Craftsman Drill Press

[sunder]

I made a quick video recapping how I removed the base off my drill press. I hope this helps

Link:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LCsDA00B0D8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[LesserSon]

THANKS, guys!
Excellent ideas, information, and images. Very empowering. My Evaporust soak included will end when I get home later today, and then the beating shall commence.
As far as why...a long way back, FrankLee points out that separating them opens up more options for dealing with the column. I really did consider leaving them rusted together, but for my own use, freeing them will make potential relocation easier, and if it come to parting it out, I think it makes the individual parts easier to reuse or sell.

 

[FrankLee]

Home
Home again
I like to be here
When I can

I just got home from a week in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. So much to see and do. However, my cellular service was bad and phone internet service was really bad with no wifi, so I could barely monitor and wasn't able to respond. I've got some catch-up to do.

THANKS, guys!
Excellent ideas, information, and images. Very empowering. My Evaporust soak included will end when I get home later today, and then the beating shall commence.
As far as why...a long way back, FrankLee points out that separating them opens up more options for dealing with the column. I really did consider leaving them rusted together, but for my own use, freeing them will make potential relocation easier, and if it come to parting it out, I think it makes the individual parts easier to reuse or sell.

There is a link in my first post regarding the base and column showing several techniques on how to remove a stuck column from the base.

 

[FrankLee]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Here's the page from the 1958 catalog for your records.

Brian

Is this from a Craftsman Power Tool catalog? or the Big Book? I always thought there was no power tool catalog that year.

 

[rickhigginshtbr]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press



Dragged home a delta (odd ball 7” press) just for the table lift! From what I’ve seen, same Patent tag on this one as the one Sears sold for the floor models.

Thought I saw it before, restoring the lift, any tips? A little rough going up and down, probably cause it’s covered in surface rust.


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[Rileysan]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Is this from a Craftsman Power Tool catalog? or the Big Book? I always thought there was no power tool catalog that year.

You forced me to double check and you're correct!

I have a copy of David Maher's digitized Craftsman tool catalogs on DVD, and I went straight to the 1958 catalog without realizing it was advertising for 1959.

To clarify things for anyone else reading this, Sears published catalogs for the upcoming year prior to that year - so a 1958 catalog would have been printed and published in late 1957.

I did find the ad for the King Seeley drill presses in the master catalog for fall/winter of 1958. I also captured the ad from the fall/winter 1957 catalog as well.

Brian

 

[bubinga]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

You forced me to double check and you're correct!

I have a copy of David Maher's digitized Craftsman tool catalogs on DVD, and I went straight to the 1958 catalog without realizing it was advertising for 1959.

To clarify things for anyone else reading this, Sears published catalogs for the upcoming year prior to that year - so a 1958 catalog would have been printed and published in late 1957.

I did find the ad for the King Seeley drill presses in the master catalog for fall/winter of 1958. I also captured the ad from the fall/winter 1957 catalog as well.
Brian

Love those old tool catalogs.

 

[FrankLee]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Dragged home a delta (odd ball 7” press) just for the table lift! From what I’ve seen, same Patent tag on this one as the one Sears sold for the floor models.

Thought I saw it before, restoring the lift, any tips? A little rough going up and down, probably cause it’s covered in surface rust.

Another excellent find... congrats!

There are a couple links in my first post about these table lifts. Members Rileysan and sheltonfilms recently found presses with the head/table lifts.

There could be several reasons raising and lowering the lift is sluggish.

• the rust, as you mentioned
• the old style cast lock cylinders could be sticking
  Swapping to the all-steel cylinders is beneficial.
• the column diameters
  Even though 2-3/4" is a very common column diameter, there are slight differences of several thousandths of an inch between manufacturers.

 

[FrankLee]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

You forced me to double check and you're correct!

I have a copy of David Maher's digitized Craftsman tool catalogs on DVD, and I went straight to the 1958 catalog without realizing it was advertising for 1959.

To clarify things for anyone else reading this, Sears published catalogs for the upcoming year prior to that year - so a 1958 catalog would have been printed and published in late 1957.

I did find the ad for the King Seeley drill presses in the master catalog for fall/winter of 1958. I also captured the ad from the fall/winter 1957 catalog as well.

Brian

Thanks for posting those.

So now, more information leads to more questions. I've always understood and posted that the Craftsman 150 drill press was introduced in 1958.

