Walker-Turner 900 Series Drill Press
What happens when you suspect that your 1980’s Craftsman floor model drill press (that you’ve never really been too fond of) might be throwing a bearing? You start looking for a new drill press, that’s what.
I’d actually been playing around with the idea of a new bench-top drill press for the basement, because taking guitar parts to the garage where the current drill press lives is not exactly a clean room environment – basically I’m a blob of grease away from potential disaster and you can’t swing a cat out there without hitting something undesirable. So in a lot of ways its a matter of national security, I don’t really have choice.
The good news is that there are lots of great options out there, and WEN in particular makes a series of bench top drill presses with all sorts of fun options like variable speed, laser guidance and table lifts, and since we’re talking about national security I can justify all these options, I mean its actually my responsibility to have them.
But of course as I’m looking up reviews you always run into some salty old dude lamenting how this is foreign made junk and they don’t make ’em like they used to, blah blah blah. And while you take these comments with a grain of salt, I do have other considerations such as, “Sure, it might run great and be super accurate but how does it look, what’s the vibe?” After all, I have to consider the feelings of the other machines, this is all about team building. Nothing down there is younger than I am so I must confess that Mr. WEN Laser Fancy Pants might get laughed out of the shop despite all the bells and whistles.
So as I argue with the HR department (..but he fits the job description!), I take a peek at drill presses on Marketplace. I’m vaguely familiar with bench top drill presses from the 50’s/60’s, there’s a Craftsman model that’s fairly common, and you see occasional Delta, Atlas, Homecraft etc. And they have character, but also character flaws…like a feed with only two bars, limited speed options with manual change, no depth stop, no table lift, no light, etc. (oh – and they are all in various shades of nasty shape). But then I notice that some of them have some of these features, so there is more looking to do…my favorite thing.
As I poke around I start to create a mental list of must haves: depth stop, 3-4 handle feed and slow speed adapter seem to be the baseline. Most of these don’t have table lifts, the tables are small enough to be pretty easy to manage, but some do, would be nice to have but not a deal breaker. And as I’m looking its apparent that a lot of these have been rode hard and put away wet… and I’ve learned over the years to take the time to look closer, because missing or broken parts can cost as much as the machine itself. I’d also like to not travel a long way, although if you find the right one it can be worth it, it’s just tough to tell from afar.
Just as its becoming clear that I should look for something fairly common like a Craftsman or a Delta due to better parts availablity, lots of restoration videos, etc., The Woodworking Gods throw this beast in my path. The description says It’s a Walker-Turner which catches my attention, a lesser known brand but good machinery, my band saw is a W-T. It’s beefy, chunky, and it has the slow speed attachment thingy. 4-bar feed and depth stop. I have no idea what that is coming out of the top but I like it. However, its in Chicago, a good 4 hours away. The price isn’t bad but that’s a long way to go to check something out. But I look at the pics and try to educate myself on it in case one pops up locally.
It appears to be a 900 series, 40’s-50’s -ish time frame. There are a few restoration videos and I quickly learn that the bearings in the drive pulley are unique to this machine. They have an extended race and are no longer available, which of course is a red flag. It is also missing the belt cover, which most of them are apparently. The good news is that people like these machines, they were well built and are fairly straightforward if the bearings are okay.
I do a little more research on the bearings and discover that there’s a guy supplying the replacement bearings on ebay. Not cheap, but good to know. The belt cover is also available on ebay for about 3 times the asking price of the machine, people have no shame with this stuff. Would be nice to have but OSHA is unlikely to be roaming around my shop any time soon, could keep an eye out for one if we get that far.
I try to put it out of my mind but can’t help myself and shoot the seller a question about the chuck and the belt cover, explaining that I’m not local but get to Chicago now and then. He gets back to me, no on the cover, but will check on the other questions I’ve asked in the meantime. I wait. It’s too far to go with so many unknowns, so I put it on the back burner.
After a week he messages saying I’m the only one interested so he’ll lower the price and drive to meet me halfway if that helps. So now it would be rude to say no.
I ask more questions, and he volunteers a lot of info that I don’t ask, which is fantastic. It was his Grandfather’s and they’re clearing out his stuff. The quill goes up and down, the feed return spring works, all the adjustments work, the pulleys are in good shape, the motor spins. It even has the key for the chuck. Can’t ask for much more than that. We set up a time and place to meet.
We meet, super nice guy and his wife. It looks great in person, there’s something about the old cast iron machinery that gives me a good feeling, probably reminds me of my Grandfather’s shop. And, he was sporting this bumper sticker. So I’m getting good vibes on this whole thing.
I get it home and slide it out onto a card table, it’s too heavy for me to handle alone. Once I get the motor off I can stand it up and take a few pics.
