Restoring an Old Drill Press

[skizzo]

Rickbaro said:

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I just got one of these that is identical to yours...

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Hey, Rick, I saw that. Nice find, even if it did involve crossing a few state lines. I know of another guy who picked up almost the identical machine a couple days ago, too. Three very similar machines, with unusual but desirable features, in three different parts of the country. He and were chatting about how many Walker-Turner DPs tend to turn up once you know to start looking for them.

Good luck on your work, and no, I ain't starting this one again. I'll be real glad once it's done.

[Jonny Rocket]

skizzo said:

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I know of another guy who picked up almost the identical machine a couple days ago, too. Three very similar machines, with unusual but desirable features, in three different parts of the country.

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Yeah but mine has the foot feed setup....

I will have to take some pics of mine as I noticed this morning that my table crank setup is upside down relative to Bill's and Ricks. Someone added a bearing for the shaft to turn on too.

[skizzo]

Jonny Rocket said:

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Yeah but mine has the foot feed setup....

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So says you... rumor is it's missing a part. And that your fancy original belt guard thingy isn't even CI, sheesh. Kidding aside, nice find, J. Good luck in deciding what your plans are for it, now that you have it home.

I've sort of been out of commission on this thing for the past few days, going on a week now without much to report. Life, love and commitments getting in the way, along with a couple unexpected tool runs. I started putting the motor back together yesterday and should have updates in a couple days. This last weekend was a lost weekend completely, as I didn't touch this thing at all. C'est la vie.

[Rickbaro]

Jonny Rocket said:

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I will have to take some pics of mine as I noticed this morning that my table crank setup is upside down relative to Bill's and Ricks. Someone added a bearing for the shaft to turn on too.

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I don't know about that. If you look through some of the catalogs, they show the raising mechanism to be set up with the crank at top. Because my clamp is cracked, I was going to reverse mine anyway so that the good clamp is at the bottom. A thrust bearing (even a small one) would be an excellent idea.



I would like to see a picture of yours for sure.

[skizzo]

Rickbaro said:

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I don't know about that. If you look through some of the catalogs, they show the raising mechanism to be set up with the crank at top. Because my clamp is cracked, I was going to reverse mine anyway so that the good clamp is at the bottom. A thrust bearing (even a small one) would be an excellent idea.

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+1 on the photos. I don't recall exactly, but it seems to me the upper collar on mine also serves as a head support collar. If you have a spare collar that could be used by itself for the head, I could see it being useful to have the crank up high, above the table. But I wouldn't want to sacrifice the support for the head if it's there's only one collar.

[Jonny Rocket]

Photos coming. Bill, I should have said my foot feed is relatively complete. Like "relative" to yours...

Joking aside, the foot feed on mine has an upper collar that supports the head, so maybe that is why my crank is the other way around.

[Ken C.]

Skizzo...if you want that column out it can be done. I know you saw the post that Walnut Charlie wrote on using that column/flange and bolts to remove a column. I obtained an identical clamp and that's how I removed the column from my Atlas.

I can get the current holder to ship it to you if you want. I deemed it a community column removal tool and someone else has it right now.

Here is some encouragement in my post on this same issue.

DP Column Removal

It was so "stuck" that even with the flange tight I had to add 2 lock collars above it to keep it from moving. I ran the all-thead down against metal plate I placed in the base. You can see the ring around the column where it started to move.


I did not read this entire thread so if you already have it out....disregard.

[TomFromStLouis]

I just discovered this and enjoyed the read immensely. I love the before and after money shots!

BTW, my DP has three knurled nuts on the depth stop too. One below to set the height when up (not a critical setting) and two above to set and keep the depth you are drilling. I thought this was normal? My point is, I do not think you have an "extra" nut at all.

The color will be great. WTs always has just nice lines, almost any decent color looks great...

[skizzo]

Two posts to update, with subject lines reflecting the differences. I finished up cleaning the table and head, and finally got the painting done.

First, the table. This is the table as it came out of the spooge tank a couple weeks ago. There are still remnants of rust and gunk, plus the table needs its spit and polish treatment to get it ready prior to painting.



LOML came by and insisted on taking a couple of action shots. The basic process is spritz with WD40, run a scotchbrite under a ROS, wipe off gunk, and repeat. After a couple rounds with WD40 and an extra coarse scrubber to work on rust, I switch to mineral spirits and a green scotchbrite to pull out embedded oily black stuff.





Half an hour later, it's looking pretty good.



Flip it over and hand scrub the webbed underside using the same materials, and we're ready for taping and painting.



Finally, the last of all the parts to strip is the head. I go back outside and get out the angle grinder with a wire cup brush again. The second photo shows a good example of the original WT grey/green color from the area that was behind the original switch.





And after hand cleanup of nooks and crannies, final wipedown with mineral spirits to pull oily remnants, taping machined surfaces, and protecting holes, it's ready to paint.



Time for the table, from the start to the completed taping (not shown), was an hour-and-a-half. The head was about the same, including quite a bit of taping and hole-filling.

[skizzo]

Finally... time to do the painting. I'm one week later on getting to this than had been anticipated, but that's because I went almost a full week, including all of last weekend, pretty much not working on this project at all.

In any event, Saturday morning rolls around and all of the paintable parts are cleaned, taped, and ready to go. All of these parts, both small and large, need to be painted on all four sides. Just as importantly, most are roundish items that don't have any clear corners or edges that can be easily taped to do one side one day, and then retaped to do the other side another day. So to do this effectively, I really need to have 360-degree access to each part independently... not a surprise, as I've been down that road before. Bottom line, they need to be hung and suspended.

The head and the table are large, heavy, and bulky, and cannot be moved around easily. A couple ladders and long dowels work well to hold them solidly and far enough apart that they can be worked on independently.





The smaller assembly parts also need to be hung to make it easier to spray everything in one stage. But they can also be lifted and moved to work on one at a time. They are stashed close together between two stands, and lifted one at a time to another area, sprayed, and replaced in the storage space.





A couple coats of primer on everything.





And three coats of paint. Basically, it's just a round-robin process, one part at a time, and by the time you get through each piece, the first is ready to go again.







The color again doesn't come through in these outdoor photos, but they are the same Sage Green color as the base from a couple weeks ago. Everything is now done and sitting hanging in the front yard for the next few hours. I'll bring them inside later and let them hang over night. I may work on some of the smaller assemblies tomorrow, but don't plan to touch the head or table for at least 48 hours, which puts me at Monday or Tuesday to do machine assembly. In the mean time, I'm going to work on final clean-up and buffing of the non-painted parts so that everything will be ready to go in a couple days.

The total time for this morning's work was an hour-and-a-half, including setup. Two coats of primer and three coats of paint took exactly, to the minute as it turns out, one hour.