I needed a drill chuck to fit my tailstock for a project I'm working
on. Problem was I didn't have one and didn't want to spend the $50 or
more for a chuck and morse-taper adapter. I did have an old HF 9.6v
cordless drill which had a keyless Jacobs on it. SO....

I took the drill apart. Disasembled the "clutch" assembly which left me
with the chuck mounted on a shaft with a flange at the end. The shaft
was about 3" long and just a bit too large to fit the #1mt in my
tailstock. Perfect.

Hacksawed off the flange. Now the trick was going to be how to taper
the shaft. I mounted the shaft in a small 3-jaw scroll chuck I have
for the lathe. Tried using a file but that was waaay too slow.
Hmmmm....wait, I know! I have an Oland/Feltmate tool which uses a HSS
1/4" square tool-bit. Those are normally used for metalwork.

Having nothing to loose but an eyeball or piece of finger...I put the
lathe on its slowest setting (which is about 500rpm), position the
toolrest, turn on the lathe and cautiosly approach the spinning shaft
with my homemade tool.

It makes one heck of a lot of screetching but by using a very soft
touch and fiddling with the approach angle, I'm able to get the tool to
cut! It takes about an hour and the finish is very rough (talk about
chatter!) but I'm able to taper the shaft to fit the tailstock. Took
quite a few tries using the tailstock to check for fit but it worked.
Used a fine file to smooth out the chatter marks and I'm done.

Just for good measure, I then drilled and tapped the end of the shaft
for a 1/4" piece of all-thread to use as a draw-bar.

I think I paid less than $10 for the HF drill several months ago when
it was on sale. Can't say if it will work for all dead drills but it
might be worth looking into if you need a drill-chuck.

bill W