock is designed to release
only tapers with driver tangs then you may have use a fork. I use a slim
line open end wrench which fits over the protruding portion of the morse
taper. Then the tailstock spindle is retracted into the tailstock
casting the wrench serves as a spacer to pop out the MT.