It appears to be in good shape, especially given it’s age. Now that I have it its a little easier to research. It’s definitely a 900 series but it seems they made this series from 1940 into the 50’s, with various changes along the way. From catalogs I can find its somewhere in the 1940-1949 range. It has a model number tag but no serial number, so we’ll leave it there for now.
Teardown
I’ve watched a few videos on these, so I’m prepared for a bit of a fight. But in about half an hour I have the basic components apart, a minor miracle. There is some corrosion on the cast iron base but fortunately the moisture didn’t get into the column joint so after a little PB Blaster the major pieces are apart, and some cursory inspection is revealing very little rust.
It’s early but so far so good.
Next I take some of the easy stuff off, nut, bolts, locking handles, etc. and call it a good day and an encouraging start.
As I start to think about next steps I watch a restoration video where a guy sets up the column of a floor drill press on a makeshift lathe so he can spin the column as he cleans and then polishes it. This might seem like overkill but its actually a really good way to get a uniform finish on the column, instead of a bunch of swirl marks from a wire brush on an angle grinder. And of course I have an actual lathe…
I check the centers and it will fit. I put it on the slowest pulley settings and it seems like a workable speed. I have a 3 jaw chuck from the metal lathe I’ve never set up, so just need to make a plug for the other end in order to test it out.
I cobble a plug together and chuck it up. Everything is running true and seems stable, so I start to clean it. Wire brush first then sandpaper from 80 to 600. It would be fun to take it to a mirror finish but I wisely invoke the Pareto rule and move on.
Okay – it’s a good start, we have some early wins, and polishing the column
So now we get into the belly of the beast, the “head” where the drive pulley and quill reside, and inside of those we have the bearings that determine how it runs, so we need to get to those. When you remove the feed pinion the quill assembly drops out. I put that aside for the moment and worked on removing the drive pulley, and this is where you start to appreciate old school engineering.
One of the fun things about these older machines is that they were figuring it out as they went and each company was trying to be better than their competition, so the designs and problem solving are ingenious and typically more complicated than current practice, which can be a be a bit of a challenge but of course that’s why we’re here.
From the videos I’ve watched I know that the drive pulley has two “extended race” bearings in it, and between these, cast into the pulley, is the drive sleeve that mates with the splined top part of the spindle, allowing the pulley to drive the spindle while the quill is moved up and down. So with the spindle out I start to investigate what is holding the pulley in place
More sleuthing reveals that this piece, #35, the upper bearing retainer, needs to come out. “How?” you ask, don’t feel bad, I did the same thing. Turns out its a press fit, which many things are on this thing, another element of classic engineering elegance. Clear all joints, apply PB Blaster, and then figure out how to twist, pull or pry it up and out.
I’m able to twist it slightly using slip joint pliers, with padding so I don’t mar the surface. Then I’m able to lever it up a bit using screwdrivers, then more twisting, levering, etc., until its out, yay.
So now the pulley should just fall out, right? Of course not, we have miles to go before we sleep.
The extended sleeve of the bottom bearing is being true to it’s monicker by extending into the pulley and gumming up the works. However, some very slight persuasion from the bottom pushes it back into the pulley so it clears and we’re good to go.
So now we’re on to the last dismantlling challenge (I think), getting the quill apart. This involves bashing the spindle out of the quill, gently of course. As I see people doing this in videos it looks kinda dicey. I try some whacks with a plastic hammer and realize I need heavier artillery.
Now I need to set it up so I can deliver some good blows – so the rim of the quill needs to be supported at the bottom allowing the spindle to come through, and I need to be able to whack the spindle with something heavy without damaging it. I drill out a piece of 2×4 as a cap and find the perfect short piece of pipe in my wife’s sculpture stash (ssshhh). I break a few 2×4 pieces but this works like a charm and we set the spindle free.
And now I see something that I have not seen in the videos: one of the most diabolical fasteners ever devised, so diabolical that I don’t even know it’s official name. It appears to be #32, the “adjusting ring” in the drawing, it’s a recessed slotted bolt/nut thingy and these are a be-atch to deal with if they’re stuck. And it’s between us and the bearing so we have to deal with it. What makes them difficult is that there is no standard tool for removing them, that I know of at least. Bolts have wrenches, screws have screwdrivers, these have curses and busted knuckles.
I do some searching and find that there are “pin” wrenches that allegedly work on these, I’m skeptical but run with the idea. I happen to have some pin wrenches lying around because they are used for the nuts on angle grinders (where its still a bad design) and lo and behold, the one for the Porter Cable is the right width. The pins are a little too big but a little file work fixes that. I get a good fit but I know better than to get excited. I few preliminary attempts fall short, I either need a better tool, a better way to hold the quill, or both.
More research gets more refined versions of my angle grinder pin vise…but then I bump into a guy who made a removal tool for his angle grinders using an old socket, and the light bulb goes on.