Both the '57 and '58 fall/winter catalogs show illustrations of a Craftsman 100 drill press. The illustrations on the pages are virtually identical. Perhaps they simply did not have new illustrations of the 150 like in the 1959 catalog.

 

[sheltonfilms]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Another excellent find... congrats!



There are a couple links in my first post about these table lifts. Member sheltonfilms recently found one. See his in post #2558.



There could be several reasons raising and lowering the lift is sluggish.

• the rust, as you mentioned
  
• the old style cast lock cylinders could be sticking
  
  Swapping to the all-steel cylinders is beneficial.
  
• the column diameters
  
  Even though 2-3/4" is a very common column diameter, there are slight differences of several thousandths of an inch between manufacturers.
  

Also the thrust bearing could be on the wrong position, as Franklee shows in this post:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5137547&postcount=166



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[Rileysan]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Thanks for posting those.

So now, more information leads to more questions. I've always understood and posted that the Craftsman 150 drill press was introduced in 1958.

Both the '57 and '58 fall/winter catalogs show illustrations of a Craftsman 100 drill press. The illustrations on the pages are virtually identical. Perhaps they simply did not have new illustrations of the 150 like in the 1959 catalog.

I'm sure you're aware it's really difficult to nail down exact dates of availability using just the Craftsman tool catalogs. Sears advertised in various publications (Popular mechanics and Popular Science, to name a couple) and published full page ads, and seasonal catalogs. It seems likely someone found the 150 in a seasonal ad/catalog from 1958.

To demonstrate my point, I was researching the Craftsman wall hanging tool cabinets and came across an interesting comment in the 1950 catalog.

"We introduced this big, handsome tool cabinet in our Fall Midseason catalog, and it proved to be sensationally popular."

Thus, we are able to derive the wall hanging catalog was introduced in 1949 even though it didn't appear in the main and specialized tool catalogs until 1950.

Brian

 

[LesserSon]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Beginning to look like there’s nothing that ain’t broke on this sucker. I was aware of the sidewall crack, but not of the one across the back collar buttress, until the rust remover did its work.
As of yet, I haven’t found much wrong with the table, so there’s that. Until I strip the paint...

 

[Smokeshow69]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Beginning to look like there’s nothing that ain’t broke on this sucker. I was aware of the sidewall crack, but not of the one across the back collar buttress, until the rust remover did its work.

As of yet, I haven’t found much wrong with the table, so there’s that. Until I strip the paint...

If you keep an eye out on eBay those bases pop up cheap now and then


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[sheltonfilms]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Except for the shipping price. They got some heft to them.


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[FrankLee]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

I'm sure you're aware it's really difficult to nail down exact dates of availability using just the Craftsman tool catalogs. Sears advertised in various publications (Popular mechanics and Popular Science, to name a couple) and published full page ads, and seasonal catalogs. It seems likely someone found the 150 in a seasonal ad/catalog from 1958.

...

Brian

Yes, very aware... and not just availability, but when changes occurred.

Your post prompted me to spend some time looking through some old magazines. I found a drill press article in the December 1958 issue of Popular Mechanics. It shows a badly "photoshopped" illustration of a Craftsman 150. So that proves 1958 availability.

Another example is the Jacobs Safe-Lock chuck. It was first advertised in the 1952 catalog as being a standard feature on Craftsman drill presses. Here is evidence from a May 1951 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine advertisement that the Safe-Lock chuck was available earlier.
(Not sure why the above 1951 link is not working, may need to cut and paste: http://books.google.com/books?id=29...39#v=onepage&q=sears drill press 1951&f=false)

So, catalogs are only one piece of the puzzle. Dated owners manuals are another, but advertising is probably the most reliable.

 

[Rileysan]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Yes, very aware... and not just availability, but when changes occurred.

Your post prompted me to spend some time looking through some old magazines. I found a drill press article in the December 1958 issue of Popular Mechanics. It shows a badly "photoshopped" illustration of a Craftsman 150. So that proves 1958 availability.

Another example is the Jacobs Safe-Lock chuck. It was first advertised in the 1952 catalog as being a standard feature on Craftsman drill presses. Here is evidence from a May 1951 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine advertisement that the Safe-Lock chuck was available earlier.
(Not sure why the above 1951 link is not working, may need to cut and paste: http://books.google.com/books?id=29...39#v=onepage&q=sears drill press 1951&f=false)

So, catalogs are only one piece of the puzzle. Dated owners manuals are another, but advertising is probably the most reliable.

I'd be interested in seeing that article. Any chance you could scan it (or attempt a photograph)?

