Drill press with flair

[skizzo]

Interesting drill press acquisition yesterday, friction-drive variable speed made by Albany Hardware Specialty Manufacturing Co. of Albany, WI, circa 1910 or so. I got it from a guy who runs a vintage car restoration shop, who picked it up when he bought out the contents of an old barn in order to pick up a 1928 Hudson that was stored there. Apparently, this drill press had been sitting in the barn unused for the better part of 50 years. I didn't know exactly what it was when I went to pick it up, but was able to figure it out once I got home and started doing some research.

Fair bit of work ahead to get it running, including how to retrofit a motor mount for something that was designed to run off a line shaft system. But that variable speed half-dome drive assembly is just so slick.

Right side.





Left side.







Front view.











Rear view.

[Ruler2112]

Interesting find! Does it have 37 pieces of flair?

[bennybmn]

Ruler2112 said:

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Interesting find! Does it have 37 pieces of flair?

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I only see 36...

[gMike]

What a great old piece of tooling. Good luck getting it going!

[AHill]

Kinda steam punk before steam punk was popular. Cool find.

[Arlin Eastman]

That is really neat. I am really looking forward to how you do the rehab.

Thank you for posting it.

Arlin

[Herb G]

Whoa man! That thing is both retro & futuristic at the same time. Kinda looks like some kind of old time torture device.

Post pics if you're going to restore it. That thing belongs in a museum of tools or some place like that.

[Paul K. Murphy]

Neat.

[blackhat]

Now that is cool. Maybe you need your own line shaft.

[Bob10]

I would mount the motor and the machine on a platform or metal plate so the motor would not me attached to the machine by anything more than the belt. My Crescent BS is that way with the exception of the motor controls. Yet with yours even those could be dealt with without modifying the tool