Keith Weber
01-28-2018, 12:12 PM
This is my old drill press. I bought it off the seller for $200 about 15 years ago when I bought my house. It's an older Jet JSL-14DP with a 1/3hp motor. I always hated that thing -- it was noisy, the belt change thing was enough of a pain that I rarely changed the speed, and the runout was as you'd expect for a $200 drill press. I made do with it, but in about 2010 when I bought my Bridgeport Vari-speed, I just stopped using it. I wanted to get a dedicated, nicer drill press for the wood shop. I was looking for a used Powermatic 1150 or possibly a PM1200 if I couldn't find an 1150. The problem was, anything advertised around me was in horrible shape and they seemed to be asking insane amounts of money for them.
377657
After years of looking, I finally found a possible contender to the elusive Powermatics... a Clausing 20 at a local auction house that appeared to be in excellent condition. It had a 1.5hp, 3-phase motor vs. the Jet's wimpy 1/3hp. It was a 20" vs. the Jet's 14". It had Vari-Speed instead of belts, and at 650 lbs., it was a beast compared the the 190 lb. Jet. I figured I'd bid on it after I did some research. They still sell them new for around $4500. I guessed that I'd probably see something like that in excellent condition on Craigslist for around $2200, so maybe it'll go for about $1200-1500 at auction, so I was thinking to bid accordingly.
When the auction came up, I found my self in the bidding war. I ended up bidding $550, thinking that we had a way to go, and then nobody else bid against me, so I got it for $550 + auction fees. Wow! I was ecstatic! What a score! Since I had to drive an hour or so to the auction house to pick this thing up anyway, I thought I'd peruse the rest of the items to see if I could use something. I found a large pallet of cold-rolled 1018 flat bar that I figured that I could use if the price was right. I normally pay a couple of bucks a pound for the stuff if I buy a few pieces. Looked to be about 1000 lbs. of steel, but the pictures were really poor because there were pallets on top of the steel. Ended up reaching my max bid of $350. I was actually hoping someone would outbid me because I really didn't need 1000 lbs. of this stuff. Oh, well.
I rented a 16 ft. U-Haul trailer for the steel, and planned on putting the DP in the back of my truck. When I picked up the steel at a remote location, I was told that due to liability concerns, they couldn't use the forklift, so I had load the oily stuff all by hand. I was not impressed, but I plugged away at it. The guy on the phone told me that he figured there was about 1000 lbs. on the pallets, which is what I had guessed looking at the pics. The double-axle trailer had a load limit of 2600 lbs. When I was about 80% finished, I looked at the trailer and it was sitting really, really low. Wow! This was definitely more than 1000 lbs. I measured the pile in my trailer and called a buddy to Google the weight of a cubic foot of steel. Turns out there was 3200 lbs of steel, and about 200 lbs. in wood planks/pallets. I ended up leaving the trailer behind and went to pick up the drill press on a separate trip, so ended up doing about 3 1/2 hours of driving instead of 2 hrs. What a mess!
So, now for some pics. Here's the Clausing loaded onto the back of my truck, and after I unloaded it into my shop with a chain hoist. I brought some tools to the auction house, and they left me alone for half an hour to lower the table and the head as low as I could get it before loading.
377647377649
I started cleaning up the DP to make it look nice. It was a lot of work, but eventually I got it all done.
377612
I noticed when loading it, that at some point (probably when it was moved to the auction house), a fork lift operator went in a little too deep under the table and lifted up on the table crank. It bent the shaft and the table would not move very smoothly because the teeth on the clutch would not engage. I looked to order a new shaft, but it was pricey and I didn't want to wait for one to show up, so I went and bought a foot of 1/2" stress-proof steel and machined a new one that was stronger than the original. The first pic shows the new part next to the bent original. The second shows the worm gear attached with a roll pin to my shaft and inserted into the housing. The third shows the roll pin installed on the other side with a circ-clip holding the handle on. Works super smooth now.
377611377615377614377616
To be continued...
377657
After years of looking, I finally found a possible contender to the elusive Powermatics... a Clausing 20 at a local auction house that appeared to be in excellent condition. It had a 1.5hp, 3-phase motor vs. the Jet's wimpy 1/3hp. It was a 20" vs. the Jet's 14". It had Vari-Speed instead of belts, and at 650 lbs., it was a beast compared the the 190 lb. Jet. I figured I'd bid on it after I did some research. They still sell them new for around $4500. I guessed that I'd probably see something like that in excellent condition on Craigslist for around $2200, so maybe it'll go for about $1200-1500 at auction, so I was thinking to bid accordingly.
When the auction came up, I found my self in the bidding war. I ended up bidding $550, thinking that we had a way to go, and then nobody else bid against me, so I got it for $550 + auction fees. Wow! I was ecstatic! What a score! Since I had to drive an hour or so to the auction house to pick this thing up anyway, I thought I'd peruse the rest of the items to see if I could use something. I found a large pallet of cold-rolled 1018 flat bar that I figured that I could use if the price was right. I normally pay a couple of bucks a pound for the stuff if I buy a few pieces. Looked to be about 1000 lbs. of steel, but the pictures were really poor because there were pallets on top of the steel. Ended up reaching my max bid of $350. I was actually hoping someone would outbid me because I really didn't need 1000 lbs. of this stuff. Oh, well.
I rented a 16 ft. U-Haul trailer for the steel, and planned on putting the DP in the back of my truck. When I picked up the steel at a remote location, I was told that due to liability concerns, they couldn't use the forklift, so I had load the oily stuff all by hand. I was not impressed, but I plugged away at it. The guy on the phone told me that he figured there was about 1000 lbs. on the pallets, which is what I had guessed looking at the pics. The double-axle trailer had a load limit of 2600 lbs. When I was about 80% finished, I looked at the trailer and it was sitting really, really low. Wow! This was definitely more than 1000 lbs. I measured the pile in my trailer and called a buddy to Google the weight of a cubic foot of steel. Turns out there was 3200 lbs of steel, and about 200 lbs. in wood planks/pallets. I ended up leaving the trailer behind and went to pick up the drill press on a separate trip, so ended up doing about 3 1/2 hours of driving instead of 2 hrs. What a mess!
So, now for some pics. Here's the Clausing loaded onto the back of my truck, and after I unloaded it into my shop with a chain hoist. I brought some tools to the auction house, and they left me alone for half an hour to lower the table and the head as low as I could get it before loading.
377647377649
I started cleaning up the DP to make it look nice. It was a lot of work, but eventually I got it all done.
377612
I noticed when loading it, that at some point (probably when it was moved to the auction house), a fork lift operator went in a little too deep under the table and lifted up on the table crank. It bent the shaft and the table would not move very smoothly because the teeth on the clutch would not engage. I looked to order a new shaft, but it was pricey and I didn't want to wait for one to show up, so I went and bought a foot of 1/2" stress-proof steel and machined a new one that was stronger than the original. The first pic shows the new part next to the bent original. The second shows the worm gear attached with a roll pin to my shaft and inserted into the housing. The third shows the roll pin installed on the other side with a circ-clip holding the handle on. Works super smooth now.
377611377615377614377616
To be continued...