Michael Mayo
01-27-2013, 11:09 PM
I recently purchased an old used Rockwell 15-017 drill press off of a Craigslist ad in my hometown. It was in pretty rough shape but it did run so I was able to talk the guy down to $100 and bought it. The only downside was that the table was broken where it mounts to the column. The PO had made a very poor welding repair on it using a mig welder which we all know cannot really be relied upon to fix something made of cast iron. I have a good friend who is a welder by trade and I asked him to take a look at it. We got together a couple of weeks ago and welded on the table for a whole afternoon. Welding on cast iron is not an easy task nor is it something that brings with it much hope of being successful but we tried anyway. We were able to get a nice repair on it but unfortunately when we tried to tighten the table to the post it cracked again. So we left it on the column and did some more welding and left it as is. I figured it was a lost cause and didn't want to waste any more time trying to fix something that was obviously not fixable. I proceeded to tear the drill press apart to do a good rebuild/restoration. It was a surprisingly easy machine to disassemble and I had it apart in about an hour. I order bearings for the quill and the motor and received those a couple of days later.
While I was waiting for the bearings I picked up a bigger sand blast cabinet at HF and put that together which was no picnic. But the bigger cabinet is a welcome addition as the old cabinet i had was very small and pretty much useless. I blasted all of the frame parts and wire brushed and polished all of the hardware. Then I primed the frame and sheet metal parts and then painted them in original battleship grey Rustoleum. It came out pretty nice if i don't say so. I found a replacement bearing for the quill pulley which is a special bearing that cannot be serviced but thankfully there is a company out there that is manufacturing OEM parts to restore some of these older machines. The bearing was $45.00 which wasn't too bad. The other bearing were about $20.00 from VXB. I also replaced all of the wiring while i was at it as the old wiring was completely shot and the insulation was just breaking apart.
I found a better table on Ebay that tilts and purchased it. It only has 1-2 small holes in it but other than that it looks pretty sweet. The old table only moved up and down the column and had no tilt function so this should be a beneficial feature. The table wasn't cheap but I needed one so I bought it and didn't think about it anymore. Today I went to re-assembling the drill press. Took me the majority of the afternoon to complete it but it is back in action and I should have the new table by Wed. I also picked up a keyless chuck on Ebay which only cost $25.00 shipped. It is a chinese made piece but is very heavy and looks very stout and precise. Time will tell once i get the table I will measure the runout but it should be a heck of a lot better than when i bought it as the quill pulley bearing had enormous amounts of play in it. So all told I have about $350 in to this drill press and I am happy with the endeavor. Can't wait to do some drilling on it. I have been doing all of my drilling on one of my Shopsmith machines and it is a passable drill press but doesn't come close to a real drill press like this Rockwell.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8215/8422804802_88de43d01f_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8075/8421711165_4fdf249f93_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8513/8422805102_b5a9d6c61f_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8422805214_c5d0245422_b.jpg
I jst remembered I posted a pic of the drill press right after I bought it which gives a good idea of how it looked before I refurbed it. I have to remember to do the before and after shots.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8375/8372199364_5c0ccc7176_b.jpg
While I was waiting for the bearings I picked up a bigger sand blast cabinet at HF and put that together which was no picnic. But the bigger cabinet is a welcome addition as the old cabinet i had was very small and pretty much useless. I blasted all of the frame parts and wire brushed and polished all of the hardware. Then I primed the frame and sheet metal parts and then painted them in original battleship grey Rustoleum. It came out pretty nice if i don't say so. I found a replacement bearing for the quill pulley which is a special bearing that cannot be serviced but thankfully there is a company out there that is manufacturing OEM parts to restore some of these older machines. The bearing was $45.00 which wasn't too bad. The other bearing were about $20.00 from VXB. I also replaced all of the wiring while i was at it as the old wiring was completely shot and the insulation was just breaking apart.
I found a better table on Ebay that tilts and purchased it. It only has 1-2 small holes in it but other than that it looks pretty sweet. The old table only moved up and down the column and had no tilt function so this should be a beneficial feature. The table wasn't cheap but I needed one so I bought it and didn't think about it anymore. Today I went to re-assembling the drill press. Took me the majority of the afternoon to complete it but it is back in action and I should have the new table by Wed. I also picked up a keyless chuck on Ebay which only cost $25.00 shipped. It is a chinese made piece but is very heavy and looks very stout and precise. Time will tell once i get the table I will measure the runout but it should be a heck of a lot better than when i bought it as the quill pulley bearing had enormous amounts of play in it. So all told I have about $350 in to this drill press and I am happy with the endeavor. Can't wait to do some drilling on it. I have been doing all of my drilling on one of my Shopsmith machines and it is a passable drill press but doesn't come close to a real drill press like this Rockwell.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8215/8422804802_88de43d01f_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8075/8421711165_4fdf249f93_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8513/8422805102_b5a9d6c61f_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8422805214_c5d0245422_b.jpg
I jst remembered I posted a pic of the drill press right after I bought it which gives a good idea of how it looked before I refurbed it. I have to remember to do the before and after shots.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8375/8372199364_5c0ccc7176_b.jpg