On 2013-10-05, Jon Danniken wrote:
On 10/04/2013 05:31 PM, F. George McDuffee wrote:

Do you disconnect the quill spring when using a drill press for tapping?

Well ... *I* don't -- but I use a TapMatic tapping head, which
reverses the tap and speeds it up when withdrawing from the tapped hole.

How hard is it to do that and then reconnect it when done?

I suspect that varies with the design of the drill press.

Mine has a flat spring wound up and connected to a notch in the
end of the shaft for the feed handles. The other end engages a groove
in a cup which is clamped to the side of the drill press. You adjust
the tension to balance the weight of the qulll plus the chuck (or the
tapping head) and add a little more lift for convenience -- and ideally
never touch that adjustment again.

I've not followed the URLs to see what was being described. You
might need to back off the tension if you were using it like the
so-called "tapping machines" where it guides the tap in vertically, but
you provide the turning of the tap with a crank on the upper end.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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