Michael Mayo
01-11-2013, 9:11 PM
Well I have been looking for a drill press on CL lately and found one in my home town. I went to look at it tonight and bought it for $100. The guy wanted $160 but I told him I didn't need to buy it and that I only had $100 so he took it. It is in fairly decent shape and it does work but it has one glaring problem. The table is broken where it clamps to the support tube. The guy tried to weld it but did a pretty poor job of that and it broke on the ride home which I kind of expected. This looks like a fairly common problem with this model from a quick Google search I found plenty of pics of them with broken tables in the same place mine is broken. My guess is that at some point somebody loosened the table to move it and dropped it to the base and broke it. It is cast iron and I don't know if it can be successfully welded or not. I have a friend who is a welder and I am going to ask him to take a look at it and see if he can work some magic. If not then I will have to find a replacement table for it. The other thing I don't care for is the quill advance handle. It has a single bar handle and it is small diameter. I am wondering if it is possible to replace it with a more modern four spoke handle? The press is in rough shape cosmetically so I am going to tear it apart and restore it to a much nicer to look at condition. Probably replace the bearings and such while I am at it. I think with a little TLC and paint she will clean up nicely and be a really good drill press.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8375/8372199364_5c0ccc7176_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8375/8372199364_5c0ccc7176_b.jpg