Lock wire nut drilling

Abstract

An apparatus for drilling lock wire holes in lock wire nuts includes a variable speed drill press mounted on a work bench and having a vertically movable drill quill supporting a rotating drill spindle on one end of which is mounted a drill chuck for holding and driving a drill bit for drilling a hole in the lock wire nuts. An N/C microprocessor is coupled to the drill press for controlling the vertical motion of the drill quill in a peck drill cycle. A nut holder, including a collet chuck having three jaw inserts is mounted in a chuck indexer for positioning the chuck in any of three 120.degree. angularly spaced positions about a central longitudinal axis through the chuck. A drill guide in each of said jaw inserts guides the drill bit at an angle against said faces of said nuts to drill lock wire holes through the nut lobes. The chuck indexer is mounted on an X-Y positioner, in turn mounted on the work bench, for positioning the drill guide in the jaw inserts to be drilled through precisely in alignment with the drill in the drill press. The jaw inserts are indexed one by one in the chuck in line with the drill bit and the N/C microprocessor controls the drill press to execute the peck drill cycle through the drill guide to drill a lock wire hole through the desired lobes of the lock wire nut.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.