Rigging Lesson, 800 lb Gloat (many pics)

[Rob Russell]

Well, it was just a couple of weeks ago that there was a thread discussing radial drill presses. Most of us think of a radial drill press as the light duty one, except for Lou Sansone who gave us a view of his idea of a radial drill in this shop tour thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=18970&page=1&pp=15).

Well, a week ago I happened to visit the Pratt & Whitney Surplus Store (just before closing on my way to pickup the wife from work). You'll never believe what I saw.

Pic #1 is a shot of the industrial junk store valhalla around here, aka the P&W Surplus Store. This is where they surplus out unneeded equipment and supplies from the United Technologies plants in Connecticut, maybe even from a larger geographic area..
Pic #2 is what I saw and where I saw it.
Pic #3 is the item loaded onto a trailer this morning. Note the yellow tie-down straps to keep it from moving forwards or backwards. If I'd been really concerned about the drill moving or were driving more than the 6 miles I live from P&W, I'd have put a second set to brace it laterally.
Pic #4 is a closeup of the item bolted to a stringer I screwed down on top of the pallet.
Pic #5 is a shot of the bottom part of the drill. You can also see a couple of steel straps we added to really make sure the drill was secure on the pallet.

Rob

[Rob Russell]

Continuing on with the pics,

Pic #6 is the drill in my garage. Getting it off of the trailer was pretty simple. It's a tilting trailer and I have a pallet jack. A sheet of plywood with some blocking underneath it to prevent too big a dip and I just rolled the drill off of the trailer. As soon as the weight of the drill got past the center of the trailer, it gently tipped down. Nice and easy.
Pic #7 is a shot of the drill table. There are some minor drill scars on it, but nothing too bad. The center part of the table (where the T-slots are) is 26" wide x 18" deep. The outside edge of that center portion is 26" away from the column. The drill can cover all of the table plus more. It's got a max drilling reach of 29", without taking the safety stop off.
Pic #8 is the right side of the drill head. You can see the depth stop rod - it's missing the nut but I can get one of those from Delta. The left/right tilt degree band is pretty much covered with surface rust - that's the rusty circular band right behind the black handle knob.
Pic #9 is the left side of the drill head. This was used in a production environment, so the added some additional electrical safety controls. There is a footswitch which I assume is a "momentary" switch, so you have to step on the footpedal to operate the drill. I'll find out when I look at the wiring. There is also a locking E-stop button.
Pic #10 is a shot of the safety disconnect and footswitch that came with the drill. If it is wired for 480v 3-phase, I'll switch that to 240v 3-phase.

[Richard Wolf]

Nice gloat Rob! Looks like you have some fun in your future!

Richard

[Rob Russell]

A few more comments about the radial arm drill: It's amazingly smooth to move the head. I figured there'd be some sort of crank mechanisms for moving the head in and out and swinging it around. Nope. You loosen the clamps and with 1 finger can slide stuff around. Pretty amazing. I can really see why Lou said these drills are in a class of their own.
The drill is a 1/2 HP and has a 6" stroke. I even have the chuck key for it. No paperwork, but I can get that from Delta for a nominal fee. The drill was built in January, 1993. It's the 16-speed model and has a range of 175 to 8,000+ rpm.
Now the gloat part. Delta still sells these. The list price is $just over $11,000. Yep - that's not a typo - $11,000. I paid about 5% of that :D :D :D .
It will take me a while to get this into the basement, so my car will be out in the driveway for a while.
I have a stealth gloat too. Those of you with sharp eyes will notice something on the floor behind the drill in pic #6. That's a 12' section of maple workbench I got with a pair of nice school shop type benches for $150. That bench top is solid maple and is heavy.

Rob

[David Eisan]

Hello there,

That is a *way* cool radial drill press!

I have worked for a large woodworking machinery dealer for about 5 years now. I have been into many commercial shops, schools and I attend a lot of machinery auctions, I have never ever come across a Delta Radial Drill Press before. I have always wanted to see one in person.

BTW, while they are in the catalogue this year, they are discontinued thanks to Black and Decker's "rationalization" of the product line. I know this because I finally did need one for a school but could no longer order one.

Thanks for posting,

David.

[John Shuk]

Nice score Rob. Such a deal

[Corey Hallagan]

Very cool gloat and what a great piece of machinery!! And the stealth gloat on the benches and table top. Great stuff and congrats & enjoy!!

Corey

[lou sansone]

hi rob

glad to see this nice post and all the great pictures. You really have a beauty on your hands, and you got an excellent deal as well. I think that you will find that for ww these particular drill presses are really ideally suited for most any task you could come up with. Other creekers may be interested in obtaining one of these as well. My advise it to take your time a start looking, they will pop up and one of them will be affordable. Part of the fun of buying old iron is the search. The other thing you will find is the exceptional quality of these older machines compared to new chiwaniees units. Best wishes with your new tool.

regards
lou

[Jim Becker]

How 'comes you didn't by that big-butt blower, too?? :D

Seriously, nice "haul"; both the tool and the, umm...haul. Getting that puppy down to the shop should be a fun project. Please don't plan it for one of the days I'm in Hartford, however...:eek: :o ;)

[Dale Thompson]

Rob,
You made a REAL haul on this stuff!! :D I don't really recognize ANY of it but, with my talent, it looks like I could make scrap even faster than I do now!! GREAT DEAL, GUY!! :cool: :)

Dale T.

[Chris Padilla]

Sweet find, Rob! I'm curious where you have room for such a thing!! :D

[Dan Forman]

Bob---Pretty radical, that radial drillpress. Don't envy that trip down the stairs, but if I recall, you're an old hand at such things. Have fun with it!

