My Father's ATLAS 1010 Drill Press

[Cluster]

My father's Atlas 1010 bench drill press was one of the few items I really wanted from my father's garage.
I ended up with far more after 6 weeks working to keep his cherished items out of any estate sale (but, that's another story). I joined this forum after it's restoration had gotten started; thus, some details are omitted.

As you can see it was in really good condition for early 1950's model but defiantly in need of rewiring and lube/oiling. All stock; even the optional 3rd pulley and split column stop collars. The motor was usually (as far as I know) a customer supplied item.

 

[Cluster]

80% of the work involved was removing old paint, rust and paint-prep. Nearly burned up my rechargeable hand drill removing pint with stiff wire brush. Kerosene, rinse, hot dawn bath, rinse, isopropyl alcohol rinse with final acetone wipe. Rustoleum primer with 2 topcoats of Coastal Grey. Baked for 2 weeks .... Seriously.... south Texas has been a literal kiln lately.

 

[Cluster]

The wear (working and contact) surfaces were left unpainted and lapped in with a large Carbonium dual grit stone and throughly oiled

 

[Cluster]

The quill and pinion were in great shape, The two spindle bearings were acceptable in terms of wear but needed through greasing.
After moving the bearings enough on the spindle shaft to clear the bearings out of the outside housing journals: I was able to remove the thin split spring steel bearing side covers (see 2nd pic) enough along with the inner packing fabric thus allowing full controlled repacking with GM Red bearing grease. This worked fairly well, but one has to be very careful with the thin spilt steel side covers; if bent they will break easily due to their hardness. One day I may need to press one new sealed bearings

 

[Cluster]

The motor is somewhat of an unknown at this point. I could not find any tech info on this GE 1/2 HP single phase with centrifugal switch control of starer windings (no caps) Also with sleeve style bearings. Initially I was very concerned with the excessive end play (.100) upon assembly. But after some research this is normal for sleeve bearing motors. Also my logic says that considering the "right-hand rule" of magnetism, the required direction of rotation will force the armature down against the same thrust bearing that gravity does...... and should prevent armature from 'hopping' off it's thrust bearing.
If that makes any sense.
We will soon see : Next up; full re-assembly
If anyone else can add to this motor info, please do !

.

 

[Cluster]

Made a mold of rotten/decayed front emblem ,with some mods to an improved mold re-casted in red rubber/vinyl..... sure came out nicely



Also more discovery... realized I actually had a full Atlas Mortise attachment set



And some sweet items; vises, new chucks and especially a collet attachment

 

[MBfreak]

KUDOS.

Ola

 

[Cluster]

After a long delay. Time to assemble & finish this Atlas 1010 restoration. Grease'em up !

 

[Cluster]

This Atlas has the 3-pulley, 2-belt option with a Congress VP325X062KW, Variable Pitch Pulley on the Motor shaft.
The optional part number for mid-pulley mount is 121-1. Noticed that with this setup the 50-54X motor base and the motor bracket need to be upside down to get required alignment with the 54-1 drill Head almost flush with top of 54-40 column.

This option with the head risen to the top of the column makes the unit top-heavy and much more unstable; thus defiantly requiring that the drill press be mounted securely to the work table .......more on this later.

 

[Cluster]

Used a 3'x2' piece of 3/4" plywood and drilled thru the steel/formica table top for (3) 5/16"-18 mounting bolts. Regretted popping holes thru my nice table, but rather not do a dangerous 'wobble dance' with it one day.
She came out real nice, ... I'm happy.
The 'decal' is just an extra touch produced on laser printer.

 

[Cluster]

With a rare optional Craftsman collet arbor #24672 & a Cross-Axis vise I should be able to achieve some simple milling in a pinch.

 

[Cluster]

One last detail: Using an old 'old school' revolution counter and a stop watch to determine the approximate RPMs achieved with all the possible belt/pulley configurations. Results soon:

 

[Davefr]

Beautiful restoration. Your Dad would be proud!

 

[Cluster]

Beautiful restoration. Your Dad would be proud!

Thanks, I appreciate that !

 

[Cluster]

OK: Without adjusting the motor pulley nor mis-aligning the 2 primary gang (4ea) pulleys. (save that for another day). And counting up with the two gang pulleys (shieve #1 at bottom, #4 at top)

RPM Results: Note rated 1725rpm motor measured 1680rpm (2% error)

With motor drive belt at shieve #1 :
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 2 - 2 ---- 2220 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 3 - 3 ---- 4,026 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 4 - 4 ---- trips breaker, too much torque to startup, likely too fast anyway

With motor drive belt at shieve #2 (as shown):
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 1 - 1 ---- 674 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 3 - 3 ---- 2,688 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 4 - 4 ---- 5,612 rpm

With motor drive belt at shieve #3 :
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 1 - 1 ---- 495 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 2 - 2 ---- 1,052 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 4 - 4 ---- 4,219 rpm

With motor drive belt at shieve #4 :
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 1 - 1 ---- 385 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 2 - 2 ---- 835 rpm
& w/ spindle drive belt at shieves 3 - 3 ---- 1,542 rpm

 

[j.s.firebaugh]

This thread is inspiration to me. I just started the same journey on a $20 craigslist find. Bearing in the spindle pulley sound a bit crunchy and the lead wires into the motor are starting to get cracked and corroded. Interesting how they switched from a name emblem on the head cover to a badge.