Little old city garage

[ToolUsingAnimal]

Kevin54 and HSpencer; I avoided that question on purpose, sorry about that . There are few enough of that type of building in the city that if I said what it was, it would be easy to find me. Sadly it's not one of the old textile factories around here. I love those old buildings, and it kills me to see them either abandoned or turned into yuppie condos (or worse, knocked down to build yuppie condos)! There are a few that are still rented for industrial space or storage, and Fairmount Foundry still gives me hope for local industry. Without local industry, I'm out of work .

Companies will keep buying from overseas for as long as it's profitable, and the work will return here when it becomes more profitable. What gets missed is that with the higher cost of local parts (generally, not a whole lot higher), comes (again, generally) better service and less scrap. Without getting into too many details, take my word for it. Local companies are much, much easier to deal with. Believe me, the better quality is still here as well.

But enough of the soap box - I have work to do

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

Well, at least I've done something in the last two weeks. Never as much as I intend to, though.

I painted the base, top and bottom. I'm going to clean the paint off the top surface and try a coat of nu-finish to help keep the rust off for a while. I really like the way this paint is coming out.

The table hardware cleaned up really well, with some help from the wire wheel.

I cleaned and painted the underside of the table, too. The top surface is going to be left bare and treated like the base.

Thanks for the support!

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

The fun part - Reassembly!

If you look close...

I scraped and sanded the excess paint off half of the base. Sanding very lightly left a nice finish.

Cleaned up...

I coated the bare metal, including the column, with nu-finish. I guess that officially makes me a tool polisher . But they should be protected for a while.

I removed the nameplate from the head, in preparation for electrolysis.

Pried it off with a screwdriver, then flattened it back out with a hammer. Any recommendations on how to clean the years off of it?

The head spent a few hours half-submerged in a bucket with baking soda and water at about 2A. By the end, the water was black with old grease and rust. I guess I've still got some scrubbing to do in there . Sorry about the terrible picture, the sun comes straight in the door in the afternoon. Would washing soda do a better job than baking soda? What should I treat the metal with once it comes out of the bath?

Thanks, and happy belated father's day, fathers!

 

[ODIS]

Ran across this thread last evening. Reference your questions above.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154196

Ody.

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

There it is, in black and white:

Washing Soda is NOT the same as Baking Soda. Baking Soda is sodium bicarbonate. Baking soda doesn't work well as an electrolyte.

Unless you live in Arizona, chances are that you're going to see some flash rust appear on your item as it's drying. This usually wipes right off, but some Jasco metal prep or other surface treatment will keep it to a minimum. You'll want to protect the surface quickly to prevent rust from getting a hold again. Now is a good time to apply primer, wax, oil or whatever your final finish is going to be.

Thanks ODIS and spongerich!

 

[ODIS]

Just as an FYI, for your table saw, jointer, thickness planer, or any other tool where there is a metal (machined) surface to run the wood over, to protect the surface once clean and to make it very slick, get some wax paper out of the kitchen and rub it on the surface of the machine. A little rust protection and makes the surface nice and slick. Wax paper is coated with carnauba wax.

Ody.

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

Just as an FYI, for your table saw, jointer, thickness planer, or any other tool where there is a metal (machined) surface to run the wood over, to protect the surface once clean and to make it very slick, get some wax paper out of the kitchen and rub it on the surface of the machine. A little rust protection and makes the surface nice and slick. Wax paper is coated with carnauba wax.

Ody.

Odis, that's a good idea! You also reminded me of something. I lost the pictures I took of the finished plane before I posted them, but I had coated the handles with paste wax like Shoottx recommended and reassembled everything. To make it really slick, I also coated the sole with paste wax. I finally had a chance to use it this weekend, and man does it slide

Thanks guys!

I also got a chance to try a better electrolysis setup on the drill press' head casting.

Everything fit in the tub with plenty of room to spare.

Now we're cookin'!

I added washing soda until I had the current where I wanted it. From some reading, I figured 4A was good enough.

After a few hours of yard work, turning the part over, and cleaning the electrode, the water is pretty gross.

The sacrificial rake is looking pretty well coated in rust.

After I took the head out and rinsed it off, I sprayed the inside with WD-40 and left it in the sun to dry. It still has a little rust left, especially inside, but an amount I can live with.

Remember how gross this was?

It kept the tomatoes company for the afternoon.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[daus300b]

I have that same drill press! I love the electrolysis method. It strips the rust and paint off of cast iron. I am looking to clean up mine. I just bought a new chuck for it. It looks like the top covers are cast aluminum. How did you strip the paint off of those?

