12-30-2023, 09:50 AM
I've had this old drill press for about 35 years and it's served me well. Two years ago as I was drilling one inch holes in a piece of quarter inch steel when it decided to shift from back gear mode to direct drive, resulting in severe damage to several of the gears in the speed reduction assembly. It would have been a shame to scrap the machine, and I started looking for a company or individual who could repair or duplicate the damaged gears. There were several gear companies in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area and I contacted all of them. A couple at first said they'd be interested in doing the work and I left the gears with them for them to come up with a bid on the required work, only to be told a week or two later that they'd decided not to do the work. so I had to retrieve the gears and look elsewhere. I found a company on the east coast that does custom gear work and sent them pictures of what I have. They came back with a bid for six thousand dollars for the smaller gear, eight thousand dollars for the larger gear, well beyond my budget. I finally found a machinist in the south that came back with a bid of eight hundred dollars, so I packaged up the gears and shipped them to him. About a month later I received the new gears and started to assemble the unit, only to discover that the shaft of one of the new gear assemblies was slightly oversize and it wouldn't fit into the housing and one of the small parts which was undamaged was not returned. was hoping to avoid the cost of again shipping the parts, and found a local machinist who said he'd be able to do the work and I left the part and a drawing of what the missing piece so that a replacement could be made. A month later I hadn't heard from him and paid him a visit and was told "Get this s.... out of here, I'm tired of tripping over it". Earlier I had responded to an ad on craigslist for an old drill press. I didn't think it would be what I wanted but figured the person posting it might be a good source of information in the future and got his actual email address. So, called him and he gave me the contact information for a friend about 125 miles north of my location. Contacted him, he said he'd be glad to do the work, so I left the gears with him. A week later he said the work was done so I went back to his shop and when we started to assemble the complete mechanism discovered that one of the new gears was about one tenth of an inch too large in diameter. Contacted the guy who'd made the new gears, he said he'd correct the problem if I sent it back to him, which I did. When I got it back went back north to once again attempt to assemble it, only to find that although he'd reduced the diameter of the gear, he hadn't re-cut the teeth so they weren't deep enough to allow them to mesh with the mating gear. So once again returned home, leaving the pieces with the machinist. A month later he said the work was complete, and I drove back to his shop with the cash for the work. Then we discovered another detail that needed attention, which he said he could take care of. Rather than wanting to make a separate trip just to pay for the work I left him with the cash. He said he'd be glad to return the part in person and help with re-assembly of the parts with the frame of the drill press. He then returned the parts in person and when we assembled the parts with the drill press body discovered yet another issue, so he took the parts back to his shop. He returned yesterday, and we spent the better part of the day doing some final tuning and the drill press is once again in full working condition. He refused payment to cover his mileage expense and for his extra time required, saying "If my work isn't totally satisfactory, I do whatever is necessary to make it right." What a refreshing attitude, one that's very infrequently encountered these days. I just now received an email from him, reminding me to feel free to let him know if I have any problems with the drill press.
I'd done a bit of searching on the web for information about the company that made the drill press. They sold the line of machinery to another company in 1928, so the old drill press in my shop is about 100 or more years old. I've got about two thousand dollars invested in the restoration, but a new drill press with the capability of my drill press would cost probably at least ten times that amount.
I'd done a bit of searching on the web for information about the company that made the drill press. They sold the line of machinery to another company in 1928, so the old drill press in my shop is about 100 or more years old. I've got about two thousand dollars invested in the restoration, but a new drill press with the capability of my drill press would cost probably at least ten times that amount.
