Another Craftsman Drill Press Restoration

[Scimonetti]

I'll get a better picture later, but here is my latest accomplishment. I took a wire wheel to the chrome, and it took off the loose chrome but not the well adhered stuff, and then dug into the aluminum where there was no chrome. I managed to take off a 1/16" all around on the knob with 40 grit, and then sharpened up lines and reshaped the thing with a file. Next I went to scotchbrites and then polishing paper. I don't know what grit each paper is but I think I went pretty close to the finest.

 

[Scimonetti]

I have a 4 day weekend, so really got started on this. Took a wire wheel on a bench grinder without any guards so I could reach the simpler parts.

I bought some washing soda and saturated my solution with it, and now my electrolysis tank is working great. After a day the paint peeled off these motor ends. I need to find some round wire brushes to get into the tight spots. The plan is to soak the base, head castings, and the table is currently soaking.

 

[Scimonetti]

The chrome was not able to be wire wheeled, so I chucked it up, and ground out all the pits and chrome with 40grit. Went up to my polishing papers and plan on going finer once I get some polish or a buffing wheel.

The chrome on the steel came right off, and I sanded each knob down to 600 grit on the metal and the polishing papers for the plastic. I did as much as possible on the lathe and did the part the chuck held by hand.

 

[gilbo]

very nicely done !!!!!

 

[Scimonetti]

Also, I finally got the base off! I locked the table "knub" down and laid the whole thing down on the bench I use for cutting up bowl blanks from logs. Half an hour later with an oak 2x4 and a sledge it came off.

You can see how badly rusted on it was by how deep the pitting is at the base of the column.

 

[Scimonetti]

very nicely done !!!!!

Thanks! the oblong knobs are proving to be a challenge to grind the chrome from. I think a flap disk will save me a couple hours of hand sanding...

 

[Scimonetti]

Getting the base off means I can use my lathe to clean up the column! I cobbled together a steady rest that got soaked in oil anyway, and went to work with an absolute ton of WD-40 and scotchbrite. I find that scotchbrite really needs oil to work, and the more the better. I don't really wetsand that much so maybe that's the case with all abrasives?

The jaws of my chuck are softer than the steel column, so they wouldn't grab it that well. The column jumped out of it 4-5 times while spinning at 600 rpm... I wore my steel toes just in case and never put my fingers underneath it, and never had a problem. I got tired/scared of it after 10 minutes and finished the last 2 grits by hand using the supports to rotate it as I moved along. I purposely didn't go up that high in grits because I know It will get scratched from the table movement and maybe workpieces, and it would make the small pitting noticeable.

 

[NIS240SHU]

You're doing a really nice job on this restoration! I love the way the handles look.

Helder

 

[Scimonetti]

You're doing a really nice job on this restoration! I love the way the handles look.

Helder

Thanks!

 

[Scimonetti]

I haven't had any luck finding a replacement of this part of the centrifugal switch.

I have a couple questions. What exactly is it called? Can anybody think of a way to repair it? It's a fairly clean crack and epoxy comes to mind, I don't think it deals with many stresses in normal use.

Another option, I have access to a lasercutter and could make a new plastic(or wood or silicon) base to the same scale, drill out the rivets and reattach it.

 

[Scimonetti]

My electrolysis bin started to sag under the water weight and 2x4

Problem solved

 

[Scimonetti]

One other thing I forgot. Found this in the chuck, this drill had a hard life!!


Also, the holes in the table went through the sacrificial plywood table and into the cast iron. On the plywood there are holes up to 1.5 inches, 3" holesaw marks even though it doesn't have the slow speed adapter, and the wood is scorched in a couple places

 

[nine4gmc]

I used epoxy on a centrifugal switch before and it held up. I mocked it up in the motor housing and poured on the epoxy, then flipped and repeated. I used aluminum foil to keep the excess epoxy off the motor casing and put it right where needed.

 

[pendragon1998]

I haven't had any luck finding a replacement of this part of the centrifugal switch.

I have a couple questions. What exactly is it called? Can anybody think of a way to repair it? It's a fairly clean crack and epoxy comes to mind, I don't think it deals with many stresses in normal use.

That looks identical to the centrifugal switch on the Craftsman 115.7575 bench grinder that I'm currently restoring (built ca. 1958).

 

[doan]

Getting the base off means I can use my lathe to clean up the column!

Here's the poor-mans version of the pole polisher...

I used an oil filter wrench that has a 3/8" drive input, a drill, and a couple jack-stands

 

[Scimonetti]

Here's the poor-mans version of the pole polisher...

I used an oil filter wrench that has a 3/8" drive input, a drill, and a couple jack-stands

Man that is hilarious. The u joint is a nice touch! If it works who cares? The funny thing is that probably worked better than my lathe in the sense that it didn't fly off!

 

[pendragon1998]

Ha! We must be brothers from another mother. Here is my pipe sanding rig from my bench grinder restore. The U joint would have helped my setup.

 

[Scimonetti]

That looks identical to the centrifugal switch on the Craftsman 115.7575 bench grinder that I'm currently restoring (built ca. 1958).

good to know, I bet I could get one out of a different year/hp motor and be fine. Luckily this one was able to be fixed

 

[doan]

Man that is hilarious. The u joint is a nice touch! If it works who cares? The funny thing is that probably worked better than my lathe in the sense that it didn't fly off!

I had to use the u-joints, couldn't get everything in alignment

Ha! We must be brothers from another mother. Here is my pipe sanding rig from my bench grinder restore. The U joint would have helped my setup.

yours at least had a "safety" built so the pipe was constrained. I has a couple "accidents"

 

[Scimonetti]

After a couple days in the electrolysis tank the paint was soft, flaking and ready to come off. I used a handheld wire brush and cup brush on an extension in a drill to get the hard to reach areas.