Dan

[Dennis Peacock]

Most excellent find Rob!!!!! :D :D :D :cool: :cool:

With our heat around these parts right now....I would have opted for that nice big "hurricane maker" to the right of the DP. BTW, very nice DP and I'm jealous!!!!! :p ;)

[Dennis Peacock]

How 'comes you didn't by that big-butt blower, too?? :D


Hey Jim,

It's 'cause he lives up there where it ain't hot enough to need on of those big-butt blowers. I surprised that you don't have some pieces of "old iron" in your shop. :confused: ;) You could create a nice cool breeze for your whole neighborhood with that blower that Rob can pickup fer ya.!! ;)

It's supposed to be 101°F here today.....I gotta get outside EARLY and get my driveway done.

BTW, I like the new avitar!! :)

[Alan Turner]

Wonderful find. If you ever want to dump it, give me a call. I have my eye on one like Lou's, a Walker Turner. It is in a few pieces, but I think it is OK. I offered $200, and that is being mulled over by the owner. I would pay more of course, but think that the price is not the issue. He bought it for one job, which then evaporated, and it has been sitting in an unheated storage space for about 5 years, totally unused. I fear it came from a factory, which is my least favorite history becuase of heavy use and abuse. 3 phase, which is now not a problem. We shall see. If I am to get it, it will likely be next week.

Enjoy yours!

[Bill Simmeth]

Rob, great score! Looks like you got some nifty electrics with that as well! I have a WT like Lou's and am jealous of the 6" stroke on yours. The WT's like Lou's and mine are limited to 4" which I find confining on occasion. You're gonna love it - enjoy! (Good luck with the move downstairs!)

Bill in Delaplane, VA

[Rob Russell]

How 'comes you didn't by that big-butt blower, too?? :D
My wife already has a hair dryer.



It's 'cause he lives up there where it ain't hot enough to need on of those big-butt blowers.
Yeah, I guess in the 90's with high humidity is a piece of cake for you Arkies. We do usually hit a 100 a couple of times in the summer. Of course, we also hit 0 a couple of times in the winter and usually have a week in the single digits.



Wonderful find. If you ever want to dump it, give me a call.
Alan - you're on a waiting list behind Lou. He would take this as a upgrade to his Walker-Turner because it has the Rockwell drilling head with a 6" stroke.


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If anyone is interested, they have a regular Rockwell drill press for sale too. Look at pic#2. It's only a 4-speed, but with a new motor and VFD you could get all the speeds you wanted out of it. I'm sure it would go pretty cheap.

[John Renzetti]

Hi Rob, How are you doing. Great find and deal you got on that drill press. I think I saw a 460v sticker. Can you wire it for 230-240.
take care,
John

[scott spencer]

That's pretty cool Rob.....I thought at first this was gonna be a story about a surplus P&W jet engine you strapped on your Binford TS! :D

Looks like a great DP. Ever see Grizzly's version of the heavy duty radial DP?

[Mike Cutler]

Nice find Rob.I had no idea that Pratt and Whitney surplused to the general public. I'm going to find out more about that!.
Have fun cleaning it up and converting it over to something other than 480. It's a nice piece of machinery, we have one just like it at work.

[Rob Russell]

John/Mike,

The motor is dual voltage, so switching it back to 240v 3-phase should be a fairly simple matter. I'll probably lose the saftey switch and go to a normal twistlock plug.

Mike,

The P&W store is open to the public. I'll warn you that right now things are a bit sparse from a machinery perspective. It can be a good place to get Vidmar or Lista drawer units - if you're there when they come off the trucks. Those get snapped up very quickly, and you're definitely in competition with the Pratt employees who head over at lunch to check out the newly arrived stock.

They always have a lot of computer stuff, most of it nothing I've ever been interested in. It's gear that's been depreciated, so it's 3+ years old. There's office furniture.

There's some shelving and racking type stuff outside.

For a while they had a lot of surplus fasteners (nuts/bolts), but that's pretty much gone. It's been a bit slow recently (last 6-12 months) it terms of neat stuff coming in that wasn't related to metalworking.

For all of those who commented about getting this down to the basement, I'll simply setup a frame with some Unitstrut, attach my winch as support and pull the top head off (the part that moves out). LOML's concern with this and some of the other machinery I've bought and moved to the workshop hasn't been the cost (who can argue with a deal like this?) - it's been "How does this stuff get OUT of the basement if something happens to you?" I'll end up writing some notes down on that - it's only fair. For anyone else who's thinking about moving large and heavy machinery - it's pretty simple once you decide to use the "basic machines" (levers, pulleys, etc). and don't try to lift things manually.

[Dave Avery]

Hi Rob,

Nice find. Sounds like you're diligent enough to get to the surplus store on a regular basis. Closest I came was a 3hp delta shaper (3 ph.) that was NEW - but had been sold about 1/2 hour earlier. I've stopped going on a regular basis for the reasons mentioned in your last post.


Does your wife work at P&W? I've been there 21 years, most currently as CFO of Pratt's International Aero Engines joint venture.

Good luck getting that beast down the basement stairs, but we know you've move bigger. Dave.

[Rob Russell]

Hi Rob,
Does your wife work at P&W?
Nope - she just works in the area.

I hadn't been there for awhile and just wandered in on a lark - literally 5 minutes before they closed. Sometimes you get lucky - like this time!

[Lou Morrissette]

Rob,

Is the store located in the East Hartford facility? I served my apprenticeship there in the 60's.

Lou

[Rob Russell]

Rob,

Is the store located in the East Hartford facility? I served my apprenticeship there in the 60's.

Lou

Yes. Go in the Silver Lane entrance - it's at the intersection of Roberts Street and Silver lane. The Surplus Store is the first building on the right, about 1/4 mile in. It's before you get to the guard station that would let you into the "inner" part of P&W.