Gentlemen,

I have a couple of Milwaukee Steel Hawg magnetic drill presses. One is
a model 4240 and the other, a 4245. Both use different "quick change"
cutters which are not cross compatible. Apparently, some of the later
model Milwaukee drills use a #3 morse taper arbor that can be made
compatible with the 4245 (but not the 4240) cutters by means of an
adapter. Therefore, the machines appear to be backwardly compatible
with the older cutters but not forwardly compatible.

Anybody have any experience with these older machines? I would like
to be able to use the later threaded type cutters with either or both
of these cutters, if possible. It would also be good to be able to
use the cutters in a drill press. I have two machines and at present,
only one cutter for each machine. Therefore, for them to do me any
good I'm gonna have to sink some money into cutters for one or the
other. Since the cutters are expensive I can't afford to invest in
cutters for both. And whichever one I go with I would like to be able
to use the cutters on my Chinese drill press. If I'm not mistaken the
Jacobs chuck on the drill press fits onto an arbor with a #3 morse
taper. Speaking of Jacobs chucks and arbors it would be positively
ducky if I could fit a chuck to either of the metal hawgs and use
regular twist drills in it.

After doing a fair amount of googling my preliminary impression is "it
ain't gonna happen" to use a jacobs chuck on either machine. However,
it does appear that I might be able to buy cutters for the 4245 hawg
and that there is an adapter (big $$$ however) that will enable the
4245 cutters to be usable with the LATER model hawgs that use a #3
morse taper arbor. What I'm wondering is whether that same arbor will
work in my Chinese drill press? If there is a #3 morse taper out
there is there one that's cheaper than the $400+ critter sold by
Milwaukee? During my googling I saw a discussion among home-built
dirt digger freaks who were discussing how they managed to drill big
holes in thick steel for their projects. One guy said he bought a #3
arbor from a guy in England and that this enabled him to use the
Milwaukee cutters. As is probably apparent by now I am not very
knowledgeable about machine tools.

Hope this makes sense. Is anybody in here up to speed on all of this?
I would like to be able to clearly understand what I can and cannot
hope to accomplish with these machines.

Thanks and best holiday wishes.

Vernon

On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:48:23 -0800 (PST), Vernon
wrote:

Gentlemen,

I have a couple of Milwaukee Steel Hawg magnetic drill presses. One is
a model 4240 and the other, a 4245. Both use different "quick change"
cutters which are not cross compatible. Apparently, some of the later
model Milwaukee drills use a #3 morse taper arbor that can be made
compatible with the 4245 (but not the 4240) cutters by means of an
adapter. Therefore, the machines appear to be backwardly compatible
with the older cutters but not forwardly compatible.

Anybody have any experience with these older machines? I would like
to be able to use the later threaded type cutters with either or both
of these cutters, if possible. It would also be good to be able to
use the cutters in a drill press. I have two machines and at present,
only one cutter for each machine. Therefore, for them to do me any
good I'm gonna have to sink some money into cutters for one or the
other. Since the cutters are expensive I can't afford to invest in
cutters for both. And whichever one I go with I would like to be able
to use the cutters on my Chinese drill press. If I'm not mistaken the
Jacobs chuck on the drill press fits onto an arbor with a #3 morse
taper. Speaking of Jacobs chucks and arbors it would be positively
ducky if I could fit a chuck to either of the metal hawgs and use
regular twist drills in it.

After doing a fair amount of googling my preliminary impression is "it
ain't gonna happen" to use a jacobs chuck on either machine. However,
it does appear that I might be able to buy cutters for the 4245 hawg
and that there is an adapter (big $$$ however) that will enable the
4245 cutters to be usable with the LATER model hawgs that use a #3
morse taper arbor. What I'm wondering is whether that same arbor will
work in my Chinese drill press? If there is a #3 morse taper out
there is there one that's cheaper than the $400+ critter sold by
Milwaukee? During my googling I saw a discussion among home-built
dirt digger freaks who were discussing how they managed to drill big
holes in thick steel for their projects. One guy said he bought a #3
arbor from a guy in England and that this enabled him to use the
Milwaukee cutters. As is probably apparent by now I am not very
knowledgeable about machine tools.

Hope this makes sense. Is anybody in here up to speed on all of this?
I would like to be able to clearly understand what I can and cannot
hope to accomplish with these machines.

Thanks and best holiday wishes.

Vernon

Vern..a #3 MT can be had for very very little money..and you shoudl be
able to simply modify the end of it to fit.

What is the thread on the threaded bits? If you can tell us that..Im
sure we can come up with a number of good ideas.

Btw...is that MT device simply held in by the taper..or is there a draw
bolt that holds it in?

Im not familiar with the Milwaukee mag drills

Gunner

"I'm a lifelong devout atheist, and I'm very tolerant of other beliefs..."
Pete C.

