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OCDFabworks Shop Projects: Anything Worth Doing is Worth Overdoing

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This thread shall henceforth serve to document my affliction; an addiction to all things vintage, American-made, and overkill.

 

Let's begin with the restoration of a behemoth of American quality.

 

I have a thing for vintage industrial tools, some of you may recall the huge Wilton vise I picked up to restore (haven't yet finished it). I've had a need for a drill press for a LONG time, and usually just drive to work to use one of our drill presses there when the need arises. Well, I have grown pretty tired of that since you don't always know when you'll need to use a drill press, and adding 45-50 minutes round trip to the amount of time to use the drill press gets old.

So I began my search for my own drill press; but it couldn't be just any drill press. I wanted something vintage and built like a tank. I searched eBay, Craigslist, estate sales, liquidations, etc. for months before finally finding one of the top machines on my list: a 1952 Walker-Turner 20" drill press. This thing is a beast, tipping the scales at 500+lbs of cast iron. My friend and I drove out to Akron, OH to pick it up a few weeks ago from an old school local fastener company that had fallen under hard times. It was kind of sad seeing the old man selling off his machines in hopes of being able to retire, but I feel good knowing I'll give this machine a new lease on life and a good home for many many years rather than it being doomed to the scrap yard. It will likely take me a while to finish this, as it's a side project to the mustang and I'm usually too meticulous for my own good, but I'm a patient guy so I'll eventually have it up and running. I picked it up for a cool $125 so I have plenty of wiggle room with what I invest to still come out WAY ahead compared to a newer, IMO inferior machine.

Here it is after getting it unloaded into my garage. With the help of the seller we lifted the head off with a forklift to make it easier to load and unload (this thing is HEAVY).

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As you can see, there are several add ons hung on it like a power disconnect, 220v outlet, power disconnect, and a step down 115v transformer (for a work light or cutting fluid pump) that I'll be removing as I won't need them. The 3/4 hp motor is set up for 3 phase 230v power, but I'll be wiring in a variable frequency drive to run this machine on single phase power so things will be simplified substantially in the wiring department.

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The label plate is just too cool :2thumb:

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It's sporting a 3MT spindle which is mega overkill for most hobby work, but that's how I like things anyway, lol. I'm going to use a 3MT to J33 adapter so I can use a nice keyed Jacobs chuck...not a big fan of the keyless chuck on it currently.

This machine definitely had a power down feed mechanism at some point, which is why it now has a funky incorrect handle. They most likely put on whatever they could find after a failure in the mechanism or something.

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Here's a picture of what the power down feed mechanism would have looked like, too bad it's gone... very cool feature but given the age of this thing I'll never be able to source one.

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The table looks to be in great shape, but I'll have to see what I discover under the paint...

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The first weird thing about this press was that the T-slots in the base were filled in with something before being painted over. I hoped that it wasn't something too hard to remove, and luckily it wasn't too bad. Turns out at some point someone had made pieces of wood cut exactly the shape of the slots and hammered them in. My guess is they were tired of cleaning chips and oil out of them? Who knows. Nevertheless I grabbed a screwdriver and a hammer and went to work.

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What came out was very old wood thoroughly saturated with cutting oil. How they got paint to lay over this much oil is beyond me.

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The total amount of oil-saturated wood removed and smelling terrific... <_<

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And the T-slots looking as they should :) :

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The next issue to address was the table raising mechanism. When we were unloading the press. I momentarily touched the table raising lever to the tailgate and it simply fell off. At first I was furious, but upon further investigation I realized the shaft of the handle had been broken and braised in the past where the engagement pin went through. My guess is something smashed the handle at some point because the gearbox for the mechanism shows a braised repair along one edge. There's a small crack still untouched, but the gearbox appears to be sound. Not sure if I will roll with this case or try to replace it.

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I unbolted the gearbox to see what I'm dealing with, the gears look to be in great condition, although one shows a little wear from the worm gear of the handle shaft.
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I decided to set that aside for another day and make the most of the time I had to work on eliminating the extra stuff hanging off the head of the drill press. As you can see, the original motor is no longer in place, but what currently lives in its place is a very nice dual speed 1140/950 rpm Dayton 3 phase 3/4 hp motor that will suit me fine. I was told it was installed less than a year ago so it has plenty of life in it.

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Took a couple shots of the wiring because I personally think stuff like this is pretty cool. Like a window into the machine's former life as a work horse for the past 55+ years. B-)

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A shot of the spec tag on the motor:

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About an hour later, I had removed all of the unneeded stuff and the head of the press was looking much better after a little diet.

