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Back in the late 40s/early 50s, Sears/Craftsman released a line of pedestal mounted shop tools. For the most part, they're all cast iron and steel. Art deco AF with engine turned panels and headbands, sitting on roller ball transfer bearings so that they're easily mobile.   A while back I fell into a deal for the drill press from this line. From then on, I was smitten and began working on collecting as many as I could. I figured once they're all restored, they'll live longer than I will, and I'll have a shop full of sweet rear end tools that maybe my kids will care about someday. I'm writing this thread to document my progress and maybe someone might even find it interesting. I got all the way through the restoration of the drill press before I had the idea to post about it. I didn't get as many pictures as I would've liked for the thread, but I'll post what I've got. It started out pretty rough. A lot of rust and the quill was seized up entirely.   After a lot of hours, and processes that I'll go over in future posts, I ended up with this:            I converted it from a bench top to floor standing. Took it apart down to the last nut and bolt and polished everything to a mirror finish. I don't have the tool to check, but I couldn't see the tiniest bit of runout with my naked eye. She was built sometime between '45 and '49, so she's drat near 80 years old. Bet you still couldn't find a better press in the store. So anyway, my plans are to document the rest of the series here. So far I still have the grinder, band saw, table saw, scroll saw, and the jointer/planer to do. I'm still looking for the lathe and the belt grinder, but finding these in the right vintage AND with the original pedestals is a pretty tough putt. I'm trying to keep everything as original as possible (except when I get to the table saw. I'm hoping to add some safety features so I don't lose fingat) Feel free to post with any questions/comments! Ghostnuke fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 02:27
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| # ? May 4, 2024 00:13 |
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I think I'll work on this grinder next. My thinking is that it'll be the most useful in restoring the others as I can put on a buffing wheel instead of using one in my die grinder and throwing polish all over the goddamn place. She was built in Aug of '55, so newer than the drill press but still pretty fuckin' old. 1/2 hp motor, pulling 7 loving amps lol. It has two speeds available, yes and no  . I'm pretty confident that it'll grind diamonds into parmesan once I'm done.Anyway, on to the current pics.      This sliding bevel guide is pretty interesting. Not only will it be rad for sharpening stuff, but I haven't been able to find anything about it online. It must be fairly rare. Hopefully I'll be able to find those missing knobs.        This is what's known as a "Pre-Block" grinder in the vintage tools community. The 1/2 hp motor is hard to find, along with all of the attachments. I'll start tearing it apart in the next days and we'll go from there.
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Dec 23, 2023 02:51
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I love tool restorations. You've done a really good job on the drill press, looking forward to following along and seeing the rest of the collection. I spotted the jointer in the background of one of the pics. Do you need to bolt any of these pedestals down? Or are they heavy enough to stay in place and not be tippy?
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Dec 23, 2023 04:00
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Meow Meow Meow posted:I love tool restorations. You've done a really good job on the drill press, looking forward to following along and seeing the rest of the collection. I spotted the jointer in the background of one of the pics. Do you need to bolt any of these pedestals down? Or are they heavy enough to stay in place and not be tippy? Yup the jointer is back there, it'll probably be towards the end of the queue. No bolting necessary, they're all surprisingly sturdy. Cast iron is heavy. Something I forgot to document on the drill press -   This is a protractor for the table, so you can drill on angles. This will be useful once I complete building a secret upgrade. 
