Central Machinery T-583 Drill Press

[Splat!]

My Delta benchtop motor's start cap blew up, oozing its electrolyte into the motor windings. Time for an upgrade. I'm a metal guy, not wood. I'd love American iron but everything I see is top $$$ and/or worn badly. I don't have the time to refurb another machine. Locally there's a couple of Central Machinery T-583 DP's in my area in seemingly good condition but I haven't inspected them yet. Anyone have one and how's it working for you? Is the motor metric and replaceable or some proprietary frame type? Bearings easily replaceable or weird angular metric type? Thanks.

 

[nadogail]

Central Machinery is a "House Brand" of Harbor Freight. I have found them to be responsive to my requests for information about their products.

 

[GeoBruin]

My Delta benchtop motor's start cap blew up, oozing its electrolyte into the motor windings. Time for an upgrade. I'm a metal guy, not wood. I'd love American iron but everything I see is top $$$ and/or worn badly. I don't have the time to refurb another machine. Locally there's a couple of Central Machinery T-583 DP's in my area in seemingly good condition but I haven't inspected them yet. Anyone have one and how's it working for you? Is the motor metric and replaceable or some proprietary frame type? Bearings easily replaceable or weird angular metric type? Thanks.

The other beauty of Harbor Freight is that you can walk into a Harbor Freight store and fiddle with one all you want.

 

[Splat!]

If they had the 17 or 20 floor models on display but not around here. I passed on the 583's in my area. One was pretty beat and had a crack in the table mounting arm and the other the seller decided to keep his. I've got a line on an old Buffalo #18 I'm going to look at Tuesday, even tho it has a production table with no T slots. Thanks guys.

 

[whateg01]

That looks near identical to the guardian I just sold. Table is different and the head is slightly different though. Mine drilled holes as it was meant to do. A friend picked up a bigger harbor freight model with the bigger square or rectangular table and is happy with it.

Edit: just saw you didn't get it. I picked up a walker turner 1100 for cheap because the motor smoked. Thing I like about it is it is solid! With the xy and vise, it's over 600# of old iron. There are some deals to be had but you have to be patient. If you need one today, I would buy new but it's hard to feel good about new stuff today that's full of sand and chips. Even starrett stuff is known to be crusty when new nowadays.

 

[Splat!]

I hear ya. I'm a fan of Mitutoyo but I have some old Starrett things I still use. I've had benchtop DP's my whole life and think it's time for a floor model. The Walker Turners are nice but I haven't seen a floor model around here yet.

 

[whateg01]

Something I'm known to do is buy a machine that isn't quite what I want but it's cheap and maybe has some problems. Fix the problems and use the machine while watching for the machine I want. Then buy the one I want and sell the cheap one for (hopefully) enough to pay for the better one.

 

[rsanter]

The burpees of a floor model drill press is that you can drill into the end of something long or drill into something large.
If that is not something that you may need to do and you say you are a
Metal guy, then you may want to look at getting a milling machine.
A mill makes a great benchtop drill press and you then have the option of cutting slots and the other things a mill can do
Just be sure to get one that has a quill like a drill press

 

[whateg01]

The burpees of a floor model drill press is that you can drill into the end of something long or drill into something large.
If that is not something that you may need to do and you say you are a
Metal guy, then you may want to look at getting a milling machine.
A mill makes a great benchtop drill press and you then have the option of cutting slots and the other things a mill can do
Just be sure to get one that has a quill like a drill press

Everybody reasons that a floor model allows you to drill into the end of something. While true, it's not just the end of a part. The extra space, especially on a drill press that can spin slow enough to run big drills is that after you lose 5 inches or more to the drill, you still have room to place a fairly decent sized assembly under the drill. A bench top model might be able to run a big drill bit you may not have room for the work piece anymore. Plus a Mill tends to be a pretty big jump in price.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Adding information to the thread...

 

[DrFeelGood]

T-726, T-583, T-586, T-149 manual PDF

 

[castellscl]

Out of curiosity, anyone know the numbers for replacing the bearings in the spindle? I haven't taken it apart yet, just figured I ask if someone knew the numbers so I could have replacements ready to go right back in when I rebuild it.

 

[castellscl]

Oh, and does anyone know of a source for replacement switches. I've already called Harbor Freight, and looked at every model with similar parts and asked if they parts are available from HF, none are. The only thing that hopefully works is the rack bar, (hopefully).

 

[castellscl]

Bearings, top mounting in casting has (2) 6205Z, smaller on the top of the spindle is 6203Z and bottom of spindle is 6205Z

 

[The Cobbler]

does anyone know of a source for replacement switches.

maybe this? https://www.platt.com/p/0165674/lev...omb-rocker-switch-white/078477813072/lev1754w

 

[castellscl]

I found that the Carling Technologies Curvette Rocker Switch (RA901-VB-B-9-V) switches fit the cutouts for the switch panel near perfect, and when installed look like they are made for it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLY27P2F?tag=atomicindus08-20