Drill Press Finished

 
The final parts for the drill press arrived and I have finally finished the project! The drive belting proved a bit of a challenge. The manufacturer quoted a high drive torque without the need to have the belts overly tight. Bollocks! I had to get the belt like a banjo string to get any torque from the drive system, but it all appears OK now and is working well.

The final jobs were the idler wheels, but I rebuilt the mounting bracket and they are OK for the time being. I will make some new ones if an when I find some nice brass to make them from.

The main job left was to sort out the quill tension and finish off the operating arms. I found an old book with an odd reference to a very similar old drill (1899 pattern!). The quill does not have a return spring and is prevented from dropping under it's own weight by means of an adjustable pinch bolt on the pinion. I made up a stepped washer from Delrin (hard nylon), and fitted it to the pinion bolt as a pinch bolt. Bugger me if it only does the job splendidly!

So to the operating arms. First job was to turn the ends ready for ball handles.



Next job was to put a thread on the end to accept the ball. here's my die guide set up to get the thread straight. The lump of wood is to protect the lathe if anything slips.


Then the ball handles need drilling and tapping. These are kid snooker balls about 1" in diameter. First a flat is files on one face and then centre punched.


I then drilled the balls out using the drill press so I know it's working and drilling true (yippee!). Once the balls were tapped and screwed on to the arms the whole thing was then completely assembled. Here's the finished drill.

Drill Press 10

 
Nearly there now. The drill has taken up it's new residence in the workshop, and very handsome it looks too. I have found out that it's actually far older than I thought, turn of the century, around 1900 so it's over 100 years old!


There are still things that need doing, most obviously a proper drive belt. The shock cord test belt has no torque whatsoever. It also needs the ball handles and some re-arrangement of the idler pulleys. I have found a possible solution to the return spring, one of those springs from a garden chair mounted on a steel post should do the trick.
I can't wait to drill my first hole!

Drill Press 9

 
I have located a source for the ball handles and the belting, I just need to find the money to pay for them now!
I decided to overhaul the motor today. I stripped it right down, cleaned and checked all the windings, oiled the bearing pads and checked the bushes were clean.
Once I had all the housings off, I stripped off all the old paint and gave them a coat of red oxide primer.


I decided to forgo the bloody awful 'wrinkle' finish except on the mount which had that finish already. I just retouched it. The main body was given a coat of satin black, which was much quicker and cheaper. I think the results are just as nice.



It now runs smooth and quiet, although on a few occasions it has stalled at start up. Maybe it is just old and hasn't been run for a while.
I have started work on mounting the drill and motor. A nice wooded base so that the drill can be moved if required. Mind you it's bloody heavy!

Drill Press 8

 
I have finished off the idler pulley mount and fitted it to the drill.
It seems strong enough to cope.


It seems to have enough adjustment but the pulleys are a bit too small. It'll have to do until I can make or buy new ones.


Once I had adjusted it, I fitted a test length of shock cord (all I had to hand) and placed the motor in position.


A simple test proved that the cord stays in place. I then re-wired the motor and did a power test. Even using shock cord the damn thing ran quiet and true! Result!
It needs proper 4mm drive belt to hold the torque, and once I have a working drill then I can improve on the idler pulley situation.
I have added an on/off switch and then it's just a matter of sorting out the operating handles (polish and ball handles), and then trying to find a solution to the spring return problem.


The parts for the Unimat SL turned up as well so I'm nearly up to a complete machine as originally manufactured. One or two bits still to find.
I now need an old bench vice to restore and we will be getting somewhere.

Drill Press 7

 
We've been a bit depressed this week. Lack of a job and money troubles have led us to be a tad low ......

However, to take my mind off it I have been doing a bit of research on the drill. I still don't know the maker, but it seems that it was originally a shaft driven power arrangement. I found this image where the base casting is very similar to mine:


The problem with that is the fact that the layshaft casting and the drive and step pulleys are missing and would be impossible to find or replace.
Therefore I am going to try to configure the drill a bit more like this:


The motor can simply be bolted down behind the drill, belting won't be a problem since I have tested the 4mm lathe belt for size and the diameter is a perfect match. Unlike the 'A' belt that was on the drill which is far to big in section and wouldn't seat properly. It has damaged the flanges of the motor pulley.
That leaves the problem of the two idler pulleys at the back of the head casting.
Eventually I want to improve my skills to the point where I can make a 'proper' addition to the drill, but for now it has to be a 'Heath Robinson' affair using whatever I have to hand.
I found two brass connector blocks from some earth rods, and a nice piece of aluminium rod from an old printer. The only pulley wheels I could find were some pot metal ones from a washing line. They'll have to do for now.