Brian

 

[FrankLee]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

I'd be interested in seeing that article. Any chance you could scan it (or attempt a photograph)?

Brian

It's copyrighted material on Google books, so I'm not going to scan, repost, etc. This link should work: https://books.google.com/books?id=Y...86#v=onepage&q=sears drill press 1958&f=false

If not, search "1958 sears drill press" in google books.

 

[JoCoSawdust]

Picked up a nice unmolested Mohawk today

 

[Smokeshow69]

Picked up a nice unmolested Mohawk today

That looks in fantastic shape! What is the background story that you alluded to on the craftsman face book page?


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[sunder]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Wow that is in great shape


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[JoCoSawdust]

I was teaching a class about 4 hours from the house, out of my hunting grounds. I have a coffee mug with a Plomb logo on it, struck up a conversation with a local guy about old tools ( he had no idea what Plomb was). Never mentioned Craftsman. He said he had "an old drill press" that was his Grandfathers that he needed to get out of his garage. I wanted to get on the road as soon as I was done so told him I'd pass on going to see it. Over lunch he went home, put it in his truck and brought it in. I put on my poker face and asked him how much he wanted for it, he asked what I'd be willing to give. I stuck with the "I want to get out of here as soon as I'm done" story and told him I had 40 bucks in my wallet. He accepted and it came home with me. I have to admit I pulled over twice on the way home to ogle it in the back of my truck.
EDIT: And yes it's in remarkable shape. Even has the original chuck key with it. The only thing not original is the wing nut on the pulley cover, should have a knurled nut on it. I think I have one I can dig out tomorrow. I'm elated!

 

[Smokeshow69]

I was teaching a class about 4 hours from the house, out of my hunting grounds. I have a coffee mug with a Plomb logo on it, struck up a conversation with a local guy about old tools ( he had no idea what Plomb was). Never mentioned Craftsman. He said he had "an old drill press" that was his Grandfathers that he needed to get out of his garage. I wanted to get on the road as soon as I was done so told him I'd pass on going to see it. Over lunch he went home, put it in his truck and brought it in. I put on my poker face and asked him how much he wanted for it, he asked what I'd be willing to give. I stuck with the "I want to get out of here as soon as I'm done" story and told him I had 40 bucks in my wallet. He accepted and it came home with me. I have to admit I pulled over twice on the way home to ogle it in the back of my truck.
EDIT: And yes it's in remarkable shape. Even has the original chuck key with it. The only thing not original is the wing nut on the pulley cover, should have a knurled nut on it. I think I have one I can dig out tomorrow. I'm elated!

Sigh ... you seriously need to go buy lottery tickets... or if your garage is getting full, I can help you out [emoji51]


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[JoCoSawdust]

I'm adding on to my shop!

 

[Reversepolarity]

Picked up a nice unmolested Mohawk today

That is BADASS!!!!!!!!!!!!


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[cclfn]

Great story and great find!!!!

 

[sunder]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Anyone that is looking for drill presses check your local facebook market place. They have a couple with in 100 miles of chicago. This one is $22




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[Rileysan]

I was teaching a class about 4 hours from the house, out of my hunting grounds. I have a coffee mug with a Plomb logo on it, struck up a conversation with a local guy about old tools ( he had no idea what Plomb was). Never mentioned Craftsman. He said he had "an old drill press" that was his Grandfathers that he needed to get out of his garage. I wanted to get on the road as soon as I was done so told him I'd pass on going to see it. Over lunch he went home, put it in his truck and brought it in. I put on my poker face and asked him how much he wanted for it, he asked what I'd be willing to give. I stuck with the "I want to get out of here as soon as I'm done" story and told him I had 40 bucks in my wallet. He accepted and it came home with me. I have to admit I pulled over twice on the way home to ogle it in the back of my truck.
EDIT: And yes it's in remarkable shape. Even has the original chuck key with it. The only thing not original is the wing nut on the pulley cover, should have a knurled nut on it. I think I have one I can dig out tomorrow. I'm elated!

I cannot express just how much I think you ****! Grats!! That is an amazing find!!!