On 2010-12-28, Vernon wrote:
Gentlemen,

I have a couple of Milwaukee Steel Hawg magnetic drill presses. One is
a model 4240 and the other, a 4245. Both use different "quick change"
cutters which are not cross compatible.
model Milwaukee drills use a #3 morse taper arbor that can be made
compatible with the 4245 (but not the 4240) cutters by means of an
adapter. Therefore, the machines appear to be backwardly compatible
with the older cutters but not forwardly compatible.

Anybody have any experience with these older machines? I would like
to be able to use the later threaded type cutters with either or both
of these cutters, if possible. It would also be good to be able to
use the cutters in a drill press.

[ ... ]

And whichever one I go with I would like to be able
to use the cutters on my Chinese drill press. If I'm not mistaken the
Jacobs chuck on the drill press fits onto an arbor with a #3 morse
taper.

*Which* Chinese drill press? Mine (actually from Taiwan back
around the late 1970s) uses a MT-2 arbor. (I would like it to use a
MT-3, simply so I could swap things directly between it and my lathe
tailstock, but the quill in the drill press is not large enough to
handle a MT-3 socket. This is one of the floor-standing ones with the
16-speed belt setup. Yes, there are larger drill presses (from China
and elsewhere) which have MT-3 sockets -- or even larger, but not this
one.

And I have my doubts that the entire setup from spindle up
through head, down through column and out to table is rigid enough to
use an annular cutter without a pilot anyway.

But -- you *could* get a MT-2 blank (if MT-2 is what fits your
drill press) and pop it into the lathe spindle (with whatever reducing
collar is necessary) and turn the other end to the proper dimensions to
accept the cutters. Those blank arbors are fairly inexpensive, and
would let you test whether your drill press is rigid enough for the
task.

Since I don't have one of the Milwaukee mag base drills, I don't
know what the mounting is for the cutters -- but if you have a lathe and
a mill, it is likely that you can make the necessary modifications to
the mild steel end of the blank MT-2 (or MT-3) arbor.

I've used these to make adaptors for two different sized
TapMatic tapping heads -- both of which have threaded holes for the
arbors instead of the more common Jacobs taper.

I suspect that the combined length of a chuck plus even a
screw-machine length drill bit would be too great to work with most mag
drills -- which are short to maximize rigidity -- one of the reasons
that a typical drill press is probably not rigid enough.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
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responding to
http://www.rittercnc.com/metalworkin...ty-484577-.htm
Dream2000 wrote:
To the original question: 4240 / 4245 Steel Hawgs

I have a 4240,which 'looks' like the 4245. The 4240 uses different cutters
from all other Milwaukee mag drills. Both release the cutter by pulling
down a ring on the spindle. The difference is how the cutter is driven.
The 4240 cutters have an internal keyway and the 4245 has 2 tangs. Both
are retained by the groove on the OD of the shank.
It would be impossible to modify either machines to use a chuck or any
adapter.
The reason is that both the 4240 & 4245 only have 1" of travel beyond the
length of these squatty cutters. The cutter for both are only available in
1" depth, while the other kinds are 1" or 2" depth.
To my knowledge, the 4240 cutters are 'discontinued', although some places
still have some. The 4245's may be discontinued too, but are the 'newer'
type of the two kinds. If you were to try to accumulate cutters, I'd
suggest pursuing the 4245 type.

As to the 49-57-0010,49-57-0012, or the chip-breaker 49-57-0013
adapters...the 3 range from ~ $100 to almost ~ $500 for the chip-breaker
version.

These use the thread internal cutters, which are widely available (but
still not cheap).

The last type of annular cutter is the 3/4" Weldon shank type, used by
Jancy,Dewalt,Milwaukee and others. They are Hi-Speed not carbide.

responding to
http://www.rittercnc.com/metalworkin...ty-484577-.htm
Dream2000 wrote:
I have a 4240.
The cutters for the 4240 are discontinued. There are some places that
still have them though. I'd recommend chasing the ones for the 4245, the
tang-drive type.

As to modifying either machine...forget it. Both only have 1" of travel
beyond cutter length.

As to running some kind of adapter in a drill press (especially one from
China,etc) would be a great way to ruin the drill press spindle. These
cutters are sorta like a hollow end-mill,and they want to 'walk'.
Running them in a mill would be OK, but not a drill-press.

The factory (expensive) adapters incorporate a spring-loaded center pin
affair, that centers the cutter and ejects the resulting slug.
I suppose if you were real careful and on smaller sizes, you may be able
to do it?...I would not try it.

Another option would be to sell both of those and buy a Milwaukee 4270-20
Compact Mag base. They use 3/4" Weldon shank annular cutters (hi-speed not
carbide) and are among the cheapest and most available. The Compact can
also use a 1/2" Jacobs drill for jobber-lenght drill bits.