ndnchf
Well-known member
i've always liked the old aluminum cased power tools, especially those of the 1950s that had that really cool look to them. I picked up this drill a few weeks ago - it was a $10 clunker. But I was drawn to the Buck Rogers ray gun styling. The name tag is missing, but its a Speed Way model 400.
I didn't have much to lose so I dove into it. The case was well battered, but no major damage. It did have some stripped threads, broken and frozen screws. Here is what it looked like when I got it broken down.
Once inside I found the wiring was scary, old nasty grease in the gear box and mismatched screws. When I got the armature out I found that the fan blades had been broken off long ago
I couldn't do much to repair the fan, so I cut off the remainder in order to keep the armature balanced.
I thorughly cleaned all the old grease from the gear box and all other parts. I installed a new 3 wire grounded power cord and found a convenient location to attach the ground wire with a 6x32 screw.
While it was apart I wet sanded the outside of the case with succeeding grades of sandpaper up to 1200. This was followed by Mothers aluminum polish and elbow grease. I knew I could not get all the dings and dents out, my goal was to get it cleaned up and bring some shine to it. After polishing it, I regreased the gears and put it back together.
The end result is not perfect, but for a $10 clunker, it turned out pretty well. It is now servicable, runs well and is safe to use. The only drawback is the missing cooling fan. But I don't intend to use this for long hard jobs, I have other drills for that. But for an occasional hole, I'll pull it out and give it some exercise.
I didn't have much to lose so I dove into it. The case was well battered, but no major damage. It did have some stripped threads, broken and frozen screws. Here is what it looked like when I got it broken down.
Once inside I found the wiring was scary, old nasty grease in the gear box and mismatched screws. When I got the armature out I found that the fan blades had been broken off long ago
I couldn't do much to repair the fan, so I cut off the remainder in order to keep the armature balanced.
I thorughly cleaned all the old grease from the gear box and all other parts. I installed a new 3 wire grounded power cord and found a convenient location to attach the ground wire with a 6x32 screw.
While it was apart I wet sanded the outside of the case with succeeding grades of sandpaper up to 1200. This was followed by Mothers aluminum polish and elbow grease. I knew I could not get all the dings and dents out, my goal was to get it cleaned up and bring some shine to it. After polishing it, I regreased the gears and put it back together.
The end result is not perfect, but for a $10 clunker, it turned out pretty well. It is now servicable, runs well and is safe to use. The only drawback is the missing cooling fan. But I don't intend to use this for long hard jobs, I have other drills for that. But for an occasional hole, I'll pull it out and give it some exercise.