Brian

 

[FrankLee]

Picked up a nice unmolested Mohawk today

I was teaching a class about 4 hours from the house, out of my hunting grounds. I have a coffee mug with a Plomb logo on it, struck up a conversation with a local guy about old tools ( he had no idea what Plomb was). Never mentioned Craftsman. He said he had "an old drill press" that was his Grandfathers that he needed to get out of his garage. I wanted to get on the road as soon as I was done so told him I'd pass on going to see it. Over lunch he went home, put it in his truck and brought it in. I put on my poker face and asked him how much he wanted for it, he asked what I'd be willing to give. I stuck with the "I want to get out of here as soon as I'm done" story and told him I had 40 bucks in my wallet. He accepted and it came home with me. I have to admit I pulled over twice on the way home to ogle it in the back of my truck.
EDIT: And yes it's in remarkable shape. Even has the original chuck key with it. The only thing not original is the wing nut on the pulley cover, should have a knurled nut on it. I think I have one I can dig out tomorrow. I'm elated!

Fantastic!

I just finished my 103.0305 yesterday.

​

 

[FrankLee]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Dragged home a delta (odd ball 7” press) just for the table lift! From what I’ve seen, same Patent tag on this one as the one Sears sold for the floor models.

Thought I saw it before, restoring the lift, any tips? A little rough going up and down, probably cause it’s covered in surface rust.

Rick, any progress on your lift? What are yours plans for it?

 

[JoCoSawdust]

That's a beauty Frank!

 

[FrankLee]

dp#63

That's a beauty Frank!

Thank you.





8/29/2019 @ 16:00

dp#63 is another 2nd gen Emerson, model 113.24560. It's very rough, poorly repainted, missing a couple things, but the price was right. This one is a part out.

​

Fubar parts:

• spindle pulley
• motor pulley
• return spring
• all three feed handle knobs
• switch
• wiring

Good parts:

• quill/spindle assembly
• chuck
• feed stop assembly (missing the lock screw, lock screw hole was re-tapped to 1/4-20)
• motor
• table
• base
• column
• hub/pinion
• head frame lock assembly
• table lock assembly
• quill lock assembly

 

[sunder]

Re: The Classic Craftsman 100/150 Drill Press

Another one in chicago facebook market place




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[rickhigginshtbr]

Rick, any progress on your lift? What are yours plans for it?

None yet, it'll be restored and used on my 150.

 

[FrankLee]

dp#64

None yet, it'll be restored and used on my 150.

That's good to hear.

There are two active auctions on ebay in the $500 range and another sold for $500+. That's crazy!



8/31/2019 @ 19:20

Dp#64 is a pre-1951 13-1/2" Craftsman 100, model 103.23640; more commonly known as a Craftsman 80.

This was an odd set-up. The previous owner to the seller had this dp mounted to the wall. The table was not mounted. You may be able to spot a corner of the table in the background on the right in both photos.

​

9/1/2019

Re-assembled while it waits it's turn.

​

9/5/2019

Most internal parts from dp#64 are cleaned.

​

The head frame casting before and after a rinse.

​

9/6/2019

The motor on dp#64 is a 1/3 hp Dunlap split phase, model 115.6960. It did not run at the seller's place. It turned out that the switch was bad. The oe switch was the old style similar to a wall switch.

A thorough cleaning, a new cord, a new switch and repacked bearings allowed the motor purr beautifully again. I had to fab a new switch plate mount.

The center band was completely rusted. I sanded it and applied an engine-turned, adhesive-backed film.

​

9/8/2019

The base, column and table are cleaned(?) and assembled.

​

9/10/2019

The refurb of dp#64 is complete.

​

 

[rickhigginshtbr]

That's good to hear.

There are two active auctions on ebay in the $500 range and another sold for $500+. That's crazy!

And as soon as I realized the ones on a Delta are the same pole, I ran for it.

 

[Defc0n]

How many HP is the motor, 16 ought to be enough, but possible breaking the camels back in this case. Can't hurt to try #12

3/4 HP which should be about 560W. At 120V it should only draw 4.7A but since the cord is getting quite warm I'm still going to step it up. Like you said, it cant hurt.

 

[bubinga]

3/4 HP which should be about 560W. At 120V it should only draw 4.7A but since the cord is getting quite warm I'm still going to step it up. Like you said, it cant hurt.

 

[ZBear]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2352318771689554/

Anyone need a new motor? I can't afford it.

 

[cclfn]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2352318771689554/

Anyone need a new motor? I can't afford it.

Whole new meaning for Gold Paint

So what did they use the 3450 rpm motors for usually?

 

[sheltonfilms]

Whole new meaning for Gold Paint



So what did they use the 3450 rpm motors for usually?

Table saws, planers, jointers.

Drill presses and bandsaws are the main ones that use 1750.


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