More drill press questions

[John Bush]

Good morning all!!

I have an older 16" Craftsman Heavyduty DP that has all the capacity and features I need (and was a gift from a retiring WW'er,so the price was right) but the table has no machanical means of raising or lowering. Does any one know of any kit or technique to retrofit a vertebral disc saving lift for the table?? I've considered a pully/cam cleet system similar to a sailboat main sheet, but was hoping for some better ideas from all the talent on
smc. Thanks, JCB.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

If it is like my Walker Turner floor model it's got a clamp that you loosen to move the table along a round shaft then retighten the clamp when it's in position.

And if I understand you correctly you'd like a winching system to raise or lower it?

At first blush that sounds pretty coool. Maybe a couple of pulleys would do the trick. You'd surely have to drill some mounting holes.
The down side is I think the interference of the pulley and cable or rope. I have a mental picture of it being in the way. But maybe it wouldn't be. They sell small sturdy pulley sheaves in most hardware stores.

I've never found the raising and lowering mv my DP table to be an issue. Just keep a little lube (oil or wax) on the shaft and you are golden.

[Ron Blaise]

John:
If your DP has the standard hollow tube you might consider droping a counter-weight down through that with pully's attached to back of table.
That would keep the weight out of your way. Or you might see if you can find a rack & pinion and retofit to your table.

[tod evans]

on the cheap...a small bottle jack and a stick.....

[glenn bradley]

There is an outfit that makes the counter-weight / pulley setup that Ron describes. I thought I had them bookmarked but can't find them (any help guys?). The concept is simple; they just figured out the right brackets and cable path for the most popular DP's and added some clear instructions for a reasonable price.

The sealed bearing pully mounts via a bracket to the underside of the motor/headstock housing, just behind the riser tube. A hole is drilled where required to pass an 1/8" bare steel cable through.

The cable path runs from a weight that is sized to move easily up and down in the riser tube, out the top of the tube and through the previously mentioned hole, over the top of the pulley and down to the handle-bolt that secures the table in a given position.

The weight must be heavy enough to raise the table but, not so heavy that you have to lean on the table to get it to descend. If you end up doing that, you'll just torture a different set of back muscles.

Hope this helps, I'll keep looking for the link to the folks that market this.

[Neal Flatley]

I had the same issue with my old Craftsman DP. I tried a cable system but found the table wandered too much during raising.

If the collar that the table uses to attach to the column does not have a notch for the rack, the only way a rack and pinion will work is to have it completely mounted on the column below the existing table. Then it would just push the table up. I never tried this.

Version two for me was a small foreign car scissor jack mounted to the bottom of the drill press table upside down. A hand wheel was attached to where the crank on the jack would go and then a pipe with flanges on each end connected what would be the top of the jack ( now facing downward) to the floor base of the drillpress.

This not only raised and lowered the table, but kept the center hole aligned with the chuck. I got about 12" of travel with this set up, which was fine for me.

I've since moved on to larger drill presses, so unfortunately I can't take a picture of the set up.

I hope this helps

Neal

[John Bush]

Thanks for all the good ideas. Another logical solution is to sell this one and buy a new one. Not as much fun as designing and building my own creation, but quicker and ,usually, a lot cheaper. JCB.

[Bill White]

The older (1950s) King & Seely did offer the rack and pinion option. I've been looking for one for my Craftsman for several years. You will be hard pressed to find a better basic DP than the old cast iron K&S made for C'man.
Bill

[mike ellington]

Try looking for and old DP that will be sold for parts that has the runner in the back and adapt it to your DP.

Mike