I turned these parts using the Unimat M4


Then I turned drilled and tapped for M6 threads


The assembly loosely fitted to test ...


The trouble is I have to wait for the last bits for the Unimat SL to arrive in order to finish off the assembly.
I have learnt that I can get accurate results using the Mk4, and it's a pleasure to use on brass and aluminium. It still scares me a bit using steel, but I will get more confident. I also learnt that hand threading without any kind of aid is very inaccurate! All the threads I have hand cut so far have been pissed. I will find out how to aid guided threading in future. Neither lathe has thread cutting abilities, but I believe that there are ways of using the lathe, and the drill press to 'guide' a straight thread.

Drill Press 6

 

Having cleaned all the castings of old crap, and with the 'wrinkle' finish paint in hand I set about making everything look good.
First I primed the base with red oxide. The joint fix seemed to good to be true. It didn't even notice.


Now, the finish I wanted used to be called 'crinkle', here's an example from and old Vero stand. You can see that it has a 'matt' appearance due to the tiny wrinkles in the paint surface. This was a standard finish on machine castings, especially pig iron ones.


I had bought 'Hycote' wrinkle black finish paint. I won't say it's total crap, but the instructions are bloody awful and it took the better part of an entire day to get anything like a wrinkle finish.
The instructions call for two coats ten minutes apart, then a heavy coat 4 hours later. Even after the first two coats I knew it was poor. The finish had a high gloss and very little 'wrinkle'. Damn.


After much fucking around, I worked out that the process actually calls for 3 or 4 VERY light coats to preserve the wrinkle. I ended up with the best finish I could get and decided to have done with it.


..... and the base casting ...


Now I started re-assembly. I had cleaned out the repaired base thread and the pillar went in without incident. However, the damage has meant that there is an angle on the pillar. As long as the table is perpendicular to the spindle we should be OK. Starting to look like the effort may be worth it in the end.




Next came a test fit of the quill and spindle prior to resetting that pesky taper pin.


I reamed out the pinion gear with a 1/8" hand taper reamer and turned up an aluminium taper pin.


After re-assembly the quill movement is smooth and clean. The drill is starting to look really nice now. However, one design flaw has come to light. No return spring. Hmm, maybe a Delrin washer on the outside bolt of the quill will stop it from dropping to the bottom of it's travel without notice!
I am also now convinced that the motor mount is all wrong. I think this is a small 'camelback' design drill and should have two small pulleys on the top casting with the motor mounted behind the base. I will investigate further.
here's the drill as it now stands. The arms need polishing and ball handles fitting, then it's down to the motor to get it all running.

Drill Press 5

 

It seems that I have solved the broken base problem ..... by the most insane and ridiculous method possible!
I was asking around the net forums for a possible welding solution, when someone asked me if the breaks were fresh? 'Yes they are'. Then he asked, 'Are the breaks on a load bearing area?'
I did a quick check and the only critical breaks were around the thread, but there was enough of the pillar stand left that the bar still gripped firmly when screwed fully down even with the broken bits missing.
'Have you tried superglue?'

I was astonished by this suggestion. Surely it wouldn't be strong enough to hold would it?
Apparently, if the breaks are fresh enough they reveal the grain and porous structure of the cast iron. The cyanoacrylate, being very runny, is drawn into the pores by capillary action.


So I carefully laid all the bits on the table and re-assembled them. Thy were all there and a good clean fit. I then ran the superglue along the joints and watched as the glue was sucked in to the joints! I kept 'feeding' the breaks with glue until no more was being drawn in and left it all to set for 6 hours.
You can just make out the joints of glue, they are slightly lighter lines on the casting.


After the glue had set I began cleaning up the joints and grinding off the scale and rust.


