Drill Press Part 5

I contacted a a bunch of different parts distributors trying to find the resilient rings to mount the motor with. What I did find out was the Marathon motor was originally sold to be used in an assembly for some type of HVAC equipment and didn't have a standard catalogue number that could be used to determine what rings were on it or if they were proprietary to the installation. After wasting a massive amount of time trying to find the correct resilient rings and purchasing two sets that were "the right ones", I used the last set I purchased to center the motor on the mount. I made some brackets, welded the case to the mount and cut the ends off that attached to the resilient rings. Yesterday I finished up the wiring and mounted a light I purchased off Amazon. I'm very impressed with the build quality and brightness of the light for its cost, its also a very nice 5 to 6k color. I will definitely buy a couple more.

 

The press is useable now but I have two more things I want to do with it. I need to purchase a new belt for it and either make or purchase a down stop.

Drill Press Part 4

I spent some time since last weekend searching for machine knobs. I found some on Amazon but the delivery dates on them were at best in May. I ended up finding some nice textured ones at Grainger for less than $2.00ea.

I had an hour tonight to get the rods threaded and install them.

Tomorrow I'm contacting a Marathon distributor to see if I can figure out the resilient rings on the motor.

Drill Press Part 3

Today I spent the better part of the day trying to bead blast the wheels for my corvette. The factory paint on them wasn't done very well and one has some minor curb rash so I thought I would repaint them. Unfortunately only blaster I have available to me large enough to put them in had plastic media and while it would remove the paint I estimate it would have taken me 3+ hours a wheel.

Because I wasted the better part of the day with that, I didn't get much done on my drill press.

I did get the quill spring cleaned, painted and installed, along with the motor plate which I some how forgot completely about when I blasted all the other parts. The plastic beads worked ok on it, I just need to paint it now.

I also got some quill handles made, this is one part I'm confused about. Every photo I have seen of this model has a quill handle that bolts to the end of the pinion. My pinion has a hole that is about 1/4" that is not very deep and not threaded, so I'm not very sure how the original handles attached. Anyway I made some from 1/2" rod and threaded them into a sleeve at a 18° angle. Now I just need to find something to use for knobs. I found an old umbrella handle but I don't really want to wait till I break two more.

Drill Press Part 2

Last weekend I borrowed my buddies blast cabinet and cleaned up most of the drill press castings. Wednesday it was warm enough here to paint what I had blasted.

The biggest pain was cleaning the support column, the rust on it was fairly thick but fortunately it didn't pit the metal.

I got about 70% of it put back together today.

I still have some details to figure out. It didn't have any quill feed handles or a depth stop, I think I can make both. The thing that has me a bit baffled right now is the motor mounts. It has a Marathon 1/2 horse motor with resilient ring mounts, the mounts are shot and I have no idea how to remove them from the end plates on the motor or what to buy to replace them. I have had zero luck matching the data plate to anything I can find online. I did find a major supplier for Marathon motors, I'm going to call them next week and see if I can get more information or what replacement rings to buy.

Drill Press Part 1

Picked up a new project today off of Craigslist, a Walker Turner 1200. From what information I can find it was built around 1948-1949.

The good:

• It was cheap.
• The bearings feel good with no play.
• It runs
• It has a nice large base
• The table is relatively undamaged

The bad:

• No low speed
• The belt cover is missing
• The quill handles are missing
• The depth stop is missing

I have it mostly apart now and plan not to fully restore it but make it functionally sound as possible. Its my first drill press and I don't know much about them so it should be fun

Saw Stand

I got this nice table for my cold saw two weeks ago for free. Its standard height but has casters welded on it. For now I'm going to leave them on because I need it to be portable, when I get into a place that is larger Ill set it on the floor.

Welding Cart Part 3

Over the last few weekends I finished the welding cart that was becoming a science project.

After I started painting the drawers, I decided I didn't like the look of the drawer pulls with them being curved out and rounded on the edges. There wasn't enough material to to square them off so I made some new ones from 7075 extrusion.

