| Author | Message | ||
     Mikej |
Howdy, just drive-by posting a quick note and placeholder. I picked up, well make that rolled and flopped and hefted into and out of the pickup, an ancient Excelsior (I think) drill press. I'll post pics later tonight hopefully. Not sure if it has bearings or bushings but it was tight enough to pop a circuit breaker when I first turned it on. A bit of oil squirted in various places and a bit of hand turning got it going to some extent (kind of like me some mornings). It's missing the chuck or collet or whatever you want to call it, that part that holds bits and augers and flycutters and such. Just a heads up in case anyone might have one laying around unused. I'll post some pics of where it mounts and will try to take some dimensions of the shaft inner/outer diameters. As a point of reference this drill press would look right at home in Bomber's Entropy Lab. I just need a drill press sometimes so I got this one. Not sure if I'll keep it or swap it off for a more "modern" drill press of some sort. It does have character though. Anyway, pics to come later. (okay, the egg timer net nanny monitor says it's time to duck and run again, gotta go for now, bye, be back later.... ) | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Cool Mike! Old machine tools are very cool. The quill on the drill press is most likely a no. 2 Morse taper. I'll take a picture of mine so you can see what hey are suppose to look like. Brad | ||
| Jackbequick |
Does that have a tapered male mount for a directly mounted chuck or a tapered female receptacle for the Morse tapers that Brad mentioned. If the male, tell me the large diameter and length and I can tell you what chuck you need. If it takes the male Morse taper shanks, then it should also have two opposing slots a little ways up the quill for you to put a knock-out driver through to unseat the Morse taper. If you can tell me the approximate diameter of the opening at the end of the quill and the distance up to the bottom of the knock-out slots, I can tell you what the Morse taper for the drill check adapter you need. Jack | ||
| Mikej |
It has the two slots farther up, and a tapered plate/pin hanging by a chain from the top of the press. I'll get some measurements since you probably can't see me holding my fingers up nor hear me saying "it's about this big around". The bummer is that I saw a chuck sitting near it a week before I got it or knew it was going to be available. Sometime between then and when I picked it up the chuck disappeared, bummer. But the price was right so I'm not complaining. I'll be back online tonight. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Mike, I think this is what you are talking about. A chuck and shaft should be available for not much $$ on Ebay or even locally. Don't skimp on the chuck. Cheap ones wobble. Brad   (Yikes! I need to get out the Scotch Brite pads and do a better job of keeping that bugger opiled up!) (Message edited by bluzm2 on July 27, 2006) | ||
| Bomber |
Mike -- if the old nail is old enough, it may have babbit bearings -- a black art indeed . . . . lookin forward to seeing pics! | ||
| Bomber |
but Kroil has been known to break loose only bearings -- on 2nd thought, babbit bearings don't often freeze -- at any rate, pics will help us figure out whacha got and how to get her freed up one more piece of old arn in the shop and I'll just run pulleys up to the ceiling and a bunch leather belts . . . . . | ||
| Jackbequick |
Brad's photos is probably exactly what you need. I think I had that exact same drill press as his at one time. That is a MT-2 taper. The lower end of that burnished looking area on the shank of Brad's taper should measure around .700" (just under 3/4"). If the hole in the lower end of your quill is about that size, you have a MT-2 taper too. A #1 or #3 would be considerably smaller and larger. You can find that stuff on eBay: http://tinyurl.com/mdof3 http://tinyurl.com/pt5oq http://tinyurl.com/hhqzv Jack | ||
| Mikej |
The quill dimensions are as follows: .925" o.d. .490" i.d. at the mouth and .450"i.d. about 1/2" up the hole which is about all my 6" calipers would reach to. The drift pin plate thing has "No. 1" stamped or etched into it along with some logo I can't make out yet. So, would I assume this is a Morse #1 taper? Anyway, here's some pics, hopefully my limited quick and dirty xat editing will work good enough.            I've got no idea what that extrusion/knob-thing sticking out the backside of the main support is for. Also I'm sure it's missing some attachments that clamp onto the lowermost clamping rail-thing. And there are a few bolts missing here and there on it. But it is kind of funky-neat. There is also a counterweight that hangs inside the main support tube that attaches to that newer cable hopefully not just taped to the quill shaft to counter-balance the drill attachment or chuck. I've got no idea what this thing weighs, but do know it's probably a bit too heavy to strap to the rear seat on one of the Buells. But once I get it figured out and functional I'll be drilling a few holes in stuff for said Buells. Okay, off to Google up where the next Tool-Anon meeting is.  Then off to E-Bay and elsewhere to find a chuck. Hey, Bomber, I probably shouldn't ask this, but didn't you somewhat recently mention a tool supply outfit down near you that you go out of your way to avoid? Wonder if they'd have any bits and pieces for this thing. Also, I'm a little hesitant to remove the cover on the headstock area to see if it has babbet or ball bearings. I've got a suspicion though. Wouldn't be surprised if this drill press hadn't drilled a few holes in Model T parts way back when they were new. | ||