The only major problem is that the threads have been damaged by the pillar being smashed out of them. I am starting to carefully clean them back up with a thin grinding wheel in the Dremel. I can now screw the pillar in to about an 1/8th of inch from the bottom. Slow and steady and we should get there.
I am amazed at how strong the repair appears to be. As long as the pillar is still perpendicular when I've finished it should all work out OK.

Oh and here is an image of the drill as I bought it. Cost me £13.00 with the postage!

Drill Press 4

 
I spent some time working on the main spindle and quill assembly this morning. The shaft was re-cut to 3/8th x 24 TPI, cleaned and polished.

I re-assembled the main bearing and collar and there is surprisingly little play now that it's all been re-built. That doesn't mean the runout will be any good, but that will have to wait for full set up before I can check it.

Anyway, here's the re-built spindle, quill and new Jacobs chuck assembly.

Drill Press 3

 

After much cleaning and grinding I finally started painting today.


The main head casting has been masked and sprayed with red oxide primer.


The table castings masked and sprayed with red oxide primer.


The finished table. The underside has been painted in red as it would originally have been. I am now waiting for delivery of the black wrinkle paint for the main castings.

Drill Press 2

 
I spent a few hours working on the drill today. Mostly cleaning off the paint and de-scaling the old castings. Therapeutic work to be sure.
I used up all my bloody wire brushes for the Dremel though! I will have to get more tomorrow.


It took three coats of Nitromores paint stripper to get all the old paint off. Then a load of wire brush and sanders in the Dremel to get all the old scale off.


The table support, cleaned up and ready for painting.


All the main castings cleaned up and ready for paint. I have also de-crapped the spindle and the main pillar. The quill needs finishing then I will mask off and primer the pieces ready for wrinkle finish black. I just need to buy the paint!

Drill Press Renovation Project

 

I spent all day yesterday and most of today stripping down the drill press. The images here are after quite a bit of cleaning just to get it stripped down.


Here's the general arrangement of the stripped down parts. You can clearly see where the idiots at DHL have dropped and broken the base plate. Being cast iron I don't know if it can be fixed. Twats.


If it can be welded or brazed it's beyond my basic skill level to do it. What a shame.


here is the main pillar and the spindle shaft. 100 years of accumulated rust, grease, oil and crap. There's a small section I have cleaned at the base of the pillar. It should come up beautifully after a lot of graft!
The spindle shaft has a worn patch where the top if the quill touches it. I think it would originally have run in a phosphor bronze bush, but this is now just a grey metal bush. The spindle is exactly 11mm diameter so I could make up a new one if the play is too great. The original nose thread is some weird size and about 50 TPI. Luckily there is plenty of meat on it for a 3/8th x 24 TPI thread for a Jacobs. I'm not trying to restore this to it's original condition. I want a working drill so the original chuck will go in the bin.
You can also see the support casting for the table. Luckily all the castings seem fine except the broken base.


The main components of the quill movement. It took me 4 hours to get the remains of what should have been a taper pin out of the pinion gear. What came out looked like the remains of an allen key! The rack gear has damage to the crowns of every tooth due to this bit of bodgery. This is AFTER I have cleaned it up. Luckily none of the teeth are broken off either gear so it should still work after a fashion.
The three quill operating arms are as black as the ace of spades. At first I thought they might have been 'blued' but no, they are just covered in shit. I will get them polished up and see if I can find some ball handles for them.


The upper head casting, the new chuck and the pulley for the top of the spindle. After removing all the paint and polishing the machined surfaces I'd like to re-paint the castings with a matt black 'wrinkle' finish. That should show the drill off nicely.


The underside of the rotating table, clearly showing at least three layer of different coloured paint. Once all this lot has been cleaned off and re-painted it should start looking a bit more like a machine tool again.
I'm just REALLY issed off about the base.

Toolroom updates

 

The milling post has arrived and it's stunning. Looks brand new although it's actually referbished. I ordered it from a gunsmith in the USA. He has other parts I am missing too so I may be able to sort most of the ones I need.

A disaster with the bench drill! I found a lovely old E. Gray & Sons drill I got for a fiver. I wanted to use it as a referbishment project, but the arsole delivery carrier must have dropped it because the cast iron base was in 5 pieces when it arrived.


