Walker Turner 900 restoration

[Boulderdash]

FNG/Newbie alert!! I'm a long-time lurker of Garage Journal who's only recently joined, and thought that, having virtually finished my Walker Turner bench drill restoration, some of you guys might appreciate it if I made a step-by-step thread detailing how I got on. I welcome your feedback and advice, good or bad!!

I should firstly mention that I am in the UK, so it's rather rare indeed to come across one of these lovely old bits of machinery. So you might guess my surprise and elation upon not only discovering one locally for sale (practically next door from work!!), but also at the princely sum of..........£10 (around $13)!!! The deal was swiftly done and the drill was home and totally stripped apart, down to every last nut and bolt.
I have the good fortune of working at an engine machine shop, which amongst other fantastic old machine tools, has a parts cleaner for engine parts and oily bits. So the drill base, pillar, head, motor plate and table were all sent through for a wash to strip the old paint off and remove a decade or so of grime

I used my Myford ML7 lathe to dress and restore the spindle, turning it between centres. It carries 4 holes for extraction of the chuck, which appeared to have become rather chewed up in the past. So I turned off a few thou of the outside diameter to clean it up. I also used the lathe in a similar fashion to clean up the bars that hold the adjustable motor plate on, and the splined axle for the hand crank. These parts I finished off with emery paper by hand.

 

[Boulderdash]

The bearings were shot. Grumbly and rough, these definitely needed replacing. Unfortunately, futile online bearing stockists searching and WT forum research led me to conclude Walker Turner bearings seem VERY difficult to obtain. There's 4 bearings in the head, 2 pairs are common 6202 bearings, 35mm OD x 15mm ID x 11mm height. The other two head bearings are the hard ones to source, with an extended inner race in a top hat shape. These press in top and bottom of the spindle pulley. Sure, I could get hold of them through Jeff at Walker Turner Serviced Machinery LLC, but the shipping and duty to the UK does make things very expensive!

So I found these bicycle bottom brackets bearings, MR190537_2RS, on eBay at about $10 the pair!! Shown below are these new bearings with the spindle pulley and tapered head sleeves.

I then set about modifying the two steel sleeves that press into the head on a shallow taper to accept these new bearings. This meant boring from 1.375" to the new bearings larger 1.456".

These new bearings also necessitated a pair of simple sleeves to be made, stepped 3/4" to 7/8"OD, to fit into the pulley and so adapt from the old 7/8" OD extended bearing race that used to press into the pulley, to the new smaller 3/4" ID bearing.

And it works!!

I cleaned, stripped and rewired the motor, before treating this to a few coats of gloss black.

Likewise, I treated the Jacobs chuck and quill assembly a long belated birthday. My wire wheel on the bench grinder saw enormous usage throughout this restoration, with every one of the machines bolts passing against it!!

 

[Boulderdash]

After all the parts were cleaned, I applied a couple of coats of Ivory machine tool paint. I am not sure I like the colour really, it seems more yellow than ivory to me, but it might grow on me. We shall see...

The stepped drive pulley was missing when I bought it. Trying to find one was quite difficult, as it needed to be the right overall height, the four pulleys had to be both the right diameter and the right spacing, and of course it needed to use the same profile of drive belt too. eBay saved the day again, with the correct one found for $38 I bored it to 1/2" to suit the motor spindle, bought a V-belt, and we were drilling.

All in, the drill owes me around $80. I just need to buy a $25 return spring for the quill assembly and its all-done
Thanks for reading folks

 

[el monte slim]

Great job on that restoration, and for being creative in making things happen to get it done. The paint looks ivory to me, and I like it.

 

[70Mach1]

Excellent work!

 

[1982fxr]

Nice job.

Please don't paint anymore vintage tools that color(u)r.

 

[Boulderdash]

Nice job.

Please don't paint anymore vintage tools that color(u)r.

You are right. I was growing to dislike that yellow more and more each time I laid eyes on it. So this weekend I tore the drill apart (again!!) and gave it a repaint. I much prefer this shade. Its actually Land Rover grey, apparently, but much more subtle and suited to the tooling.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Wow, great job!

 

[scedmgl]

The bearings were shot. Grumbly and rough, these definitely needed replacing. Unfortunately, futile online bearing stockists searching and WT forum research led me to conclude Walker Turner bearings seem VERY difficult to obtain. There's 4 bearings in the head, 2 pairs are common 6202 bearings, 35mm OD x 15mm ID x 11mm height. The other two head bearings are the hard ones to source, with an extended inner race in a top hat shape. These press in top and bottom of the spindle pulley. Sure, I could get hold of them through Jeff at Walker Turner Serviced Machinery LLC, but the shipping and duty to the UK does make things very expensive!

So I found these bicycle bottom brackets bearings, MR190537_2RS, on eBay at about $10 the pair!! Shown below are these new bearings with the spindle pulley and tapered head sleeves.



I then set about modifying the two steel sleeves that press into the head on a shallow taper to accept these new bearings. This meant boring from 1.375" to the new bearings larger 1.456".






These new bearings also necessitated a pair of simple sleeves to be made, stepped 3/4" to 7/8"OD, to fit into the pulley and so adapt from the old 7/8" OD extended bearing race that used to press into the pulley, to the new smaller 3/4" ID bearing.








And it works!!



I cleaned, stripped and rewired the motor, before treating this to a few coats of gloss black.





Likewise, I treated the Jacobs chuck and quill assembly a long belated birthday. My wire wheel on the bench grinder saw enormous usage throughout this restoration, with every one of the machines bolts passing against it!!

Hi Boulderdash: I'm rebuilding a Walker Turner DP and I'd like to get the bearings from Jeff at Walker Turner serviced Machinery, do you have his email address?
Thanks from Toronto, Canada
George