[made2hack]

Hi All,

I am unclear how tapers work. I attached two examples hopefully it makes sense. My understanding is that there are mill machines that follow the first example, where the spindle has an inside bore that follows the taper of the tool holder, think cat taper. And you use a draw bar to pull it in and keep it tightened. This allows for a large surface area of contact.

Now, do drill presses use this? Or are drill presses just like in example two? A regular bore with a very small contact area? I guess the draw bar can still be used to hold the tool holder in place but there is almost no contact area for the taper and the bore?

What about lathe tail stocks? Are they also just a straight bore with some kind of clamping force to hold a tapered tool?

Thanks,

[Jim Dawson]

Drill presses that have tapered spindles normally use a Morse taper, as do lathe tailstocks and many lathe spindles. Morse tapers are self holding and no draw bar is required for normal drilling and center holding operations. When a Morse taper is used for a milling cutter holder, normally a drawbar is used.

There are many types of tapers for machine tool spindles.

[awerby]

I don't think any of them look like your second picture. They all look more or less like the first, with or without the drawbar.

[made2hack]

Ok, so even a drill press will have a tapered bore inside the spindle / quill?

[Jim Dawson]

Ok, so even a drill press will have a tapered bore inside the spindle / quill?

Many do, but not all. Many lower end drill presses have a solid spindle and you are not able to change tools. But most drill presses with a socket in the spindle will have a Morse taper bore.

[made2hack]

Many do, but not all. Many lower end drill presses have a solid spindle and you are not able to change tools. But most drill presses with a socket in the spindle will have a Morse taper bore.

Thanks Jim and everyone.

It gives me food for thought as I am planing to build both a lathe and drill press / light mill from scratch and was wondering how to plan to do these parts. Granted I have no way of machining any kind of taper since I have no machine tools currently.

Maybe I will start with a straight bore design and upgrade once I have the basic machines running.