I'm considering buying this drill press; seller asking $300. Looks 1880-1900 era, but I'm no expert. Couldn't fully make it out, but the casting says "London" -something. The owner told me it was purchased from a blacksmith shop in the early 1970's and it was in use up until maybe 20 years ago before it went into storage.
What is it? Is the price right? Any feedback from someone better informed than myself would be much appreciated.
Are you trying to open up a museum?
I have a blacksmith shop outfitted with equipment from around the same period.
I have one like this. I works but it's basically a table now due to my other two newer drill presses. You'll need a couple of belts, a motor, and probably a couple months to restore it. This will all cost more than the drill press, good luck.
just go take it, ita not tied down or anything
Heh.
Yeah, it was out by the road for a couple of weeks before the sign was put on it. It's got a hefty chain anchoring it to a utility pole.
Would've edged out one of my top 10 curbside/dumpster finds.
Offer 200 cash (people hate turning down stacks of 20s, they're thicker, seller psychology is weird).
Fortunately its got what appears to be a proper Jacobs chuck. It's an easy machine to restore to good usable condition and has a coolant trough on the table which is handy. (Best way to use coolant is in a plastic soda bottle with a 1/8" hole drilled in the top. My machine shop ownerbro loves them because unlike oil cans they're disposable.)
It was designed to be powered by line shafting with is pretty cool but you'd need to study that to see if you want to run that and a motor to drive it, or just do the usual and fab a mount for an electric motor. Flat belting and hardware are easily available. Study forums like Smokstak and hobby machinist forums and read old turn of last century machining books via Internet Archive etc. Learn manual layout and how to use toolmakers buttons. You can turn out good work with study and practice.
Isn't the stepped pulley attached to the base and aligned with the top one (but reversed) part of an onboard power mechanism where a motor would be attached? If not, WTF is it there for?
It's kind of an odd place for it but to keep the weight of an ancient electric motor low I could see that being a good spot, and it's not like they cared about a giant appendage eating drive belt flapping around back then.
The cylindrical bit at the base connects to an overhead drive shaft with a flat belt.
The two stepped cylinders are connected with a second flat belt. There's a treadle on the other side that operates a clutch for this second belt, so you can move it and set the speed of the drill.
Forgot pic.
More or less committed to the transaction now. The guy is throwing in a 1.5 horsepower Baldor motor for another $150.
decent setup. for another hundred or two you could get a similarly sized (20" tops) modern drill press used.
but these old camelback drill presses can go quite a bit beyond 20" and the only modern drill presses i've seen that can compete are 2000-pound mill-sized atrocities.
It's good for big holes in metal. Not a huge camelback but a solid piece. Very similar to a barnes 15in camelback.
80
You will quickly learn, space is more important than anything else.
Dont waste space with that thing. You can fit a full size milling machine in the space that takes up.