Restoring an Old Drill Press

[skizzo]

Very nice, gonna have to have one of those some day, too. My motor thread is going to show an almost identical photo to the first one in your post. Except the motor shaft just won't come out. Like a weeble, it wobbles but it won't fall out.

[skizzo]

Cross-referencing to the separate motor restoration thread

Quick post while in the process of deciding what paint color to use on this. I know what the best color match is to the original WT yellowish grey/green from Sherwin-Williams:

http://wiki.owwm.com/PaintColorsWalkerTurner.ashx

Unfortunately, I also know that I can't get it here and that even if I could, I wouldn't likely use it because I stick with rattlecans. So I'm taking suggestions for colors if anyone want to nominate. Especially any locals who may be interested in this thing when I'm done and would like to help pick the color.

One common choice is Rustoleum Dark Machinery Grey, which is well-known to be the best approximation to to old original Delta grey. But I don't recall ever using that on a WT machine, preferring either something that I already have on a shelf nearing expiration, or a unique color scheme. On this I may be leaning towards a cream white to go with the black and white on the motor. Don't begin to know yet, but will need to decide probably later today.

[skizzo]

I didn't knock myself out today like I often do on a free Saturday, but did make good progress by getting the base and column cleaned up. Started about 2:00 and was done at 6:00, and got to work outside, in the shade, on a gorgeous 75-degree afternoon.

As it turns out, it was actually helpful that I didn't even try to take the base off, because it made it much easier to work on the column. I could stand it up on either a table or the ground as needed, which would not have been possible separately. Good choice all around, for sure.

As I said way back up thread, there are lots of different ways to tackle heavy rust... electrolysis (spooge tank), chemical strippers, chucking up the column in a big lathe, blast cabinets, several others. I decided some time ago that I'll just use an aggressive approach of a coarse cup wheel in an angle grinder and blow through everything. Without any doubt, at least to me, it's the fastest and most cost-effective approach possible. Others may dispute that, no problem.

The risk with the grinder cup wheel, which has scared away friends a couple times, is that it may leave marks on unpainted parts like steel columns and cast iron tables. Legitimate concern. On painted parts, it doesn't matter... after a couple coats of primer and several coats of paint, any sign of marks are long gone. But that is one of the reasons I asked a friend to dunk the table in his spooge tank... there doesn't appear to be any dings or dimples in the table under the rust, so I don't want to introduce anything onto it. First rule I try to follow: don't make anything worse. With this column and base, tho, that wasn't gonna happen no matter what I did.

My approach is a three-step process: angle grinder with a cup brush, hand scrubbing with WD40, mineral spirits and scotchbrite pads, and buffing/polishing with a hand drill buffer. None of these take much more than an hour, and the only one that's hard work is the hand scrubbing.

I set up for grinding in the front yard, same as I do for painting as we'll see later. Two sturdy Husky folding stands support the column, and clamp the top end to keep it from rocking and to counterbalance the weight of the base.

Notice the dog hanging out in the background, BTW... that's Jasper, our 13-year old Golden Retriever. He hates sharp noises like nail guns or fireworks, which he has related to the compressor by association, and completely freaks out when I turn on my nice, quiet little Makita compressor. But the massively loud noise of the grinder or a lawnmower passing by two feet away doesn't even raise an eyebrow. He'll hang out for hours while I'm working on stripping something big, and absolutely loves it. I've never figured it out.



If you're going to do this, be prepared with every safety apparel possible. These things spin little wires at 14,000 rpm, which become little arrows that will pierce anything in the vicinity. As anybody who uses a wire wheel knows, the same thing happens there, but those wires are smaller and not traveling nearly as fast. So I make sure I wear, L-R, respirator, goggles, apron, and earmuffs.



Here are shots of half the column after a couple minutes, showing the difference after a couple passes with the grinder. I didn't think to take a shot of the rig when I turned it over and had the base facing upwards. Basically, I balanced the base dead vertical, wedged in a couple pieces of plywood alongside the column, and then clamped the top end. It wobbled just a little bit, but stayed put so that I could do the other half.





