Rockwell Drill Press Restored

**rossbotics** · Apr 30, 2016, 03:34 AM

I know this isn't a homemade tool, but I enquired if it was ok to post this restoration, there were a lot of things that had to be refabricated
How I acquired this drill press was by making a #4 morse taper spindle for this guys wood shaper, It was an even swap,
I love old machines and most of my machinery is from the near graveyard and have been restored to beautiful exact working tools, These things were machines !!! and I love them, these are the kind of machines I started out on when I was an apprentice.

I had to make all new handles , knobs , center idler pulley, replaced all belts, all new angular contact bearings and upper spindle bearings, it had a few minor cracks in a couple small castings that were brazed and remachined, I downloaded the original decals and badges from Vintage Machinery website and transferred them to decal paper, I could read the original badges but they were in terrible condition, I made a spindle speed chart, a lot of button head stainless screws, and whole lot of stripping and preparation, it was painted 3 coats of rust oleum hammered grey.
I found the original owners manual from Vintage Machinery and that was a tremendous amount of help

Below are some photos and a video of the restoration
As always thanks for looking and happy machining

Doug

Below - before restoration