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Dec 23, 2023 18:52
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Teardown! When I'm disassembling something like this, I'll try to reference an exploded diagram. I'll take each piece off and put it in a baggie with a label that has the name and part number on it. Makes reassembly a lot easier later, especially if I don't come back for a while. I couldn't find the manual for this particular model, so I'm using one from a similar model. I'm fudging a lot of the part numbers on my labels since they don't exist in this manual, but  .I plugged it in for the first time today and it ran like a champ, so this should be a pretty quick and straight forward restoration. I probably won't do much of anything to the motor aside from cleaning and new bearings. First thing, I took the grinder off the pedestal and then broke the pedestal down.  Those feet are not original and are rusty af, so they will be loving off to parts unknown. I'll get to the base, column, and top another day. I didn't get a pic of removing that bevel guide, but here we are once that's done.  I was able to identify the guide and find parts as well. Here we're looking at the bottom of the quench tray. I'll remove that to get access to the bottom of the grinder proper.  I'll set this aside for later.  Here is the internal wiring relating to power, pretty simple. That bit at the bottom left is where the power goes to the lamp.  I took a billion pictures of the wiring so I wouldn't forget how it went, but here we are with the switch and the capacitor removed.  Someone at the factory really liked solder.  Pulled off the gooseneck. Maybe I'll run new wire? We'll see.  NSFW topless pic  75 year old chungus, I probably have mesothelioma now.  First blood on this project! Bashed my knuckle getting that nut off the shaft. When I can't figure out why it won't go back on later, remind me that it's reverse threaded.     This might be original, I don't know.  Here is where I'm leaving off for today.  Stay tuned for more boring commentary on ancient machinery!
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Dec 24, 2023 02:47
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Not much to show today, but here we go... So, this is the stator with the rotor removed. You can see the centrifugal switch down in the other side there.  Another shot with the 2nd end bell taken off and the switch loose.  This is the switch assembly on the rotor.  These switches are used to turn certain sections of the stator windings on and off. One set runs at startup and then once it gets spinning fast enough, that centrifugal switch will turn off the first set of windings and turn on the second set. These bearings are pretty crunchy, so they'll be replaced.  Here's everything that needs to be stripped and painted, along with the rotor for some reason.  First step in that process is degreasing everything in some simple green.  Next step will be rust removal. Well get to that maybe tomorrow (or later if I get lazy).
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Dec 29, 2023 00:58
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Good read. I have my late grandfathers drillpress.  From what I understand dunlap was a later badge engineer but it's still sears.  I need to do a clean up and tear down, but I can still put in a random drill bit and punch through some plate with it. 
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Jan 1, 2024 01:48
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Yup, pretty much exactly the same. Yours would be considered a model "80" I think in the Craftsman line due to the single handled feed hub. Looks like yours was made in '55, or at least the motor was.
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Jan 1, 2024 02:36
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Amazing work on the drill press. I've only ever seen those in that Craftsman blue color from the time period, or rattlecan black enamel. The gold really pops. As to the grinder, it looks basically new. I'm surprised the nut didn't have an L stamped on it to denote left-hand thread. Are you going to put in another incandescent light or go with an LED? Also: QUENCH TRAY! That's something that literally every bench grinder should come with standard.
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Jan 1, 2024 03:05
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Ghostnuke posted:Yup, pretty much exactly the same. Yours would be considered a model "80" I think in the Craftsman line due to the single handled feed hub. Looks like yours was made in '55, or at least the motor was. That's what I was thinking but thanks for the confirmation. I'd be interested in converting mine to floor standing and then using the left over pedestal for a bench grinder I have from him so any details on how that is done or what to look for would be great.
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Jan 1, 2024 17:39
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Amazing work on the drill press. I've only ever seen those in that Craftsman blue color from the time period, or rattlecan black enamel. The gold really pops. Thanks! The earliest models were that machine gray color (you can peep it in the before photos). Later on they started painting what they called Power Bronze, I'm pretty close to that I think. I guess I am deviating from original there, but it's inarguably better looking. Haven't considered a new bulb, guess we'll see what looks better.
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Jan 1, 2024 20:07
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Slow is Fast posted:That's what I was thinking but thanks for the confirmation. What you're looking for is called DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing. Fair warning, it is not cheap. But measure the inner and outer diameter of the column you have and then have your local metal shop pick that out and cut you a section in the length you want. You'll want to be quite careful in your measurements unless you want to spend eternity widening all your bores (at least 10 probably?) I'm guessing that smaller foot probably will be wobbly if used for floor standing, so you might end up bolting it down anyway.
