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Thread: Davis & Wells Horiz Boring machine

  1. #1
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    Davis & Wells Horiz Boring machine

    We had a yard sale the other day and the remaining debris went to Goodwill yesterday where this machine popped up. It is sporting a 1725 rpm Dayton motor and everything appears to function smoothly. They want $225 for it. I’m kinda attracted to it, but how versatile is it?8DBCC821-8E49-47C6-B81A-B401F4E90D30.jpg

  2. #2
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    It is certainly a good looking beast! It would not be versatile for me. I am enjoying learning about Davis and Wells. I had a 6 inch jointer and thought it was rare (pre internet days). The company's machines are uncommon in the mid west.
    Best Regards, Maurice

  3. #3
    When I started doing face frames, I had that exact machine. It is well built and very accurate, especially when I added a custom built fence with accurate graduation marks. It is a single purpose machine and unless you are still using dowels, it won't get much use. While I rarely use dowels anymore, I kind of regret selling my machine and for $225, if I were closer, I probably would snatch this one up.

  4. #4
    US made Newtons were very nice quality machines like some other US made stuff. They had several models this one with pneumatics. See them for sale from time to time.

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  5. #5
    Looks like a solid machine but as Rob said useful mainly for doweling. If I were using dowels much I would look for a double spindle machine. Newtons come up for under $1k every so often. A far more versatile machine which does work well with double dowels is a slot mortiser.

  6. #6
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    I have a Davis and Wells tablesaw. I’ve noticed something about the D&W machines I’ve been around they are quite.
    I was in Lynwood some years ago picking up some parts Dan. He has just finished restoring a D&W bandsaw. The only noise I heard was the fan blowing air on the 3ph motor.
    My table runs pretty darn smooth and quite. Its also very easy machine to work on one wrench and a couple different Allen wrench’s I can take it all apart.
    I can also run a 10 or 12 inch blades. My saw will cut 4 inches above the table with a 12 Forrest blade.
    I bet that horizontal borer has something that stands out. From the rest.
    Aj

  7. #7
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    I was "gifted" a Davis and Wells 6 inch jointer. The previous owner said it was messed up. He had tried to "fix" it by having the in-feed and out-feed tables surface ground. It was indeed messed up. Unfortunately the problem was a manufacturing flaw. A bit of casting where the in-feed met the base had not been milled. The un-milled bump did not allow the two haves of the gib ways to nest. I eventually got it to function (in one spot) with a whole lot of shim stock. I was excited about the machine and could see that they are top quality.
    Last edited by Maurice Mcmurry; 06-16-2022 at 8:53 AM.
    Best Regards, Maurice

  8. #8
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    It is a horizontal boring machine for drilling dowel holes. That is pretty much it. The motor and spindle turn pretty slow, too slow to consider using it as a slot mortiser. If you often use dowel joints it is a real timesaver. Mine gets enough use to keep it around.

    I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 about 15 years ago and the machine was broken. It had fallen over which shattered the bearings that the spindle rides on. Moving the spindle in and out was VERY loose and crunchy. The problem was immediately VERY obvious. I am confident you would know it if the machine you are looking at had the same issue! It was not very hard to replace these bearings.

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    Picture showing the outer race of one of the bearings had shattered. There were a couple more in the same condition.
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    (Evidentially this board does not allow posting pictures of a fully assembled and working Davis and Wells horizontal boring machine without rotating the picture 90 degrees counterclockwise???)

    It takes a special drill bit that screws into the spindle but other manufactures horizontal boring machines use the same screw in drill bits so they are not impossible to find. You can get a small chuck that will screw into the spindle so you can use regular brad point bits but you may have to use a piece of wood to move the effective fence away from the spindle a bit to use standard length brad point bits.

    It would be an even faster time saver if it had two spindles and drill bits instead of just one. But for my home shop the single spindle and drill bit works fine. You hold the piece of stock you are drilling against the fence with the handle with the eccentric on the end. Then you pump the pedal 2 or 3 times to drill the hole while clearing the chips from the hole. You could probably drill a hole with one hard pump of the pedal but I prefer to clear the chips as I am drilling.

    I would probably sell mine if I owned a Domino but I can't afford/justify a Domino so I use a fair amount of dowels. I like using dowels for aligning flat panel glue ups. I find that dowels fit much tighter and keep the boards in a panel lined up much better than biscuits do. The horizontal boring machine is fast enough that using dowels for alignment on panel glue ups is quick enough that it is worth the effort for me to do so. I feel dowels are much more classy than pocket holes for face frames. But Dominos are probably even quicker for the same classy results.

    My first job helping my father in the garage when I was somewhere around 8yo was using a General/Craftsman doweling jig to drill all the dowel holes for face frames. Boy I wish I had a horizontal boring machine like the Davis Wells back then!!!!

    P.S. The rods below the spindle on the back of the machine are depth stops to set the hole depth for (half) the length of dowel you are using.
    Last edited by Michael Schuch; 06-16-2022 at 4:35 AM.

  9. #9
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    Thanks for the info. I think I will pass on this one. I don’t use dowels very often and as a result it would seldom get used by me and everything has to earn its floor space at this point.

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