It's been a full and busy week at the house with a full schedule of work and kid activities picking up. But I was able to sneak away in the late evenings and do a little work on the old drill press.
I tore apart most of the pieces out of the head. The spindle mechanism and all the related parts came out pretty easily.
There is very little wear (if any) on the up/down rack and pinion of the quill. It should clean up just fine.
I also removed the gear mechanism the raises/lowers the head. I'll further disassemble it into its smaller pieces for cleanup/paint.
The head casting still has its bearings in place. I didn't feel anything wrong with them, so I'll probably keep them in place rather than replace them. I could feel no grit or hear no odd sounds.
I was able to clean up the motor and get it running better with a new start cap and new bleed-down resistor. I like the two-tone motor to give it a bit of detail.
I"m not sure how to restore the art-deco name plate. I'll have to do a little research to see how to do that. Perhaps I can print or stamp a new one myself. Hmmm.
The rest of the machine looks pretty sparse with all the components removed. The table is very stuck. I've been dousing it with penetrating oil the last few nights. I'm going to bring forth my secret weapon soon: the torch.
I clean up all the hardware individually, and give them a light paint job. I find that if I give nuts and bolts a full dose of paint, it chips and peels off when I reassemble. So, a light coat is fine knowing that I'll touch it up after reassembly without the hassle of removing chipped paint.
I have a three day weekend coming up, so I hope to get a little more done as time allows.
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