Newly Acquired Walker Turner 20 inch Drill Press :)

The final post of the ridiculous drill press belt change :) ...

I used the drilling and tapping method, screwing/drawing it up from above with the apparatus here:


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I found a piece of round, I it sat on top, around the bearing retainer. Then a bar with holes, bolt went through that, into tapped holes in bearing retainer, and drew it up. It was so snug and stiff, I needed to use a huge channel locks to turn the bearing retainer back and forth from inside the belt housing while cranking drawing it up with those bolts (as you can see above).

I did not have any visible rust or gunk in there, and this one was NoT a slip fit as was supposed to be the case :)

... But I put the bearing retainer on the lathe and filed the outer surface down a thou or two. I then used one of the rough gray scotch-brite pads to smooth the filed surface more. I thought I would take it down even more, but I put it back as a pretty close slip fit as you mentioned (and glad I did - more below).

I then used the scotch brite as much as I could to open up the actual bearing retainer recess for a close slip fit there too.
Here is a shot of the top, third, bearing in place, with the retainer drawn up out of the way:


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As it turns out, on top of the spindle pulley is a THIRD bearing. It is a pretty standard, open, caged motor bearing. It must be there to relieve the belt stress away from the top spindle bearing, and share the side load. So this makes sense of this whole bearing retainer mess. I think in later models they made this more easily maintainable, but a nice feature, obviously meant for long time reliability and accuracy.


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It was good to clean up in there anyway. I know it wouldn't have been much to finish taking the spindle apart, but I decided to leave that for another project after I get it running. It was very clean, and feels smooth. the top spindle bearing inside felt nice. Now that I worked the top end over, future access for work will be a piece of cake.

Now to wire up the motor and get it spinning!! :)


Bernie
 
Hi Guys,
I recently came across a 20" model 1100 Walker Turner with the auto feed. My primary issue is that the table is locked. The handle section comes out and the up/down crank is removed. So I can only assume that the table locking mechanism is jammed. Would anyone happen to know how that lock works or perhaps have a picture of it? I have tried BP Blaster and a heat, to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hey Joe

When I picked up my WT, the table was also frozen.

Spraying oil is good. Really soak it.

The clamp is a tapered plug, which looks similar to half of the split nut in the neck of an old bicycle if you've ever look in there, or changed the handlebars.

When you loosen the handle, you can take a piece of small diameter stock (or a screwdriver if nothing else is around) and stick it in, as sideways as possible, and try to catch the far plug and tap it away. The clamp works by squeezing two of these plugs toward each other, therefore against the column. So, but tapping them away from either side available to you, should free things up.

Also, the best way to start the table moving is not up and down, but twisting the table around, sideways, back and forth.

Let me know if this makes any sense! Hah hah


Bernie
 
Fantastic machine Bernie, I'm jealous of your cover. It's gorgeous! Your machine looks quite similar to mine. Do you think the green is factory? Mine is currently a dull grey, but I thought that the lower collar of the table mechanism was green at one point and the machine has definitely been painted.

Thanks for the direction to this thread, I'm going to be cleaning out the gearbox for my table and looking at the belt nonsense shortly.
 
Rick: I have a power fed drill press just like yours. I bought it from someone on another forum. Was that you? It is beautifully restored.

Yes,they are supposed to be gray. I am old enough to have had WT tools when they were new.
 
Bernie,260 RPM is still TOO FAST to drill holes in steel that are as large as your machine is capable of. My 20" WT,which looks like Rick's,has a VFD mounted on it,so I can really make it go quite slow if I want to drill a large hole. You will burn the corners right off a large drill if your machine doesn't go slow enough.
 
Thanks George!
My machine has a three phase motor, so a VFD has been necessary too.. So I can crank this thing way down! I have an extra pulley for this machine, which I plan to try to fit in between the other pulleys as a speed reducer too, so I could possibly run it direct to the RPC with a normal switch. But it IS nice to be able to dial it in listening and watching the chips :)

Bernie
 
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