Restoring an Old Drill Press

[rsstreet]

Looking real good Bill. Keep posting, I'm learning a lot.

Randy

[skizzo]

Thanks, not much to post when not much has gotten done, tho. The final push on the grunt work is often really hard to get motivated to do, especially on weeknights as opposed to weekends. We'll get there... I've gotten in an hour or two a couple nights this week, hope to do a bit more later tonight. Next couple days are iffy, tho, as we're gearing up to do LOML's booth in a flea market on Saturday. Life should always come first, eh, like it or not?

HEY, lookee there... over 2000 views. Thanks all, glad you're following along. I am making some progress. Really. No really.

[skizzo]

OK, back to actual updates. This post shows the table raising assembly and its parts both before and after cleanup. This thing is another relative pain... as are a lot assemblies that have gearing or sprockets. As I was starting to get it apart, driving out various taper pins and other mechanisms, I realized that I had helped a friend figure out one of these exact same assemblies a few months ago. He had been stumped at the intersecting parts so brought it over one Saturday afternoon. We figured it out together back then, and about half an hour into this one, I remembered how we had done it. So then it was just a matter of doing it without breaking anything.

Unfortunately for this thread, I was concentrating on getting everything apart and forgot to take some photos of the key steps. I'll try to remember to get them when I do its reassembly. Because of the complexity of this thing, I took closeups from all angles.





And there are those pesky locking double nuts that I couldn't get to while this was still on the column.



See that pin in the shaft of the smaller gear? There's another one in the shaft of the larger gear, and a longer one through the handle. They are taper pins, not roll pins, which means one end is larger than the other and they only go in or out in one direction. Figuring out which is the smaller end in order to drive it out from that end is often a challenge. One way of guessing, if it comes to that, is to see if one end is more recessed and the other end more protruding... if so, it's quite likely that the protruding end is larger and the recessed end smaller, so drive from the recessed end. Not a perfect answer, but tends to be the case more often than not.



Here's where I forgot to take photos, but now we're all apart.



Note also the little tabbed washer that works with the double-nut with the tab sitting in the keyshaft.



Now some shots of a couple parts before wire wheeling. Boring, so not everything is included.





Cleaning up a large threaded drive rod is always a challenge, especially when they are acme threads so are square on the bottom. It's tough to get into the deep corners. I typically use a combination of a wire wheel and the lathe, but a few days ago, somebody posted a technique on OWWM that talked about using a string or twine in the groove and turning the piece on a lathe. What the heck, sounds like something worth trying. Also, you don't need a metal lathe to do this, a wood lathe that can get down to low speeds would work too.





After spraying with lube, I first I took a little angled file and ran the threads in the middle just to break up any chunks or major gunk that might be there.



Then I took a piece of tough nylon string and, under power at low speed, ran it up the threads a few times.



Seems to work.



After that, a little wipedown on things and we have our money shot for this disassembled assembly.



Cool. It'll be interesting to get this back together, but hopefully shouldn't be too much trouble. The issue is always to get the pinholes lined up properly, which pretty much does all the parts aligning for you.

[skizzo]

Now a few more odds and ends items to work on as time permitted the last few days. I'm delaying work on the head and table because, well, I just didn't feel like tackling them yet. I'm planning to try to do them tomorrow so that I can get the painting done this weekend. Motor bearings came in today, so I want to get parts painted first to let the paint harden while I put the motor together. We're getting there.

First a cost-saving tip, courtesy of master guru, Bob Vaughan. As your wire wheels are getting close to used up, before you remove and toss them out, pull them off and turn them around. You'll get some more use out of them before you have to replace with new. I did that at this point. Be aware that the wheel will suddenly become much more aggressive than it was a few minutes before, and it'll also shoot a lot more little arrows at you. You'll come to feel like Gulliver battling the Lilliputians, but it does get a few more hours' use out of the wheel.

Used wheel before reversing.



After reversing... note how much more downward the tines are facing.



Ok, back to work. First, some effort to pull the locking pin out of the table casting. This was a bit of a challenge because it was stuck in there pretty good.



The motor mount cleanup.





After stripping, and before final wipedown, run the threads for the set screws on the motor tension rod holders.





The steel column mount that bolts into the bottom of the table casting. I forgot to remove this before spooging the table, but it came off with no problem and cleaned right up.





And finally, I got around to doing the handle.



I decided not to try to remove the knobs because they are really stuck on there. Upon inspection, I also discovered that two of them have significant cracks in the bakelight material. It's the first notably degraded part that I've found in this whole machine, so I'm not complaining. Unless someone has any other great ideas, I think I'll mix up some epoxy and fill the cracks to try and stabilize the bakelight. I'll see whether they need to be repainted, which might be needed depending on how the repair looks.



Thanks for watcing. This is indeed coming along. If I can get painting done tomorrow, or at least this weekend, then I just need to get the motor back together and can reassemble the thing next week.

[2beast]

Keep em coming Bill

As I near an upcoming DP rebuild this is Oh so interesting

[Ken C.]

Skizzo...just logged in for the first time in a long time and have really enjoyed your WT restoration so far. You know I know how much work that is. I have way too many restorations going at the same time now.

I really smiled when I saw you using my string idea for the lead screw. I feel vindicated...lol

The day I had that I idea I called my wife at her office and she got quite a laugh that I had suddenly developed an urgent need for twine and needed to know where it was...

Keep it up....I want to see more...

By the way...that Wilton vise on your bench seems to have a very long tail cap...did you modify that?

[Bullethead]

Skiz, what an amazing thread. Thanks so much for doing this!

[skizzo]

skizzo said:

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I'm delaying work on the head and table because, well, I just didn't feel like tackling them yet. I'm planning to try to do them tomorrow so that I can get the painting done this weekend.

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Well, that didn't happen, will see how far I get tomorrow... painting certainly won't get finished. Oh well.

I spent the day at LOML's booth at the flea market today, sold off various surplus crap, er, tools and such, and picked up a neat little 3" quick-release bench vise. It's a Quikcet made by Grand Specialties of Chicago, circa mid-1940s.

Ken C. said:

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By the way...that Wilton vise on your bench seems to have a very long tail cap...did you modify that?

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Speaking of vises, since this has been brought up a couple times... my main bench vise is a 4 1/2" "WiltOmatic"... seriously... model number 5S450. It is a pneumatic model that uses a foot-pedal air-powered assembly (which I don't have) to provide about 1/8" of travel to slam the jaws closed, hands-free. A thread from when I restored it a year or so ago is at:

http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52431

Here are a couple shots just after I finished restoring it.





And the catalog copy.







It was suggested when I got it that I might want to find someone with a normal tail assembly and trade out mine, since it takes up more bench space. I don't think so.

[skizzo]

Post deleted by skizzo

[Rickbaro]

Hi Bill,

I just got one of these that is identical to yours, but you're way ahead of me. Would you mind starting over so I can follow along this time?

I really am glad you did this. For sure I'll be referring back to this thread once I start mine