This little machine has been faithfully drilling holes for nearly a hundred years and then some twat from DHL goes and kills it! I have heard that cast iron can be successfully welded or brazed but that's beyond my current skills or wallet.

I think I will start work on the other parts in the hope that either the base can be repaired or another similar one comes up for a song and I can get one out of the two.
At some time in its past the drill has either been converted to power operation, or at least had the motor moved. The English Electric motor is worth a tenner on it's own so I haven't actually lost money.

So I've stripped down the drill to see what jobs need doing. It's a strange animal. With the exception of the base, all the castings are in good order. The platform has a few minor marks where drill bits have gone through the work, but I expected that. The motor pulley is the wrong one for this drill, and I think that originally this was a fixed motor model, not one where the motor is mounted to the head as it is now. The motor bracket is a pretty poor shop made one so I may look out for an original fixed motor drill and fit this motor to that.

The quill gear rack kept sticking, and when I dis-assembled it the pinion gear had a lump sticking out of it. This should have been a tapered 'cotter' pin, but it seems to be square! God knows what has been jammed in there.
The spindle runs in a phosphor bronze bush at the bottom and an open roller bearing. The top of the quill has some grey metal insert that the shaft rotates in. This looks suspicious since I would have expected another bronze bush.
There is quite a bit of slop and play in the spindle, which I expected on a machine of this age. I may attempt to make up a new spindle, it's pretty simple, but since the spindle is 11mm diameter and my Mk4 will only take a 10mm shaft I would have to get access to a bigger lathe. Bugga.

The original hand chuck had a broken tooth, but I wasn't worried since I have been keeping a brand new Jacobs for just such a project for 10 years or so. I will recut the spindle nose to 3/8th x 24 TPI for the Jacobs and that all seems good.

More pics to follow.

Tough little mother

 
I was really dubious about these micro-lathes cutting harder metals. I found an M8 Stainless Steel hex head and decided to try and make another T nut to replace the one I got with the SL.
This tough little machine took it all in it's stride! The one supplied to me (it's obviously NOT a Unimat part, it's a shop made replacement), is on the right. The new stainless steel one is on the left.


I'm impressed by this little machine, and I am going to enjoy learning to use it.

By the Lathe for the Lathe

 
One of the things I wanted to do was make parts for the machines that are expensive, hard to come by or out of production. Well I had to do exactly that today.
I had ordered this nice little machine vice for the lathes. I will need it (and a growing list of accessories) if I want to clamp stuff for milling and boring.


Unfortunately it doesn't come supplied with mounting bolts or 'T' nuts. I had two 6mm bolts of the correct length but no 'T' nuts.

'T' nuts are small captive nuts that fit into slots on the machines for clamping and such like. The SL and the Mk4 take (what appears to be) different sizes. Go figure.
I carefully measured the two slots and drew up CAD files for both for future reference. The Mk4 had two T nuts with the toolpost so I carefully measured those with a micrometer and a digital vernier. However, the SL only had a poorly fashioned one that had obviously been made with a file, but since it was working I measured that one too.

I came up with a size that would fit both machines, and made a CAD of three different profiles that would all fit. Now I needed something to make them out of.
Ideally I would have preferred to use some 16mm steel bar, but I would need to mill it and I can't do that without the clamp! Catch 22. I thought I might use some M8 bolts who's heads are the correct distance across that flats but I didn't have any. Flat steel bar would have been another option, but I didn't have that either. I came up with two brass 8M bolts who's heads were about 1mm too big.


I decided that they could be hand finished to get them to fit, I also decided to use the Mk4 to see if my efforts with the chuck had worked.
I faced them both off and turned the shoulder down to the correct diameter and thickness.


The next operation is to centre drill them.


Then drill them out 5mm ready for the M6 thread


I then turned them around in the chuck, parted them off and faced the backs.


I tapped them to 6M and then filed about 1/2 a mill off each face with a hand file. Not pretty but good enough so that I can use the vice and mill the next set!


OK, so it's not much to shout about, most engineering students could do it with their eyes shut, but I'm teaching myself as I go along here, so I'm chuffed.
Here they are in the vice and mounted to the cross slide.