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I found a company called Walker Turner Serviced Machinery LLC. that stocks NOS parts for Walker Turner machines and also reverse engineers components like the spindle bearings. So I shot him an email to see if he is still around, and received an email back saying that he is and to let him know what parts I am looking for. I told him I'm looking for the raising mechanism case as well as a feeler on the bearings because if they're too pricey I won't bother since mine seemed to be in good shape when I tested the press. To which he replied:

"We have one in stock - however I will need to send you 2 photos later as your model may have the redesigned case - we have the older design. Will quote bearings as well.

Jeff @ WT"

I sent him a picture of my case in reply, but it turns out he has an older version of the case that won't work for me. He did get back to me with a quote on the bearings, but I might have to pass. The bearings in this machine sounded just fine but I thought I might as well replace them while restoring it... but given the price he's asking for them I'll wait until I need to replace them lol.

 

The pricing is as follows:
 
"RFQ: Walker Turner 1100 Series 20" Drill Press new replacement bearings
 
 
P/N 70372  Double Row RBI Sealed - Special Bore Double Sealed.......$ 62.95 ea  (1 rq'd)
P/N 80857  Spacer (required for above bearing).....................................$   2.50 ea
 
P/N 70382  Single Row Nachi Sealed - Special Bore Double Sealed......$  58.95 ea  (2 rq'd)
 
P/N 6204-750EER Single Row RBI Double Sealed................................$  14.50ea   (1 rq'd)
 
S&H USA..............................................................................................$    6.00"


^^ Total price: $203.85 ... :o


Moving on, I've been brainstorming what color scheme I want to go with on this press, and stumbled across this absolutely beautiful 6 head gang drill press for sale on eBay (for $1850, whew!)

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I really love the cream/red/black color scheme, obviously it's still very early in the process but currently this color scheme is at the top of my list :2thumb:


I began last Friday night by repairing the worm gear shaft for the table raising crank, it's good to go now.

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Next I got to work removing the table and collars from the column. Holy shit this thing difficult to manhandle by yourself! The table alone feels like it weighs about 80 lbs.

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Everything off:

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Taking the time now to separate and label the hardware to save myself some head scratching later:

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Back to the table raising case, there are several cracks that look like they will be problematic in the future. I was pushing it with my OCD tendencies to overlook the ugliness of the repairs, but it is clear that they aren't going to cut it. There's already a crack in the braising near the gear shaft hole, a large crack on the outside of the housing, among two more at the corners that the braising didn't penetrate. Here's a few pictures:

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I've decided to fabricate a new case if I can't find a replacement. The case is not overly complicated, so I'm confident I can build a new one. It certainly won't be a quick build, but it is what it is, haha.

I poked around trying to remove the shaft and gears from the case so I could start measuring to draft some parts for the replacement case, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to remove them. The two side bolts were removed rather easily, then the gears have a set screw for each that I backed off. The problem is there is a key way on the shaft with a key to keep the gears from spinning on the shaft. But the key keeps the shaft from sliding out of the case...you can't remove the gears to remove the key without removing the shaft from the case... ugh. This seems to be a rock and a hard place situation but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

Here's what I ended up with before calling it a night at midnight:

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I'm having a lot of trouble removing the column from the base... I've removed the 4 set screws on the top and bottom of the base, then tried sliding the head support collar down close to the base and locking it in place with the set screws, then used a large pry bar to try and slide the base off...no luck. Tried a dead blow composite hammer on the bottom of the column...didn't budge. Currently, I have liberal amounts of PB Blaster soaking into the base of the column hoping to loosen it up... If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

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Your projects never cease to amaze me. This is VERY cool. You'll have one sweet vintage garage in the near future, haha.

 

I was following your post, sort of, until you started on the electrical stuff, lol. Whether I can understand what you're doing or not, I can't wait to see the finished product!

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Your projects never cease to amaze me. This is VERY cool. You'll have one sweet vintage garage in the near future, haha.

 

I was following your post, sort of, until you started on the electrical stuff, lol. Whether I can understand what you're doing or not, I can't wait to see the finished product!

 

Thanks Sean! I have an addiction to cool stuff so I tend to pick up side projects that end up delaying me finishing the mustang lol.

 

As far as the electrical stuff, I'll try to simplify lol.

