Buffalo drill press

[Streetbu]

Has anyone ever seen or heard of or seen one of these? Almost looks like it has been pieced together. The main pipe has been brazed onto another pipe and the table is homemade, but seems heavy enough. My buddy was closing his welding shop and I asked how much he wanted, he said get it out of here. So I had to borrow the work trailer to get it home. There is no way the wife would be able to help me lift it out my truck. Rolling it is much easier.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I have one similar in storage. No pics on hand tho.

 

[pvfjr]

I don't like the looks of that splice on the main column. It seems like maybe they wanted to turn a bench-top model into a floor standing unit? It doesn't look well aligned either. I'd be checking that things are true and square, and would be careful about bearing down on it with any sizable feed pressure.

Aside from that, the basics look pretty solid. I always enjoy the old-school machinery. That was a good score for the price paid.

 

[Streetbu]

The joint is solid actually. After looking around on the net, it seems like this used to be a bench top model that was converted o a floor. Most of the pics that I can find of a mode! 15 appear newer than this one though. Given that I'm only 120 miles from Buffalo, I'm betting its been in this town it's whole life. I think I'm just going to clean up the wiring and use it as is. He was drilling with it last month and it was working fine.

 

[matt_i]

I have not seen a repair or mod like that before. It might be worthwhile "tramming" the head (insert appropriate bent rod into chuck, place close to the table, and twist around thw spindle to visualize how far the described circle is out of the plane of the table).

 

[the gypsy]

If you can take the drill press apart. Remove the motor, the head, the table and then roll the press inside and reassemble.


P.S. Maybe before reassembly you can clean it up a little.

 

[Streetbu]

I was able to get it into my garage relatively easily. Plugged it in, it works, chuck is straight/doesnt wobble. The pipe joint just gives it character LOL Think I'll just clean up the wiring a little and use it as is. Can't complain for free!

 

[hchinaski]

I have a somewhat newer Buffalo 15, and it is a great press. Almost zero runout. The company is still alive and making new presses right there in Buffalo, and they have parts!

 

[goingtoarizona]

We have one at work, attached to a four leg bench. Old school tools are the best.

 

[OctoMan]

Cool find. I got an old Rockwell/Delta last fall to replace my chinese one. Got it for $75, motor didn't run. Bought part fixed motor thing is much smoother than old one. Great drill press.

 

[crguy]

Pretty obvious it's a cobbled up bench model with a home made table and stand.

 

[tym]

And somebody's missing the steel rim for their spare tire!

 

[dutchgray]

Still a hell of a lot better than not having a drill press though, especially for free.