| Jackbequick |
Your measurement is consistent with that having a #1 Morse taper then. The gage line measurement for a MT-1 taper is about .475" and that would normally fall right around the end of the quill. The gage line would fall approximately (very approximately) 2-1/2" below the center of the knock-out bar slots. Here is a place with more than you ever wanted to know about Morse tapers. And here is a place in upstate N.Y. that has an Excelsior 21" drill press for sale. A 21" drill press will drill to the center of a 21" circle. It would be about 10-1/2" from the tip of a drill to the vertical column. I would guess yours to be something like a 16" or so drill press. To clean that taper up, make a saw cut in a 3/8" or so wooden dowel, put a piece of 100 grit emery cloth in the slit and wrap it around the dowel a few times. Wet that with kerosene and with the spindle turning, run it up and down inside to remove the surface rust. The taper does not need a high polish but it works best if rust free and clean. If there are any drag marks, gouges, or burrs that have left high spots, it is best if you can take them down with a round or half round file or riffling tool. A few low spots won't hurt the holding power as much as the high spots. To mount a taper, open a drill chuck until the jaws are up inside the chuck body and, with both tapers clean and dry, slip the taper in, hold it up in place with a piece of 2 x 4, and strike the 2 x 4 an upward blow with a 2 lb. hammer. Does not need a lot of force, just one good whack. A non-rebounding hammer works great too. That protrusion in the back was probably for a steadying brace that went to a wall or post. That would have been to steady the drill press and also to keep tension on a flat drive belt from a (probably horizontal) line shaft that wrapped the spindle where that v-belt pulley is now. I'd think that electric motor was added a long time after this machine was new and some original drive parts (multiple stepped flat belt pulleys, etc.) were removed to do that. The counterweight may have balanced the weight of the quill assembly to make for easy raising and lowering. That is a little unusual in that the entire head assembly is raised and lowered for work clearance, then the feed lever is used to move the quill up and down. Most machines had a fixed head and moved the table up and down for locating the work height. A DC motor is a great option for both power and variable speeds on a drill press like that. But I'd be careful about putting too much money into that one... Jack | ||
| Mikej |
I'm pretty much just wanting to get it functional, so about the only expense I'll make is for a chuck and some bits. Thanks for the tip on cleaning up the taper hole and the links, I'm off to print them out and do some reading since my workstation computer here is down pending some upgrades, can't surf so gotta read.  Appreciate all the info from all. Anyone else can feel free to hijack this thread with their own antique tool talk. Could get interesting. | ||
| Bomber |
Mike -- the joynt near me is basically a surplus outfit -- I've never seen anything there older the early 60s, way too new for you . . . . . . I'm sure you've already done this, but take the v-belt off the motor and plug her in -- see if the binding is in the quill or the if the motor's shot . . . . if it's the quill, I'd try dumpin prodigeous quantities of Kroil or your favorite penetrating oil into the top of the old dear, and well as where the rotating thingy enters the upndown thingie . . . . do that a couple/four times and see if it busts loose -- if nothing else, it'll make it easier to take apart for new bearings (I'd recommend against babbitts, btw -- work great, but major pain to get installed/scrapped/working right, and messy as can be -- any major bearing joint can getcha sumpin that'll fit) lastly, I KNOW you were fooling about the flycutters and all -- yeah, I knew ya were ;-} my guess is somewhere between the late 90s (1890s, that is) to the late teens -- looks like she was originally designed to be run of one of those power distribution setups with leather belts runnin up to the ceiling (the convertion to electrical power coming much later, obviously) neat find, bud . . . . . couple of stepped pulleys on the motor and quill, and you're ready to drill darn near anything! | ||
| Mikej |
I got it spinning without popping circuit breakers via plenty of oil in any orifice I could find while turning it by hand. Ran it for a minute or so while adding more oil, some vibration, but seems like it should work. In one of the links Jack posted there is a link to a technical bookstore down your way in IL, Lindsay's in Bradley IL. Bookstores can be just as dangerous as tool shops to some of us folks. When I move, close to half my boxes have books in them. I've put out local feelers for chucks. | ||
| Jackbequick |
This piece, called an arbor, is pretty much what you need, Mike: http://tinyurl.com/otr4p (this one is sold unfortunately) The Jacobs taper on that Morse taper will take 3/8" and 1/2" Jacobs chucks and, of course, the cheap Chinese copies of the Jacobs chucks. You want to get the arbor first, then look for a chuck to fit the arbor (unless you find the right arbor with the chuck already on it of course). Lindsay's book are great. I learned to be a pretty competent machinist books like they sell. Jack | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Mike, Lindsay books is very addictive. Stay away!!! http://www.lindsaybks.com/ Neat stuff on all things obscure. Wanna build a coal fired melting furnace? Come on, I know ya do! Brad |
