Delta DP 600 from WWII

[Davefr]

I picked up this old girl and the serial number is from 1944. It's my oldest of five DP-600's. The price was great but boy was it ugly. Three layers of flaking paint, rust, stiff quill, dented hood, sluggish bearings. It's saving grace was it's completeness except for the chuck and it did run. No previous repairs, welds or significant abuse.

It came with a cradle mount GE motor with the cradle mounting pattern the same as the oddball/proprietary Delta pattern. I wonder if GE supplied some motors for Delta during the war? The cast iron GE motor looks to be approx. the same vintage.

After many hours of stripping paint, removing rust, polishing parts, straightening the hood, restoring bearings, cleanup and painting here she is before and after.

 

[Snip's]

Beautiful... Well done..
Nice job getting the dents out...

 

[BrandonV]

Beautiful restoration. How did you restore the badges and nameplates?

 

[driftpin]

I like the quality of work done, you made it look great. I suspect the function matches the looks!

I bought a DP-220 which had a date of Nov. 1944 on the work platform underside. It was in a lot-better shape than the one you found, but not in the shape yours was after your work. I ended up selling it to someone who shipped it to Haiti to do work there.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Hell yes...

 

[Jayman17]

Wow, great save and beautiful work! You should be proud of that.

 

[Leviton]

Beautiful job. I love many things about this.

 

[wrenchguy]

i love war effort machines. nice job.

 

[Jim C.]

Really nice restoration! I’m trying to figure out what you do with five Delta 17” DPs. You must have a big shop. Where’s the group photo?

Jim C.

 

[Roberts210]

NO ARC OF SHAME! In a 75+ year old DP that is amazing.

 

[Davefr]

Beautiful restoration. How did you restore the badges and nameplates?

Fortunately I already had a minty oval Delta nameplate. (the original was too far gone). For the serial # tag I polished it and then masked off the metal center portion and shot the perimeter with red lacquer. The AB badge was easy. I shot the entire badge with black lacquer and sanded the raised AB logo with 600 grit sandpaper then polished the entire badge. The depth gauge dial was the most difficult since it was mostly illegible and very little relief between the marks and the background. I polished off the base metal portion of the spring cover then masked all but the indicator strip. I covered the entire strip with red lacquer and after is was dry but not cured I used sharpened toothpicks to scrape/abrade away the raised numbers and indicator marks working under a microscope. (the lacquer was dry but still soft). After the paint was cured I polished the entire cover with Simichrome metal polish.

 

[seagiant]

Hi,
Fantastic labor of Love!

My Shop Delta...

Use it every day!

Just looked up my Ser. # the Press was made in 1944!

Delta Round Badge Timeline

The following images can help in determining the age of your Delta machines by the badge it wears, providing the part with the badge is original to the machine. Delta also exported their machines under the Tauco name, I've seen photos of the 1936 through 1941 style badges with the Tauco name in p...

thepatriotwoodworker.com

 

[Southern83]

@Davefr that looks amazing!

What color did you use?

 

[Davefr]

@Davefr that looks amazing!

What color did you use?

Rust Oleum Charcoal Gray

 

[Southern83]

Thanks

 

[Packard V8]

Congrats on a beautiful restoration.

As to the motor, in more than sixty years in and around Delta power tools, I have never seen any dirty paper indicating they sold or recommended resiliant/cradle mount motors for DPs. Most of those are sleeve bearing and Delta usually specified ball bearing motors for vertical mounting on DPs.

jack vines

 

[Davefr]

Congrats on a beautiful restoration.

As to the motor, in more than sixty years in and around Delta power tools, I have never seen any dirty paper indicating they sold or recommended resiliant/cradle mount motors for DPs. Most of those are sleeve bearing and Delta usually specified ball bearing motors for vertical mounting on DPs.

jack vines

Thanks Jack, it's probably not the original motor. I wonder if GE offered it as a replacement to the OEM Delta motor. Delta's motor mounts used an oddball mounting pattern and I've never seen another motor that would bolt up directly without an adapter or modification. It also seems like motor's with 3/4" shafts are not very common.

 

[GCS]

Thanks Jack, it's probably not the original motor. I wonder if GE offered it as a replacement to the OEM Delta motor. Delta's motor mounts used an oddball mounting pattern and I've never seen another motor that would bolt up directly without an adapter or modification. It also seems like motor's with 3/4" shafts are not very common.

I too couldn’t find a motor that would mount without modifying.

’56 model with 3 phase motor
Ended up installing a phase converter…

Is yours single or 3 phase?

Yours is a little older, but looks the same other than the table.
Did you cover the table with plate? No apprentice marks…

 

[Jlanciani]

Thanks Jack, it's probably not the original motor. I wonder if GE offered it as a replacement to the OEM Delta motor. Delta's motor mounts used an oddball mounting pattern and I've never seen another motor that would bolt up directly without an adapter or modification. It also seems like motor's with 3/4" shafts are not very common.

The correct motor is a 66 frame, it is a bit of an oddball for sure.

Whoops, we couldn't find that.

It looks like the motor you installed has oil cups, a pretty good sign that it has sleeve bearings. If so, unless it has a thrust bearing too it wont last very long in a vertical installation.

 

[Hoorn]

@Davefr can you get that terrific 600 resto on the Delta thread?

 

[Smokeshow69]

Heck of a restoration! I can see with the table lift and other features why you undertook the restoration. I can see you appreciate nice vintage machines based on the amount of vintage refrigerators in the back ground

 

[jabberwoki]

Man you are my hero...
Love it