For the same reasons I decided to make a squared off handle for the cart, my intent was to match the angles of the handles on the welder.

This weekend I took the cart apart, finished some welds I couldn't get to with it assembled, prepped it for painting and hauled everything downstairs to paint it. It was 54° today but not warm enough to paint in the garage or outside.

Today the paint was dry but was still fairly soft, I spent about 45 minutes going over it with a head gun, hauled everything back out to the garage and started reassembly.

The last pictures are of it fully assembled and finished... maybe. I may make a hanger for the ground cable, I haven't decided yet. I prefer having the mig gun make a big loop over the welder versus trying to coil it up on the side and I'm not sure I want any cable management brackets sticking out from the sides.

I'm very happy with how it turned out and while I only have just over a $100.00 invested I wont do another project like that. The amount of time I spent with cutting up the clothing rack, grinding old welds and splicing pieces to make them long enough far outweighed just buying new material. The metal from the clothing rack would have been useful, just not for this project, it seemed like every piece I had was one inch too short or had three holes that needed to be filled.

Welding Cart Part 2

The cold weather has been poor motivation for working on my welding cart.

This weekend I got the upper frame made and attached to the base. I mounted the floorboard to the upper frame and cut it to fit the bottles.

I used some 1/2" strap to fab brackets to hold the seat belt extension.

I haven't decided what I am going to do yet for cable management, probably something simple. Once that is done I can takeit all apart and start painting everything.

Welding Cart Part 1

We went to my moms house for Christmas and on the drive home we stopped in Springfield MO to eat lunch. There was a HF just off the exit so I stopped and picked up some clamps I had seen people on YouTube using for fab tables.These clamps were on sale for $3.19 ea and you simply drill out the rivet at the end and replace the clamp jaw with a solid rod.

Today I got all the paint cleaned off the metal for the base and finished welding it together along
with installing the axles for the rear wheels.

I'm going to use a floor panel from a CRJ for the bottom of the cart and for the welder to sit on.
They are made from honeycomb fiberglass, have inserts already installed and are edge sealed.

Initially I was going to use the file cabinet to set the welder on but it is too flimsy, so I
will build a frame around it and use another floorboard above the file cabinet.

New Welder

I've been researching welders for a couple years now, I currently have a Lincoln Weldpak 100 that I bought used in the early 90's. I upgraded it to use gas and it works very well within its limitations. I started looking harder when the frame rails on my low hour Gravely ZT42 broke in half. The gussets I used to repair it were at the limits of what the welder could handle and made the whole repair more painful than it needed to be.

I had what I wanted narrowed down to three welders, and decided that I would buy whichever was the best deal over Black Friday. None of them went on sale so I just bought the one I wanted the most  :)

I ended up buying the ESAB Rebel 205ic and I doubt I will ever be able to weld to anywhere near its capabilities.

Most of my experience is with MIG or Oxy Acetylene, I have only stick welded a couple times and have never used a TIG before today. But before I start spending any time pretending to learn that skill, I need to build a welding cart. Having two 255cf bottles strapped to my work bench isn't the most effective way to use my work space, I need them on a cart.

Yesterday I picked up a fab table that was on sale, its nothing fancy but really makes welding square easy. I have some existing material and decided to use as much of it as possible, to this point the only thing I have bought are the wheels and casters.

The frame of the welding cart I'm making from a commercial clothing rack that has 1" x 1" square tubing. The body of the cart is a three drawer file cabinet, which will sit on a fiberglass honeycomb panel screwed to the frame. The bottles will also sit on this panel and be held in place with aircraft seat belt extensions. The top will be another honeycomb panel and will extend past the welder, I will scallop it to fit around the bottles.

At least that's how it all works out in my head, I like reusing old materials but it is always more work than just cutting new materials to the correct size.

Today consisted of some mental design and me playing around with the multitude of settings on the welder. I did get the base cut to size and nearly welded together. The next four days are with the family and Ill try to pick back up on it this weekend.