Vintage pillar drill project

Dom66 · Post by **Dom66** » Sun Jan 11, 15 3:30 pm

Nice! the old stuff is always nicer IMHO. This site is a mine of info and parts for old machines http://www.lathes.co.uk/

db · Post by db » Mon Jan 12, 15 9:09 am

Before I go bothering my engineer, any thoughts on how to strip the drill column?
There's a toothed sleeve on bearings over the drill shaft. The bearings run smoothly but there's about 1/32" vertical play. I'd like to strip it and at least shim it, maybe replace the bearings too.
There appears to be a steel ring at the top secured with a pin. I've drilled the tip, heated the ring and tried to drift it out. Not a hint of it moving.
So, more heat and brutality, or am I missing something? Or should I just repack with grease and leave well alone?

Mossy68 · Post by **Mossy68** » Mon Jan 12, 15 8:53 pm

Paul. Spoke with my Uncle , and my grandads drill may well have been a Bradbury. However it went to one of my grandads friends after he died.

I was informed that Bradbury were mainly involved in the automotive workshop side of equipment. 4 post lifts etc.
apparently were bought out by another company after financial problems a while back. Don't know if they still exist ?

db · Post by db » Tue Jan 13, 15 9:40 am

No worries mate, thanks for asking

Lots of progress last night- Terry had a bash at drilling out the pin on his machine. After killing a couple of drill bits, we realised we weren't the first to try drilling it out- there was a little piece of broken drill bit buried in the shaft! The pin had been inserted in two halves. Buggers! We got it all apart and scattered the bearings all over the floor...

Luckily I'm replacing the bearing, off to bearing man today.

Terry had a nice chunky 11" faceplate he'd made for a job so he's given me that and will turn up an adaptor and weld them together.
The pulley wheel is trickier- he's going to machine inside the new ally pulley, make up an adaptor plate and machine that so it will press over the original pulley. This way we can use the original pulley without damaging it.
He's pretty busy so it'll be a few weeks before he gets it all done I reckon.
He also thinks it's a lot older than 1954! I'll have to do a bit of research...

db · Post by db » Thu Feb 26, 15 7:07 pm

Well not much progress on the car, but I spent yesterday evening up at Terrys and got all the engineering work done.
He'd already made a new mount, welded and finished the new table which I'm really happy with. It's huge, heavy and a perfect fit.
We reassembled the shaft with the new bearing and drilled the shaft and collar for a new retaining pin.
Next we tackled the pulley. Terry turned a flat on the top of the old, a flay inside the new and drilled and tapped so they could be bolted together.

I need to make a mount for the motor which will allow me to adjust it for the different pulley sizes, possibly with some sort of spring.
I also need to make a counter-weight for the column.

Ivor · Post by **Ivor** » Fri Feb 27, 15 9:33 am

That's coming along nicely Paul, I have an old drilling/.tapping machine, you can drill with it and when tapping it will run the tap down and automatically reverse when it bottoms out...probably 1920's but still works!

db · Post by db » Fri Feb 27, 15 11:26 am

Cool Ivor, I'm loving this old British engineering!

latil · Post by **latil** » Fri Feb 27, 15 11:30 am

I see it was flat belt drive at one time. My Meddings has a motor plate mounted on 2 butt hinges with an old bike saddle spring with a long stud through it as belt tensioner.

db · Post by db » Thu Mar 26, 15 6:21 pm

I mounted the motor last night- dead easy, I just welded a couple of bolts to an old door hinge, then welded that to the mounting plate.
I'll fit something along the lines of an alternator tensioner slide on the other side, with a big wing nut to tension the belt.

autofetish · Post by **autofetish** » Thu Mar 26, 15 6:44 pm

Very cool love it

db · Post by db » Thu Mar 26, 15 7:11 pm

It'll be sitting proud on your stand soon mate