Jumping Ahead - Walker Turner Restoration

 It's been a busy week, but I've managed a little more progress on this old drill press.  Temperatures and humidity have been very good for paint, so you have to make hay while the sun shines.  I think that's how it goes.

I took apart the mechanism that raises and lowers the head of the drill press.  Even though there is 80 years of caked-on goo, it wasn't too difficult to loosen and remove the hardware.

A little time on the wire brush on the bench grinder makes easy work of the grime.

A little paint, and reassembly, and things look and work like new.

I also removed the table from the column, and cleaned it up.  I only painted the underside, and the top will be left raw.  After much wire brushing, it clenaed up very nicely, and I could even see the Blanchard Ground machining marks left behind (unpictured for now)

That left the base with the column.  I tried to remove the column, but it wouldn't budge.  I can work with that, though.

More original color paint on the underside of the base.

Again, more wire brushing, but this time it revealed a patent number in the base.

Masking, wipe down, then paint and cure.  I've been real pleased with how this new Krylon paint sprays, flows, and dries.  

Here is the casting for the head.  It's a pretty neat shape, and it is fun to see all the detail the weird geometries.

I masked all the surfaces that were machined for other parts (spindle, column, cam locks, name plate).

And shot the standard paint on.  It looks brand new.

I hope over the weekend I can start reassembling many of these pieces back together.  It should be a fun puzzle.

Progress on the Drill Press Restoration

 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.  

The Walker Turner Drill Press

 A week ago, I was able to buy a cool old drill press off Craigslist.  I know, I know.  I already have an old drill press, so what would I do with another old drill press?  Well, I don't really know.  I thought I could justify it by saying, "one for wood and one for metal", but I don't think I need to justify it.  It's just cool.

This was a 1940s Walker Turner drill press that has been handed down through a family.  Purchased new by the grandfather, then passed down to his son, and then to the grandson.  I think it's pretty cool this old machine stayed in one family so long, so now I feel part of it!

It hasn't been turned on or used for 20 years, so said the current owner.  It had alot of surface rust and dust from 2 decades of storage.  

The 80 year old motor is super heavy duty.  Even though it is only 1/3 HP, it weighs like 20 pounds.  It does start and spins, but the start cap is a bit weak, so I'll replace it.  The bearings sound pretty smooth.

Perhaps the coolest feature is that extra hand-crank on the right hand side of the machine.  It lifts the entire head.  Yes - rather than raising or lowering the table, this has a gear mechanism that raises/lowers the entire head/motor assembly.  Wow!

Another unique feature is this X/Y stage beneath the working table of the machine.  It's frozen solid, but it's very similar in construction to a lathe cross-feed of which I'm familiar with.  I'll get this working, too.

Wires on 80 year old machines are always in bad shape.

Check out this dry rot!

However, I was surprised to see color on the wiring within the junction box.  Usually those wires all fade to dull black and you can't tell what is yellow or green or red or black.

I blew off about 5 pounds of dust, and removed the on/off switch in order to see the original paint color below.  I plan to tear this down and give it the full restoration, so I wanted to see this original color.  

I usually try to always stick close to the OEM color, but I don't think I will in this case.  Olive green drab just doesn't strike me as a very snazzy color.  So I'm going off the rails and doing something I haven't done before:  I'm changing up the color scheme.  

I cleaned up a piece and tested out a color to see how well I like it.  

And I like it!  

This is Krylon Hammered Dark Bronze spray paint.  It has a hint of a sparkle and I think it looks really good.  It will compliment the future-polished pieces nicely.  I'm going to go with this.

Note:  I've used Rustoleum for years, and after years of a love/hate relationship with that brand, I'm ending that relationship on "hate".  I believe 50% of my spray cans get clogged up in the first few seconds of use.  I'm no idiot - I know how to paint and how to prep.  I feel Rustoleum has lost its quality.  I even called their customer service hotline to complain, and was given the standard corporate blow-off reply, so I'm switching to Krylon.  So far, so good.  I'm quite impressed!