I used WD40 and scotchbrite on the machined cast iron as I always do, and discovered the table was actually quite pitted.

 

[Scimonetti]

I took the base out of the electrolysis tank today, and used a wire brush to get off the rust and paint.

The old paint looked like this in some places

I used rustoleum professional red primer. It's the best rattle can primer i've used(even krylon red oxide) lasts much longer compared to the cheap ones and is only $6 at my local lowes.

 

[Scimonetti]

Another tip. I taped off the table top, but rather than taping off the machined inside surfaces, I just took a cloth with acetone to them immediately after painting. I didn't have any painters tape, and masking tape didn't work well.

 

[pendragon1998]

Are you going to wax the table?

 

[Scimonetti]

Are you going to wax the table?

That's the plan. I think that I might make a table with inserts and a fence system for woodworking that I can take off to do metalwork.

 

[Scimonetti]

I'm loving the way the paint is coming out.

It looks much more blue in real life, I grabbed the raw file from my camera and didn't adjust WB

 

[Scimonetti]

I decided that I wasn't very happy with how the castings were machined. It was very uneven and full of chatter, so I took my tile with a nice sharp file and filed all of the sharp corners, hunks and roughly machined parts and finished off draw filing. A sharp file on cast iron is such a good feeling.

I worked mostly by feel to try and see how the paint would cover it, so it doesn't look that good.

 

[Scimonetti]

The original plan was to use electrolysis to strip the paint from the inner castings, but I decided it wasn't worth it. The paint was very well adhered and line of sight would be difficult, it would take a while and i'm losing painting days, and I was afraid I would end up with a mess of flash rust and hard to reach softened paint. Instead I took some dawn and did a couple separate baths in soapy suds and scrubbing, followed by blasting off all the dirt and drying with a hair dryer.

It seemed to work well enough, I masked and primed it and will spray the final paint coat tomorrow.

 

[Scimonetti]

This is how dirty it was before

This is after the final primer coat

 

[Scimonetti]

Finished up the painting the other day, been super busy.

I forgot to mask off one of the machined (races?) that the quill goes in, so of course in reassembly it won't fit. I didn't want to sand it down so I just forced out the softish paint tapping on the quill, and twisting it. After a good 20 min and 1/4inch of progress, it dawned on me that I could install the feed lever and use that! In one easy movement the quill displaced all of the paint. I've never had a drill press before, and I never knew how much force they exert vertically! I look forward to using it.

 

[Scimonetti]

Reassembly was uneventful, nothing special happened and I was so happy to see it coming together I forgot to take pictures. I polished all of the blind rivets and tapped them in with some exotic hardwood scraps as to not mar the badges anywhere.

The knobs I still haven't finished sanding the old chrome off, but when I do I'll polish the aluminum or pot metal underneath.

I was having a hard time positioning the head assembly(fully assembled in a low position) to the top with my shoulder with tendonitis and a ratchet in the other hand to lock it down. As I started to put blocks underneath it I had the idea to block it and use the down pressure of the quill to raise it! Once again I was surprised at how easily the head raised itself up the column when I turned the feed lever. A couple cycles of moving it and locking it down and adding more blocks and I was done. With the handle I could precisely move it flush with the column end cap and lock it down.


One more thing, in the two recessed holes on the side directly underneath the engine turned band, there are tapped holes for bolts to act as set screws to hold the head pulley assembly in it's races. The two bolts that came out of them on either side were different diameter, threaded, and head type. The plan (was to drill out the holes and re-tap to a uniform size before painting) is to drill out the holes and re-tap to a uniform size without hurting the paint job.

 

[Scimonetti]

As it stands now next to the '53 10" saw. The foundation isn't flat and the drill press wobbles back and forth. I'm considering a leveling mobile base as I drag it around now, but any ideas would be appreciated!


Still have to epoxy the switch, and finish the rewire, and add a switch. Not feeling to confident with being able to correctly connect everything, even though I took a lot of pictures. Might come crawling back for help in a couple days, we'll see! Also I'm not sure how to connect the wires to the capacitor (in terms of soldering) but I'll do some more research.

I have some ideas about adding a third pulley, and possibly a table lift, but for now there is still a decent amount left to do! Can't wait for 2 weeks off starting next week for thanksgiving!

 

[nine4gmc]

Make sure the pose is seated correctly in the base or it will wobble like crazy. Sometimes it is not far enough in and other times it's sticking out the bottom too far. If that doesn't work, shim it until you buy/build a base.

Your machines look great, I have a similar sander on a pole but yours is pretty cool and space saving!

 

[Scimonetti]

Make sure the pose is seated correctly in the base or it will wobble like crazy. Sometimes it is not far enough in and other times it's sticking out the bottom too far.

Thanks! I hope that's the case. I remember seeing somebody have the same problem. I'll check tonight

 

[Scimonetti]

or even forgotten to take them out (yes, they do break when hammering out the quill pulley).

Yep. Forgot to take them out and gave the pulley a few swift blows... The screws bent and were a huge pain to remove.

 

[Scimonetti]

I ended up using gorilla super glue on the switch. My epoxy was bad.
It kept wanting to bow with the tension from the spring so I clamped it to the table after wiping off the excess.

 

[nine4gmc]

A piece of wax paper or aluminum foil on the bench will prevent the glue/epoxy from sticking.

 

[bubinga]

Very nice job.
I have even used a bottle jack and blocks to move the head up thee column.