Walker Turner drill press...need to raise and lower table

[Matt Lau]

Hey creekers,

I have recently found the joy of power tools...after stubbornly neandering for years.

I have a Walker Turner beast of a drill press that brings joy every time I turn it on. Power. Smoothness. Torque. No vibration. No run out.

Only downside is that raising and lowering the cast iron table is really hard!

I want to use a Wagner safety planer and Gilbert disk for thicknessing guitar tops/backs.

Would appreciate advice.

[Bill Orbine]

There's is a used drill press table elevator for a Walker Turner on flea bay. Sit down as it is pricey!

[Bill Dufour]

You need the gearbox, the rack and the collar below the table. I believe the head raising gearbox is the same.
Bill D

[Mike Delyster]

Add a counterweight in the column.

[Bill Dufour]

AFAIK only the 20" dp had a table lift. I even tried an electric actuator to lift my 15" dp table. It did not work, cocked table and stuck onto column. Risked breaking casting. So I bought a 20" with lift and gave the 15" to my brother. I really need to add a counter weight and an electric motor since the crank is buried in back and I hit my knuckles against a cabinet it backs into.
Not sure what it means but I bought the cranking housing and gear on ebay. It did not fit on my machine. I had to make a gasket/spacer out of laminate flooring to mesh the gears correctly. So about 1/4 spacer. My machine was a Walker Turner Delta may have redesigned some of unit when they sold it under their name. I believe Delta bought WT about 1952 just to get the rights to the drillpress. They were sold as "Walker Turned by Delta" for a few years then just sold as "Delta".
Bill D.

[Bill Dufour]

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=388

[Randall J Cox]

I bought a used Delta Rockwell 15" DP and needed a way to raise and lower the table as the table is heavy. I ended up buying one of those things from harbor freight that is used to raise and lower a trailer tongue. Turned it upside down had my son do a little mod to fit under the table and used u bolts to clamp onto the front of the column. It has worked great now for about 5 years at a cost of about $20 (on sale of course). The raising and lowering handle is geared and now down by the base as its mounted upside down. Has an advertised 1100 lb capacity. Saw this idea on one of the woodworking forums couple of years ago. Randy

[Randall J Cox]

IMG_0599.jpgFinally found a pic of what I did. Hopefully you can see what I did, mounted on the column under the table. Works great and cheap. ( I was still in the process of finishing the rebuild when this pic was taken in 2015, you can see switch apart.) Randy

[Derek Cohen]

Matt, I have a counter weight inside the column of my floor standing DP. This is a similar kit, which you may be able to get locally, or possibly cheapish to import from Oz as the conversion rate is in your favour ...

https://www.timbecon.com.au/drilling...easy-riser-kit

The one thing I would recommend is not to remove the winding mechanism and rely on the counter weight. I removed mine, and it has disappeared over time (I've had my DP about 20 years). The problem is that the column becomes sticky - dust, oil, corrosion, etc - and then the smoothness in lifting/lowering the table is reduced. I would use the counter weight to aid in movement rather than as a primary method.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John C Bush]

+1 on the tongue jack solution. Has worked well for 10+ years. Retirement project will be to motorize it but minimal effort as is to bend over and turn the crank. attaches easily to post and the flange that supports to wheel axel fits on a cast gusset on the underside of the CI table. I lokwd for a new(er) DP with existing lift mechanism but prefer the Old Arn and this is a cheap and useful solution. Good luck.

[Matt Lau]

Thanks, guys!

I'll look into the tongue jack thing.
As for counter weight, I've found myself very not handy ()...until I can screw together my "easy" workbench (which I've somehow managed to screw up), I won't start on that.

[Larry Edgerton]

Put a pulley on the head and a heavy weight hanging down to assist. run the cable from the table, around the pulley and to a weight to counter the table weight. Use water at first so you can find the ideal weight, then change to something else if you wish once you know what weight works. I did this on a Walker Turner that did not have an elevator, worked just fine. Not as nice as a crank, but better than brute strength.

[Gordon Stump]

drillpresstable.jpgThis is what I did