Driveshaft U-Joint Repair

While getting my old John Deere 420 spruced up for the spring season, I noticed a slightly loose and wobbly universal joint.  This driveshaft is the one that powers the mower deck rather than the hydrostat, so it was pretty easy to get to.

I unbolted the gearbox from the 60" deck and put the whole assembly on the bench to make it easy to work on.  At the same time, I drained the gear lube as good preventative maintenance, and will refill it after my u-joint repair.

Here's my u-joint all pulled apart.  The yoke that attaches to the gearbox is slightly warbled out.  The caps and needle bearings actually look just fine.  And luckily, the yoke further upstream looks fine for now.

Thus, I just have to replace that yoke which seems simple enough.  

But as I did some research and reading, I found I should also replace the cross bearings, too.  It's a cheap piece, and for the work invested, it's the right thing to do.

I didn't buy the yoke through John Deere - - I went aftermarket, and found the Weasler series 6 u-joint is the right fit.  It has the right 1" bore, the 1/4" keyway, but it is missing a hole for the roll pin.  

But, I have the right tools to make a hole for that roll pin.

Enter, the knee mill:

This was a lesson in proper setup.  I had to make sure the hole I drill is perfectly perpendicular, perfectly 90 degrees offset from the keyway, perfectly offset from the end of the yoke, and this hole had to go through the center of the bore.  It's alot to think about.

Straight up and down isn't a problem - I used a machinist's square:

Offset the right distance from the back of the yoke isn't a problem either.  And ensuring center of the bore was easy, too.  I just used an indicator:

But making sure I was 90 degrees off from the keyway is another matter.  How do I make sure that rotational twist is set up?

Assuming the keyway is inline with the cap bearing centers, I clamped a very straight rod across the yoke as such:

Then I simply run a dial indicator across that straight rod and see how flat I am.  This part took quite a bit of trial and error, but I finally got it so my indicator didn't fluctuate much.

With all my dimensions dialed in and set up (about 45 minutes), I started my hole drilling:  First off, I like to start with a center drill to keep the hole properly located.  Otherwise, drill bits tend to "walk":

Follow this up with a proper drill bit.  This is a 0.250" hole for a 0.250" roll pin, but this drill bit I am using is undersized at 0.205" or so:

I like to use a solid carbide endmill to make my hole to size.  By doing this, I'm essentially reaming out my hole for a nice side wall without "following" the previous hole drilled by a drill bit.  This will be perfectly straight with a good surface finish.

Of course, it goes without saying I had to do the 45 minute setup twice - - once for each side.  I couldn't simply drill all the way through.

So the moment of truth:  Do my two different setups produce holes that line up with each other?  Yes, they do!  I was able to insert my carbide endmill through both holes with a very nice sliding fit.  Big sigh of relief.

While I have no pictures pressing on my new bearings and caps, it went OK.  I used a manual Drake press rather than a hydraulic press to give me some "feel".  I also had a buddy help out (Thanks Steve!).  Four hands is much nicer than 2 hands in a job like this.

I gave it a spritz of black satin paint (close enough to John Deere's Black Blitz paint):

The last challenge in this whole ordeal was to remove my stuck woodruff key from the gearbox shaft.  I stumbled across this idea from the internet - drill and tap the key, and pull out the key by pushing a screw into it.  That process worked much better than I thought.  I'll use this way from now on.

New woodruff key inserted after the shaft was cleaned up.

And my new yoke and u-joint slid right on.  As a bonus, my hole I drilled lined up perfectly for a new roll pin.  I'm quite happy with this fix.

Go Kart!

A good buddy of mine gave me his old go kart that they have had family fun with for the past decade.  

I've been wanting a good project for my kids to get some mechanical experience with, and this is the perfect project.  It has lots of things the kids can learn on:  gears and sprockets and chains and linkages and frame welding.  

The kart has a few problems to fix.  Seat belts are held in place with field tile flags:

Chain fell off the sprocket:

Engine runs, but we'll go through it and make sure the preventative maintenance has been performed.  

All in all, it looks like a ton of fun to get the kids in the barn and have them work this go kart back to running condition.