Craftsman 101.03662

[arrbor]

Hi everyone,

I am restoring a Craftsman 101.03662 and I am puzzled by a few things and hope someone can explain.

1. My drill press is medium to dark grey but I have also seen it in blue.

2. On my DP the feed stop bracket is a half circle shape. I went to look at another one today(same model) and it had a bracket that went completely around the quill. I have seen multiple pictures of this model with one or the other.

3. On my DP the model badge is aluminum with black print and has the model number stamped on it. The one I saw today has a brass
model badge.

Can someone please shed some light on these differences?

Thanks,

Darryll

 

[Maui]

Any photos?

 

[7th Kahuna]

You will soon find out this is a very visual group. Pictures always get a better response. I don't know a lot about Craftsman tools of this era but perhaps I can shed some light on a few of your questions.

Your drill press was made for Sears by Atlas Press Company. They made tools for Sears for many years but I believe that the drill press production occurred over a fairly short period from the mid or late 1930's until the early 1940's. Prior to Atlas' engagement, Craftsman drill presses were made by Walker Turner, then just before WWII the contract transferred to King-Seeley. Generically speaking, during the 1930's Craftsman tools were blue. I can't speak with any detail to that however. At some point around 1940 the color switched to gray and remained so until 1958 when they added the gold option for many of the stationary tools. Of course many tools get repainted, and gray is certainly the most common color.

I can't speak to your second question except to say that your overall design dates to the 1930's and that was a very dynamic time for the design of what were then referred to as portable tools (meaning they had their own power supply and didn't require a traditional overhead belt drive or other remote power source). There was a lot of improvement going on. Differences in the feed stop bracket may simply have addressed a flaw. Pictures would be interesting.

Finally, older machine badges were often brass. By the time your machine was made, aluminum was the new 'it' material, cool and probably less expensive.

Hope that helps a bit. Again, maybe other members will chime in with more specifics. Each item you identified would be useful in dating the machine, but I think it would be safe to say early 1940's in any case.