Rockwell 15-000 Drill Press Restore

[drillr00]

I just inherited a Rockwell 15-000 drill press from my grandfather. It has some light rust and needs new wiring and bearings. I would like to restore it and have found various manuals for it on vintagemachinery.org. I've also found youtube videos however as I was removing the quill and spindle, I came across an issue I did not see in the manuals or videos.

I removed the top spindle retainer clip and bearing by gently tapping it down. I was expecting the whole sleeve to come down however it looks like there is a spindle retainer nut that I do not see listed in the parts diagrams. How do I remove this now? Should I have not removed the upper bearing first?

I appreciate all the help and guidance!







This is after I tapped the upper bearing out and the sleeve fell into the head with the lower bearing and retainer nut still attached.


This is a view from the front of the drill press holding up the spindle sleeve from above.

 

[jmarkwolf]

I have the same drill press that I inherited from my dad, which I have been using regularly since approx 1970 (it dates back to mid 50's, and I restored in 2022 (pics below). I don't recall how I removed the spindle but I don't recall any difficulty in doing so.

As I recall the bearings have gone obsolete, but the guy at Hammerscale has a line on modern replacements, as well as other parts.

Hammerscale - Delta Reproduction Parts

www.hammerscale.com

My table has an aluminum plate on it that my dad installed. Not sure why, the original plate is pristene.

 

[Jlanciani]

By coincidence, I'm in the middle of restoring a 1961 15-000 myself. You need to get the nut off of the spindle and then it will all come apart. The nut isn't super tight, once I bent the tab from the star washer out it only took a couple taps with a brass punch to loosen it. I was able to then easily drive the spindle out of the bearing. Spindle bearings are 6205 and quill bearings are 6203.

 

[drillr00]

I was actually having some difficulty getting the spindle sleeve out because of this bearing retainer. It came out easily with some gentle tapping. The whole thing came out together. Thank you for those bearing numbers! I saw people were buying from Hammerscale. Did you order yours from a different supplier?

 

[Jlanciani]

Interesting, that piece is very firmly in place in mine. I ordered the bearings from my local supplier.

 

[drillr00]

Mine had a set screw on the side of the housing that goes into the groove of the retainer.