Radial Arm Drill Press

[The Snowman]

Picked up a Delta/Rockwell radial arm drill press. I don’t know much about them but always wanted one and this one popped up just a few miles from me.
Needs a good cleaning, some new belts, and I’d like to put an original speed motor on it.
Runs well though.
Anybody know much about these? Things I should check or change while I’m cleaning up?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I've never seen one that small, super fricking cool. Looks like that table is in great shape too.

Take it apart, clean any oiling system that exists, lubricate the ways with way oil or light machine oil, and send it. The missing knobs on the quill control can be purchased pretty reasonably from mcmaster.

Common on the older rockwell drill presses is for the quill spring to break, but not sure if it's common on that thing. Clean everything really well first before throwing parts at it for sure.

 

[bgaidan]

That thing looks mint. Doesn't even look like there's a single apprentice mark on the table. Good find.


By the title I was picturing....

Which is on my want list....though not quite that big. Something with a 4 to 5' arm would fit nicely in my shop.

 

[The Snowman]

I can’t tell if it just has a lot of built up grime on the shaft or if the quill spring is broken.
I’d guess it’s the quill spring.
They guy said he hasn’t used it in years.

 

[dnsfailure]

is there a crank wheel to move it in and out? or do you just grab it and slide it by hand?

 

[The Snowman]

It slides out by hand and then you lock it in place wherever you need it. It also pivots to a 45* angle on either direction.
It’ll swivel off to the side too if I need to drill something that’s too tall for the table.

From what I can find it weighs around 850lbs.
Seems accurate from offloading it with my tractor.

 

[dnsfailure]

that's pretty cool :) That stand is sweet looking too :)

 

[arse_sidewards]

Seems nifty but the lack of being able to stick a 3ft tall object on the table seems to kill the biggest benefit a drill press has over a mill.

 

[The Snowman]

It’s cranked down low in the pics. It goes a lot higher.
I’ll take some more pics as I get it cleaned up.

 

[bgaidan]

I like the Johansens for the smaller-ish types of radials. You have a knee on one side and can rotate the head 180 and work off the base on the other.

Of course the really big ones do that too....you just need a tad more space for them!

 

[arse_sidewards]

It’s cranked down low in the pics. It goes a lot higher.
I’ll take some more pics as I get it cleaned up.

I can see the column. You're not getting free-standing 20" drill press levels of travel out of that.

 

[billybob_81067]

He could mount the base to a plate of steel and swing the head over the side and be able to clamp stuff to that. But realistically how often have you ever needed to drill something that tall in a drill press? I know I never have. Not even once. Maybe I'm not utilizing the full functionality of my drill press and overlooking some common thing that everyone uses the full height of their drill press for???

Hell I actually hardly ever even use a drill press unless it has to be higher precision than I can achieve with a hand drill. And even then it's usually done in the lathe if it has to be that precise.

 

[The Snowman]

From what info I can find on, it claims 20" is the max height for using the table.
I've never needed to use the full height of my floor model drill press. I mostly like the large heavy table and the arm reach on this one.

Also found out it was made in 1973 which is supposedly one of the last years they were made really well. The quality apparently went down as you get later into the 70's.

 

[The Snowman]

Ran into an issue while cleaning it up. The raising screw will only allow me to go up. When I try to crank it down it won’t move. Seems to be skipping the threads.
Of course the raising screw and the threaded insert are no longer available.
They don’t look damaged but must be worn just enough to not function.

 

[arse_sidewards]

That doesn't make sense. If anything it should go down just fine and skip going up. Reassemble an figure it out.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Agree with the masshole. The screw doesn't look worn much at all. The teeth on that bevel gear look a bit worn, but nothing that would explain skipping teeth. Perhaps an alignment issue, or whatever drives that bevel gear? Only the inside section of the bevel gear looks like it has wear.

 

[The Snowman]

It doesn't make any sense to me either and I've cleaned and reassembled it a few times with the same results.
I think the threaded inset is worn just enough that when it has the weight of the drill head pushing down it jams up.

It cranks up and down just fine until I put pressure on the screw. Even with putting downward pressure on the raising screw with my hand causes it to jam up when trying to crank it down.

 

[The Snowman]

It seems to be a 7/8 - 9 threaded insert. I was going to but buy a 7/8 -9 nut and weld it on top of the insert but I can't seem to find any nuts that size in acme thread.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

What does the bevel gear get driven by? What does that gear look like?

 

[The Snowman]

Turns out it was something stupid.
One of the screws for the keyway running up the shaft was broken and I didn’t know it.
The way it was catching was only on the way down.
Once I got that out it works great.

Started cleaning up the bed and the guides for it to slide.
About 10lbs of mud dobber and mouse nests in every opening.
Still need to get new belts.

 

[Brad]

I’ve never seen one that small either. We had one a little bigger at one of my old jobs and others fucking massive at other jobs.