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Jan 1, 2024 20:13
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After the parts were degreased, I gave them a quick rinse with plain water. Then it's back under water again, only this time I added citric acid. It's tough to see in the picture but there are like tiny clouds of bubbles floating up from each piece. This will eat up all the rust and leave everything nice and clean. It also eats up the paint (or at least this kind) so once I rinsed the parts and gave them a quick scrub with a wire brush, they're basically ready for primer.   I don't know about where you live, but here poo poo will flash rust in like 15 minutes so I need to be quite quick to get them dried off and shot with primer.  This is what I'll be doing for the next few days probably, I have to do it in small batches due to the flash rusting. I'm probably going to have to whip up a temporary tank for the column to get de-rusted as it won't fit in the bucket, but screw that noise for today.
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Jan 1, 2024 23:06
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Not to shill for a product, but Evapo-Rust and other chelating rust removal solutions (solvents? complexes? n/m, it's not the chemistry thread) will convert the surface iron into a form that doesn't rapidly form rust. They apparently last a long time, too, so you can de-rust a BUNCH of stuff before the liquid "wears out."
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Jan 2, 2024 00:25
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Not to shill for a product, but Evapo-Rust and other chelating rust removal solutions (solvents? complexes? n/m, it's not the chemistry thread) will convert the surface iron into a form that doesn't rapidly form rust. They apparently last a long time, too, so you can de-rust a BUNCH of stuff before the liquid "wears out." Yeah, I know of those. I've been using citric acid as it's very cheap in terms of the number of batches I get out of a bag, and I can just dump the worn out rust juice in the yard with no problems. I can't imagine how much evaporust I'd have to buy in order to dunk some of the giant pieces that are upcoming.
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Jan 2, 2024 00:34
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Ghostnuke posted:Yeah, I know of those. I've been using citric acid as it's very cheap in terms of the number of batches I get out of a bag, and I can just dump the worn out rust juice in the yard with no problems. I can't imagine how much evaporust I'd have to buy in order to dunk some of the giant pieces that are upcoming. If you're willing to wait, just dilute it with (non chlorinated) water.
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Jan 2, 2024 01:25
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Ghostnuke posted:What you're looking for is called DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing. *snip* Didn't know you just fired straight dom at it. (there is a stick of dom roll cage size tubing in the background of one of my pics). wasn't sure if it was something proprietary or not. Depending on how much you paid, I could buy an entire rear end drill press for the price and move my bits to a floor stand tube and the rest to the bench tube to keep or sell: 
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Jan 2, 2024 22:29
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I used DOM because that's what was original and I could find the right size. You might be able to find ERW, but I didn't have much luck. But you're right, it's definitely not very budget friendly.
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Jan 2, 2024 22:38
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I love these old tools. Growing up, we had a 1950s Shopsmith in the garage that had belonged to my grandfather. Unfortunately, it had sat unused for nearly 20 years by the time my dad got it, and he never really got it working. It's long gone now - he sold it or gave it away during a house move years ago. Kinda wish I had it to play with now that I have a garage, although I realize that it could have quickly become a money sink far in excess of its value.
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Jan 3, 2024 04:57
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Still loving around with stripping and primer. Here's all the other parts all ready for cleaning up though - 
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Jan 11, 2024 16:47
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Just posting to keep from archives - haven't gotten much done lately. Kinda got sidetracked on another project.
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Feb 6, 2024 02:29
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Project that sidetracked me is finishing up soon, I'll be able to get back to this.
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Mar 8, 2024 01:11
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Bookmarking and looking forward to updates! Very nice job on the drill press. I've put resto videos on in the background for years (my partner is addicted to watching poo poo get sandblasted) so I'm hoping to start soon. My current "project" is restoring a bike multitool I allowed to get janky to be actually functioning, so I'm starting small on my journey 
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Mar 22, 2024 20:36
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