Thread: Waldown Pedestal Drill Questions

PM me your address, I'll be right over.

The parts in the photo can be replaced or made cheap enough.

I have had a little bit of a win here. Working on the theory that everything has to be someplace I went looking for and found the broken tooth embeded in the grease inside the housing. I'm hoping it may be able to be welded back on, unfortunately it is badly worn, it probably jammed and broke off, the next one along is showing signs of wear as well. As a get it going fix I'm thinking I could reassembe it with the first two teeth at the start of the travel and fit some type of spacer to limit travel I would lose say 1/2" of initial travel, it would take the first two out of play but at least make it useable till replacement or a proper repair is carried out.
Heres a couple of pics of the worn broken tooth.
Though I still need to find a fix for the drive shaft with the JT2 1/2 taper before proceeding.

The parts in the photo can be replaced or made cheap enough

Any tips on where to start calala I'm going to try the Waldown people but I don't hold out much hope.

The return springs are still used on new machines & should be able to purchase from a supplier like Hare & Forbes, maybe likewise with the shaft as manufacturers liked to copy each other to some extent. If not find yourself a toolmaker to make up the shaft. I would think one or two belong to this site.

You might find that brobo waldown still have or can get parts for their drills. Give them model no, serial no and build date, you might be lucky.

Thanks for advice Calala & green mile

Hello Ted,

I imagine your drill looks something like the one below which sold earlier this month on Ebay for $450. I have a spare pinion for the basic drill press that may fit with some modification. I will post a photo or two tomorrow along with some dimensions. If it turns out to be of any use you can have it.

The cast iron "handnut" became Bakelite and is now black plastic (part no.103136).
I bought one from Waldown back in 2000 for 35 dollars. They are still listed as a spare part for the 3M - http://www.brobo.com.au/pdf/3m_drill_manual.pdf

BT

Thanks Bob This one is similar but dfferent and not in as good condition. I expect this is a earlier variant some differences in the castings the upright is not as long, this one sits on a short stand it's sort of in between a floor and bench model.
It would be good if the pinion is the same it would solve that problem.

Hello Ted,

There is always a catch. The 21 tooth pinion gear has one deformed tooth. My little WA made Tough drill suffered from the same plight and I was able to intall the pinion so that the damaged tooth did not engage the rack over the usable extent of rack/quill travel.

If the critical dimensions shown match your's let me know. I had a look at the handnut end of my 3M pinion. Different setup to yours.

Bob.

It's a different pinion Bob, Not to worry I can make do for the time being by installing it as you have done.
Thanks
Ted

I think you're getting the idea now Ted. You see, many of us with Australian made machines feel a bit proud to own them and would do whatever it took to get them running or keep them running. They're not making them any more you know. Some people hoard spare parts, and have been known to give them away to help keep another fine machine out of the melting pot. If you feel it's too much for you, then please see that it goes to someone who will care for it. Let us hear no more talk of scrapping. We're looking forward to further updates on your progress.

Edit: I just re-read your post #16 and it's not clear if you were considering scrapping it. Sorry if I misunderstood.

Hi Ted,
Is the JT taper only damaged in the middle?
You might be able to machine it low in the middle and just have it sit on the top and the bottom section of the taper?

Stuart

Ted, how are you set for turning? If the shaft is the same dimensions as Bob's the teeth are 16 DP which for someone with a dividing head is not difficult. If you turned up a shaft in say 4140, cutting the teeth is not that difficult. Provided that you are not planning on abusing the drill, something like that should be fine - perhaps even plain MS will do.
I once had a similar problem with my lathe traverse shaft and a replacement cost me $120 (this was 10+ years back) but these machines can certainly be repaired.
As for the JT part, it might be possible to bore out and splice in a piece of material that can then be turned to suit. Believe it or not the shaft on the motor of my Waldown drill press (a 2M) was broken and that was the way I repaired that (only way I could afford it was to buy a broken one). Still going strong a couple of years later.

Michael

These machines can be resurrected. I bought my 3M for 200 dollars. The replacement table cost more than the drill. The drill had been abused. As an example, the table elevating crank had been welded to its shaft because someone had not replaced the lost set screw used to retain the handle. Whilst I could be accused of hoarding , those spare parts have come in handy.

BT