 

The motor is designed to run on 3 phase, 230v power which very few residences have. Even if you have your garage wired for 220v, it's still only single phase power. 3 phase power is a LOT more juice, and can run much bigger, more powerful electric motors. I'm going to wire in a variable frequency drive like the one below that will take the 110v single phase "residential" power and convert it to 3 phase 230v "industrial" power to run the motor. The bonus feature is that you can adjust the hertz frequency it outputs, this will let me turn the speed of the spindle up and down digitally rather than having to open the top cover and change the belt position on the stepped pulleys :2thumb:

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Very cool. I get the idea, but to get the job done that box contains some black magic I probably couldn't wrap my head around. I watched @Sleeperstang1994 wire up his shed with lights and outlets and was stunned when I saw three wires. A neutral? What's a neutral? Cars don't have a neutral. It's hard to take it all in when you're used to automotive electrical systems. I was never too up on electrical stuff anyway. It can be difficult to take something on paper and look at it on a car. /rambling

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come on dan, you don't want to get your utility to put a 4160kva transformer in your backyard so you can step it down to 480v to the garage?  easy peasy

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come on dan, you don't want to get your utility to put a 4160kva transformer in your backyard so you can step it down to 480v to the garage?  easy peasy

Yea i mean thats the more sensible option really ;)

Having the power company come and run a 480v service to just my house might raise an eyebrow or two in the townhouse community lol.

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i love automotive electrical. i can also attempt to figure out in home service. i can manage a 240volt hook up as stated before. however anything over that blows my mind. HOWEVER i do like to stand next to an electricity tower and just listen to the buzz. When you can HEAR electricity you know whats up :D

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i love automotive electrical. i can also attempt to figure out in home service. i can manage a 240volt hook up as stated before. however anything over that blows my mind. HOWEVER i do like to stand next to an electricity tower and just listen to the buzz. When you can HEAR electricity you know whats up :D

Try standing next to the transformers from the power plant that pumps out 750MW/unit. That is some audible power

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Try standing next to the transformers from the power plant that pumps out 750MW/unit. That is some audible power

 

Or next to my Mega Shredder's 10,000hp motor... 

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explain 750MW/unit in something i can understand/ visualize please B-)

Visualize? Hmmm okay. So there's 4 different units at this power plant. Each can run indepent of each other because they all have their own steam turbine generators. At full load, meaning all four units running, the plant is pumping out approx 3200mw which is ballpark enough power to sustain 3.2 million households

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a gigawatt(gw) = 1,000 megawatts(mw) = 1,000 killowatts(kw) = 1,000 watts(w)

 

so when doc brown said 1.21 gigawatts, he meant 1,210,000,000 watts

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Bryan, that's how it is at the Nuclear Power Plants, that buzzing noise is terrifying lol.

Sent from Space

You got that right. I haven't been to our nuke plant yet. They have their own special engineering team but I'll make it over there sooner than later lol for now I'm on that coalllll trainnnn

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Try standing next to the transformers from the power plant that pumps out 750MW/unit. That is some audible power

 

 

I build them :)

 

Standing directly underneath the transmission lines is is a little strange.. They definitely snap and crackle all day long

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I build them :)

Standing directly underneath the transmission lines is is a little strange.. They definitely snap and crackle all day long

That's awesome! Power plants or th3 transformers?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

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I don't want to be a Debbie downer guys but please don't turn my build thread into a chat thread

 

Where are the pics of this worm gear you turned blue and purple with a Millermatic 140??

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Where are the pics of this worm gear you turned blue and purple with a Millermatic 140??

Haha I didn't take a pic right after welding it but the picture of the repaired worm gear shaft is the finished product. I just ground it down to remove the braising then beveled where I was going to weld, cranked the machine up and went at it. After I ground the weld down smooth I re-drilled the hole through it for the pin :2thumb:

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Did the PB Blaster work?

I'll find out this weekend Steve, I've been spraying it down every night this week, hopefully it soaked in deep enough that I can get it to budge. I'm thinking a couple smacks with a hammer on the bottom of the column to shock it and break any remaining rust, then a combination of prying and a strap wrench on the column to rotate it some and hopefully I can wrestle it out.

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I've been making some decent progress on this thing since the last update. I left off facing a challenge to remove the column from the base. I sprayed PB Blaster on it every night for a week, then on Saturday I went at it, determined to separate them. At first, it wouldn't budge. So out came the propane torch for about a half hour to heat the base around the column from both the top and bottom. I slid both the head support collar and table support collar down close to the base hoping that doubling them up would keep them from slipping then used a long pry bar between the collars and base. After a few tries, it started to move FINALLY! A few more minutes of prying and it slipped right out of the base.

 

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With the column finally out, I could work on restoring it. Luckily, it only had moderate rust (no pitting) and a scratch or gouge here and there.

 

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I degreased it first, then hit it with some 120 grit hand sanding followed by 220 grit (also by hand) for an hour or so. It was looking pretty decent but needed to shine.

 

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I had planned to use a non-braided wire cup brush on my angle grinder, but couldn't find the cup brush so I improvised.

 

I set up two rollers in front of my bench grinder and removed the grinding stone to leave only the wire wheel. Then I just moved the column back and forth while slowly rotating it, the whole time putting mild pressure against the wire wheel.

