Well, I've finally manged to complete the resto on an old Servian Drill Press I rescued from the deceased estate of an old sparkie. Was a complete rebuild and replacement of the old donk with a slightly used DC treadmill motor with PWM speed control. Many thanks to John B for his advice and help - have learned so much from he and others on this forum. When you get to be an old fart and can still learn things, makes it even more worthwhile - thanks to all who helped

Due to the Bat Flu Pandemic and constant lockdowns etc it took ages for supplies etc, Won't bore you with the details in this post other than to say I had to get the quill straightened by an engineering chap - it now has less than 0.0001 run out which will do me. Bearings were all updated with modern shielded ones and because the cast iron table had numerous apprentice holes, mate filled those as I have no way of properly handling cast iron welds. He did a brilliant job which took 2 days to cool down in the thermal heat blanket - just so it didn't 'ping'

The paint was the closest I could get to match the original - the new one is a special Haynes acrylic 2 pack mix which the paint bloke made up for me - min of 1 litre (only used a quarter of that - rest is set like a rock in the tin; dries in 1 minute with a brush so you cannot go back over any - believe it reacts with O2 for hardness and requires special spray application so I brushed instead - paint is chip free, hard as a proverbial witches......oil just wipes off.

Motor runs ever so smooth and can be reversed for left hand bits. The pot allows very slow speeds and doesn't lose torque at lower revs...because the shaft is MT I can use all my lathe MT stuff as well as the chuck. Tacho works both ways in positive display from the Hall Affect Sensor I mounted to the drive. Reverse is so handy as saves me trying to mount things up in the lathe if I have to remove broken studs or taps etc. I scored a set of LH bits which I can now use and deliberately chose a keyed chuck over and auto one - just me!

Weighs heaps as has a solid shaft with cast iron head, base and plate - at least several hundred KG's....so I mounted it on a moveable frame because I have limited space now and added a few grinders and drawers so I don't have to move far to sharpen bits etc. being an old fart, makes it easier to get at everything

Here's a few piccies of what she looks like now.... if you want any specifics or more details just ask....thanks again for all your help, it was greatly appreciated...Lee

ps...sorry about the delay John
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