Drill press refurbish

[richo132]

Hi all,
I have recently refurbished a Waldown radial arm bench drill and added a couple of features
- variable speed, table lift and drive belt tensioner.
The drill is very old but made here in Australia and a high quality item - much better than current Chinese machines. The radial arm design is compact and relatively light but adds great flexibility and I couldn't find a new one with similar design. So even though the mods cost around A$800 (mostly the new motor and speed control), I still finished up with an excellent machine at a price I'm comfortable with.
Thought the project may offer some ideas for others.
Pics and story here:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0eoln6HGfJmSDZHVjBkU2d2UzQ
- suggest you start with the Drill Test video.
Cheers.

 

[A_Pmech]

Looks like it turned out well. I like the belt tensioner, very handy!

She's a little light for a 1" drill, but looks like it worked OK.

 

[richo132]

The belt tensioner works a treat - I should have made it years ago
1" inch bit is probably max capacity and the chuck did slip slightly on the 1/2" shank
- although I was making quite a heavy cut and a larger pilot hole would have reduced the load.

However the drill and radial arm columns are 3" diam cast iron tubes with 5/16" wall thickness.
This is a somewhat stronger construction than the current crop of 'heavy duty' Chinese machines.