 

Before:

 

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After round 1 of wire wheeling:

 

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And after a second round:

 

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Not bad for a few hours work on a 62 year old hunk of metal!

 

The next thing bothering me was a bit of damage to the lower half of the table support collar. Ball bearings between the two halves allow them to rotate so you can rotate the table when needed, it looks like over the years the lower half has seen better days. It had some chunks missing that I was going to try to overlook, but I somehow lucked out and found both collar halves on eBay in MINT condition including a new set of ball bearings, problem solved. I was so pumped I found these parts, since they were discontinued a very long time ago and are almost impossible to find, especially in good shape.

 

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The handle for the raising mechanism has a nice little spinning knob to make turning easier, but unfortunately the knob was siezed so it wouldn't rotate. I put it in the vise and started working it a bit with a strap wrench and some penetrating oil hoping to free it up.

 

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In doing so, I discovered another bit of damage. The handle must have been cracked from some kind of impact (most likely the same one that broke the raising mechanism case) so when I tried turning the knob with the strap wrench, the top of the handle just broke off. :angry:

 

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So that sucked initially, but then I realized it just meant I could fabricate a new one that is overkill strong, lol.

 

Before I started fabbing the new handle, the knob needed a little restoration using a cordless drill, bolt, a few grits of sand paper and some polishing compound.

 

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Now I needed to get started on the handle itself. I bought a spacer from McMaster Carr that had the correct inner diameter, then welded a steel tube around the spacer to make it the right outer diameter I needed. Ground it smooth after welding it obviously. I also bought a smaller diameter spacer for the other end where the knob attaches. I undersized the inner diameter so I can tap it for a bolt to attach the knob with, rather than a pressed-in pin like the original.

 

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Next up I needed to recreate the slots that engage the pin on the worm gear shaft to turn the table raising mechanism, so I milled some 0.250" slots into it on the mill.

 

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Grabbed a scrap piece of 1/2" steel plate and cut two holes to match the outer diameters of the two spacers. Obviously I don't have a drill press yet and didn't feel like driving to work to use one, so I turned my tubing notcher into a makeshift drill press.

 

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Cut the stock to length through the middle of the holes, then laid it out to give you an idea of where I'm going with this.

 

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Thanked myself for about the 1000th time for buying the new band saw, then used it in upright position to cut out the rough shape of the handle.

 

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After a little bench grinding and some filing, it was looking pretty decent.

 

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Took it to work to do some more shaping with the belt grinder:

 

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Ground a bevel into the circular notches in the handle where the spacers go so I could get good weld penetration, then cranked up the MIG and welded it up.

 

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Followed by more belt grinder shaping, filing and sanding...

 

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Decided it still wasn't good enough so I filled in some of the nicks and low spots, then more belt grinding, filing, sanding...brought me to the final product. I need to pick up a stainless button head allen bolt and tap the small end of the handle for it, then I can call it finished :2thumb: A lot of work to put into a handle I know, but I'm guessing by now you guys know I can't stop myself from putting a lot of work into the details, lol.

 

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Since I'll be working on dismantling the head casting next, I found a company called Ozark Woodworker that reproduces original machine manuals. He goes through and digitally corrects scans of the originals, then prints fresh, new copies. Fortunately for me, he had one for the 1952 Walker Turner 20" DP, my copy showed up yesterday:

 

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This page should save me a ton of head scratching:

 

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The manual also has several other exploded views of anything I could ever want to dismantle on the machine also, I'm very happy with my purchase of $20 with free shipping :2thumb:

 

That's it for now, I'll keep plugging away at this old tank and keep you guys updated as I make more progress!

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My god man, everything you do is on overkill.  They are going to make a movie about you one day.  Love this project.   If the roads weren't so bad I would come out your way with a case of beer just to watch you work your magic lol.

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I need to turn you loose on some stuff around my house, Dan.  This is phenomenal work!

 

My god man, everything you do is on overkill.  They are going to make a movie about you one day.  Love this project.   If the roads weren't so bad I would come out your way with a case of beer just to watch you work your magic lol.

 

Thanks guys, sometimes I wish I could just overlook the details and get things finished within a reasonable time frame lol, but I don't think I'll ever be able to do that!

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Thanks guys, sometimes I wish I could just overlook the details and get things finished within a reasonable time frame lol, but I don't think I'll ever be able to do that!

No I think the little things you don't overlook is what make these projects so special and interesting.

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My god man, everything you do is on overkill.  They are going to make a movie about you one day.  Love this project.   If the roads weren't so bad I would come out your way with a case of beer just to watch you work your magic lol.

 

 

Tailgate Dan's garage?!  I'm in.

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