 

[BigE]

Awesome rebuild! I don't want to take away from a cool project, but you may want to redesign your leveling system. You've changed the load path from directly through the legs into the pad and onto the ground ... to ... through the legs into the pad which is cantilevered to the mounting foot. Now, that table is so stoutly built that it won't bend or break when you set it up and start using it. However, over time it could fatigue and crack or possibly bend. Again, this is only a concern in the long term but considering most of us invest in quality tools for life, I figured I'd mention it.

Thanks again for posting your project!

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

daus300b: Hey, drill press brother . I'm a mechanical guy, so most of the time I remove the paint by mechanical means:

These, and the wire wheel on my bench grinder, have been my bread and butter in this project. I figure any paint that survives that is tough enough to stay there.

BigE: You're right, the path is no longer direct to ground. In fact, those holes were drilled (or cast in, I couldn't tell) towards the unsupported side of the pad. I'm going to keep an eye on it, but the pad is almost 5/8" thick, I think it'll be OK. It's not nearly as flimsy as my CAD model made it look.

I stripped and painted the head yesterday. All in all, after the bath, it wasn't that hard to get the paint off of it.

One coat of paint and it's looking pretty good. I'm going to need to touch up some spots, but that's life

Also got this gem from the scrap bin at work. Can you believe it, just because the top is a little beat up? What a waste that would've been.

 

[Brunow]

Looks like you earn a

Nice work!

 

[andyaus]

Nice work man, i'm a big fan of rejuvenating old to make new!

 

[fergus]

Nice find. Great job on the drill press!

 

[JMURiz]

I'll be watching this thread, cool little garage and cool old tool fix-ups. Good stuff!

 

[Red Leader]

A lot of potential there! One thing that I know would help would be a shed for the garden stuff. Heck, that would help with me, too

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

Thanks, everyone. I haven't been idle

I took the spindle apart and it turns out that I need new bearings. Not at all because I crushed one of them getting it out . It turns out that they aren't press-in, there's a threaded retaining ring that holds each of them in. Turn that loose and they come right out.

Here's everything apart. The chuck finally came off the shaft with a lot of wd-40 and a pin punch.

You can see the threaded rings below the ram. One of the spindle bearings is below them. They're a strange size; 5/8"ID, 11mm high, 35mm OD. The size for a radial bearing is 6202-10, but no angular contact bearings that I could find are made that size. I ordered a couple from ebay, and I'm adding a shielded thrust bearing to the assembly to take the axial load.

I also opened up the spindle pulley to see what shape that bearing is in. It feels pretty good, so I greased it and put the cover back on.

I got bored waiting for my bearings to come in, so I decided to take the motor apart and clean it up. The motor bearings sound worn out. I started by removing the four long bolts that pass through the motor, shown above it.

A good way to get the front cover moving is to rotate it by inserting a pin punch in one of the holes and tapping it with a hammer. Once a little gap appears, it's easy to pop the cover off with a screwdriver.

Once the cover is off, the shaft and everything on it should pull straight out.

I dumped a pile of carbon dust and mouse junk out of the motor case. I also popped the back cover off just long enough to spray the inside with electronic cleaner. The wiring sounds crispy, so I didn't want to move it too much. Definitely going to make sure everything's grounded when I rewire it.

I pulled the front cover off the shaft with a gear puller. Both bearings are 17mm ID, 40mm OD, and 12mm high. Size is 6203. I already ordered more from... you guessed it... ebay.

One more thing... if you take the cover off the starter cap, make sure not to lose the little spring clip that sits under it. I almost did

 

[JasonW]

Thanks for the detailed description and photos. I too have picked up a couple of tools from CL and will need to tear them down. I can open them up well enough but where to go from there? You are asking the same questions I have been thinking. Any further developments with the cistern or whatever that is beside the garage?

I will be following your progress.

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

Jason; No, the cistern is still a mystery. I'll have to do more work over there before long, though, so I'll look into it then. Thanks for looking! If I can help with your tools, let me know.

I got the bearings in, and they dropped right into the ram.

I tightened the rings down on them by placing a screwdriver in the groove and giving each one a few taps with the hammer.

Ready to go back together!

The new bearings are too tight on the shaft to push on by hand. I used the drill press itself to push the shaft in.

Done!

The motor bearings were also tight on the shaft. I used a socket and hammer to tap them into place.

The bearings slid right into the housing. Here, the cover is ready to go back on.

Be sure to put it back in the same orientation as it came off. Mine had a pip on each side to line things up.

Done!

 

[JasonW]

Thanks for the offer. I may very well take you up on that.

 

[foghorn1966]

Interesting thread OP, subbed to find!