On 10/05/2013 07:52 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:
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.


Aye, that's the same way mine is set up as well. I've read of fellows
talking about disconnecting the spring for tapping, but never really
figured out how exactly to go about doing it; it would probably be
enough to just back off the tension so the quill didn't retract, but I
don't know if the spring mechanism is really set up to be continually
adjusted like that.

Jon