Half an hour later or so, the column and base are done, other than the flat surface which I left for the moment while I took photos. If you're wondering, that's a big beautiful camphor tree that I'm working under.





Remember that little bit of the column that was sitting too low in the base and causing it to rock slightly? Time to get rid of that problem by replacing the cup wheel with a grinding wheel. Ten minutes later, problem is solved.







I did notice the other day that there is a small hole in the base casting... such is life, shouldn't matter for anything. Oh yeah, except for the fact that a black widow came out of it while I was working down there. Grinder 1, spider 0.

While I was working on the bottom, I gave it my usual quick scrub with a scotchbrite. I don't paint these areas, but always at least give them a once-over to get rid of whatever surface grime I can. To my amazement, this one turned out to be the ultimate definition of surface rust only. What I thought had been (and was) really nasty completely cleaned up in about five minutes. BTW, this also shows a pretty good idea of what the original WT grey/green color looked like. It's paler than army olive drab, greener than Delta Dark Machinery Grey (DMG), and has long been the subject/objective of a good replication, as noted in an earlier post.





OK, enough of stage one. I've been at this for maybe a couple hours, time to move to hand scrubbing the column. It's a combination of a couple passes with WD40 to remove rust remnants, then a couple passes with mineral spirits to remove oils and embedded grime. I use different scotchbrites for each, because the first one retains much more grime than the second.



The top half is done, the bottom yet to go.



Next, I take my old, dedicated Ridgid ROS and a scotchbrite to the table surface (I had already gone over it w/ the grinder).



Now, we're on the the third step and getting close to done. I use a little buffing wheel, white rouge buffing compound, and a hand drill to buff this out. Side note: this little Makita 3/8" drill is the single longest-owned tool I have. I got this when I first got married about 20 years ago, along with a long since gone cheap chop saw and circular saw. I have used the heck out of it and it still goes on, and on, and on. For hours and years on end, and not one minute of maintenance or repair. Best tool I've ever bought.



The difference between the polished (bottom) and unpolished surfaces. I also gave the flat part of the base the same finish treatment.



And finally, again, the money shots for the day. If I could find just one shade lighter rattlecan paint compared to that PM90 lathe in the background, it would be really close to original WT, but I (and others) have yet to come up with it.





Thanks all. Hope to get some painting done tomorrow, but have a bit of stripping, cleaning, and taping to do first.

First cost was incurred today: $60 for a few good wire wheels, scotchbrite pads, and paint.

Night.

[mlincoln]

Great thread! I'm really enjoying this, and I loved to see the old Makita drill that's still going strong. A couple months ago I found a made in Japan Makita recip saw at a garage sale for $25. Not the biggest gloat of all time, but I have a good feeling it too will be around for many years.

It's a silly question, but how does your lawn hold up to all the chemical splatter. I've got to think that the WD40 and mineral spirits must be a bit rough on it. Do you put down a drop cloth or is it not a problem?

Keep up the great work and keep the posts coming!

[Mr_Mike]

Bill, add me too the list of lurkers very interested in this thread.

I've only done a modestly old Sunhill 8" Jointer and 20" planer. Both about as rusty as what you are doing now. Some parts a bit worse. Tables about like yours. They were outdoors on a loading dock for a year in Simi Valley under plastic sheeting.

Pretty much the same techniques, but a bit different too.

I used a spooge tank way more than you do. Especially useful for rusty bolts and the like too. I think that a reloader's vibratory polisher would be the bee's knees though for hardware.

For paint, I tend to go down to the local auto paint store and pick up a quart of whatever I want. They can also color match. I prefer a real spray rig to rattle can, but I've done a lot of rattle can too.

One a side note, I think i have that same Makita drill. I married into it, so I have no idea how old it is. Works very well.

And, those sawhorses are just wonderful. I have two and use them for everything. Occasionally for sawing. I had a repair guy in doing a warrantee repair on the wall oven and he was scratching his head on how to work on the oven effectivily. I pull one of those out and he was impressed. We he came back to install the ordered parts, he had his own with him.

