I would have thought a decent drill like this would have a morse taper in the quill. Lower the quill and you should see a slot, rotate the chuck until the MT tang lines up and insert an ejector wedge. Give this a sharp tap and catch the chuck as it releases. No need to belt hell out of it, just square on sharp taps.
By turning the bottom ring toward the chuck it presses off the chuck from the taper. It's NOT a morse taper it was a special angle made to mate with the Jacobs chuck inside taper minus a quarter of a degree.
I know because I actually *Made* them at Startrite when they were in Gillingham in Waterside Lane. I was their only centre lathe turner and I produced these by the thousand on a copy lathe.
17 mins to do the job, made a template from an original spindle, set up, production from straight bar with a centre in each end was 6 mins. 2 cuts, 1 rough, 1 finishing. Sent to grinding for the taper finish andthen to milling for the splines. Made shed loads of bonus on that little number ;-)
I can't argue with an info source with that provenance! I stand corrected. Apologies to OP
( I did preface my reply with 'I would have thought...')
I must remember that as a used decent pillar drill is on my ebay shopping list and I'd want a 2MT machine to suit existing tooling. I'd not of even consider checking if a Startrite drill had a morse taper.
replying to Bob Minchin, John wrote: I have today just removed my"Solid made in GDR" keyless1/2" chuck from my Startright Mercury MK2 by using the knurled rings as posted.Came off a treat.
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