Who did your electrical connection?
Who did your electrical connection?
I bought my Camel-Back Barnes near Seattle, WA. I paid the grandson of the original owner $1000usd. I bought the Hoefer from a friend in Merritt, BC for $400cdn. A friend in North Vancouver, BC, bought his Camel-Back at an auction and he paid $500cdn. I see these drill presses on CL about once a month. The prices seem to be remaining high.I'd love to find an old camel back to restore, but the prices are too high for me. The cheapest one I've seen in recent years was $400.
The Kerry / Qualters and Smith drills (they are the same machines) are a decent range of drilling machines.Can't even get to mine at the moment as I'm extending my workshop and everything is packed in storage.
What?
It is a Kerry Super 8 (probably not a make those in the U.S. are aware of and a fairly obscure one over here too).
Section on the machine and the history here for those interested.
It is a floor standing belt driven MT2 machine with a backgear which gives a range of 47 - 2000 rpm and weighs in at 260lbs.
Why?
It is a very rigid machine for its size with a lot of flexibility and a handy low speed range for drilling larger holes.
At the time I bought it a fair bit cheaper than anything comparable with a geared head, which might be the only reason I can think of to upgrade (and that’s unlikely to be honest).
I have an Elliott Progress No1 which is the typical 5 speed mostly woodworking drilll, and Elliott Progress 2gs which is basically the same machine but with the back gear added which gets you to 45rpm and I have just agreed to buy, I will pick it up next week a Kerry 125, which is an all geared 9 speed 1 1/4" capacity 1120lb lump of industrial drill.
Figure that PM 1150 retailed for $2,500 t0 $3,000 when they quit building them back in the 90s, that makes it a $5,000 - $6,000 drill press today with inflation. It can not help but drill holes better than some $1,500 import. I bet the PM 1150 weighs twice of that Grizzly. My PM 1200 weighs in around 600 pounds.Well i finally got to drill some holes with the new to me powermatic 1150. What a difference compared to the Grizzly, the holes were straight and clean, it felt good drilling them. I think the Grizzly suffered from a bad casting, the reviews are mostly all good, but the pm is just some much more refined, now to finish the set up. The drawback to the pm is no rack and pinion, but I plan on adding it.