[skizzo]

mlincoln said:

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how does your lawn hold up to all the chemical splatter. I've got to think that the WD40 and mineral spirits must be a bit rough on it. Do you put down a drop cloth or is it not a problem?

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Two points. First, I only do this maybe once every couple months at most. Second, hardly any chemicals get into the grass. They largely stay on the parts and get wiped off in the paper towels. I guess I forgot to mention that I use at least one full roll of paper towels, usually more, on a big full project like this.

--------------------------

When I left off here, I still hadn't decided on a paint color. Olive drab is out, as is the darker green I use on old Powermatic stuff. When I was looking through the paint cabinet at the paint/hardware store yesterday, I noticed one row in between those two colors that was empty. Name was Sage Green, and seems like something I should check out.

Shifting gears today, I went over to dtsails' place to pick up the table from his spooge tank. I know that he has some WT pieces and actually used the classic sprayed Sherwin-Williams formula on his nice WT table saw. I wanted to get a photo of the table saw to get a better idea of the color. As we were talking, he dug into his paint cabinet and pulled out a couple different rattlecans... one a greener shade called Oregano that I saw yesterday, and one a partially used can of Sage. Cool. Here they are up against the cabinet on his table saw, Sage on the right.



Clearly, it is the closer of the two, which means that it is also a very reasonable approximation without going to greater lengths to find something else. He gave me the can of Sage and said to try it out and see what I think. Thanks David.

Rather than just spend time on a test piece, I figured I might as well just go ahead and paint the base. It's all prepped, just needed to be taped off and set up. If I don't like the color ultimately, I can paint over it later. If I do like it, then the base is done.

Back to a setup in the yard, same location as yesterday. Put the base up on a stand, tape off the flat machined surface and the column.



Couple coats of primer, using rattlecan Rustoleum Rusty Metal primer.



20 minutes or so later, when the primer is dry to the touch (but still very soft), come back and give it a light coat of paint, then repeat a couple more times on about 10 minute intervals. The first photo has terrible glare from the outside location. The second is a little better a couple hours later back inside the garage.





Wait a little longer, pull off the taped sections, and see what it looks like.





That'll do for me. It also passed the LOML test, who saw it and said "that's beautiful, it's what you should have used on your lathe in the first place." Can't win for losing, but I do like it. So the paint color question has been resolved, now I just have to find a store that has it in stock.

Total time today, another 3-4 hours, including lots of running around... related and not. Started a bit before noon, stopped at 5:30, but was away from the house for more than a couple hours in there. Pretty much no hard work at all, just plugging away.

The rest of this week will focus on stripping and cleaning other parts, locating a source for the paint, and generally working through the various piles and bins of parts to move them from the disassembled state to ready-for-assembly condition. Of everything that's involved in a project, my favorite activity by far is standing at a wire wheel turning dirty, grungy pieces into bright and shiny steel parts. Some people hate it, but I love it. I save that type of work for weekday nights when I can just spend an hour or two doing totally mindless and productive stuff that cranks out nice parts.

Till next time.

[skizzo]

Mr_Mike said:

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those sawhorses are just wonderful. I have two and use them for everything.

---

Thanks Mike. I have four of those stands, got them several years ago, and use them all the time. I agree, they really are nice. The load capacity and durability are outstanding. I have a good turbine sprayer, but have chosen to just go with rattlecans. Setup and cleanup time is non-existent. I've thought about color matching a couple times, especially for the old Powermatic Pea Green, but the local outlets can't get the base color that's needed to start with. So I gave it up for the ease of rattlecans and just make do.

Glad to see you're following along, hope things are well down in your area.

Bill.

[Cannon51]

I'm wondering why you decided not to prime and paint the underside of the base.
Cannon

[fishhh4]

I got a pm 1150 to do this winter and am enjoying this thread , lots of good tips . thanks skizzo for the very well documented thread. i like the way your column turned out and will use the buffing wheel as well.
fishhh

[MountainWood]

Have you no shame? Setting up that painted column right next to your cool PM jointer?

I sense that jointer is gonna turn baby poo yellow-green with envy at some point in the near future.







Cool thread.