New life for an old machine
I was recently offered an old drill press by a bloke I work with for a very good price - "Just take it away", he said.
To start with I was only half interested because it was 3 phase and looked like it had lived a hard life. I took it home and started cleaning it up and soon realised there was some potential there.
I then stripped it down, replaced the spindle bearings, repacked the spindle pulley bearings (the bearing shop wanted $75 each for them because they were an imperial size), re-assembled it and gave it all a squirt of blue paint.
The chuck was seized so I soaked it in CRC for a couple of days then with the key started working it back and forth many, many times until it came good.
I bought a suitable single phase motor off the net for a reasonable price with the same shaft size as the old 3 phase unit and altered the mounting plate to suit. I then replaced the old bakelite switch and wired it up.
Then I flicked the switch and away it went - what a lovely bit of machinery.
It runs so much smoother than my relatively new Toolex drill. There is no movement in the quill at full extension - the Toolex has about 4mm slop. The quill extends 125mm. It has good clearance between the spindle axis and the column. To change the speed there is a single lever that pivots the motor then locks it back into position - not cheap thumb screws etc like the Toolex.
The column is 3" diameter solid steel - unlike the light weight hollow tube on the Toolex. Everything about it reeks of quality engineering.
The only down side is there isn't a full cover over the drive belt and pulleys.
It's an Aussie made machine called Servian and was sold by the Vacuum Oil Company. I searched as best I could to find out more about it but all I could find was it was made (I think) between 1947 and 1954.
So I'd say it will still be doing it's job in another 60 years when sitting with a knitted rug over my lap reading my letter from the queen .
Kev