Buffalo No. 15 Drill Press Restoration

wildo

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Last night I scored a Buffalo No. 15 drill press off craigslist for $50. I've been hunting for a vintage drill press like this (Delta, Rockwell, Atlas, SB, Walker Turner, Buffalo, etc) for about two months now within a 250 mile radius and have been coming up empty. When I saw this listing pop up- I was all over it.

Got the press home and overall it's in decent enough shape. I haven't been able to locate a serial number anywhere, so if anyone knows where it's located- please do let me know. I was told that it was originally sold to Indianapolis Welding way back and was removed from that building as part of an auction or something to that nature. It travelled to Southern Indiana where interest was lost, and then back to Indy with me. So that's kind of a cool story- still in Indy after all these years.

The paint appears to be in decent shape, so I haven't decided if I will strip it and repaint it or not. I kind of like the black Buffalo DPs with the "Buffalo" logo in bare metal. Pretty sharp! So time will tell. EDIT- like this:
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The quill was rusted stuck, but I was able to free it with WD40 and a strap wrench once I had the feed pinion out. I plan on replacing the bearings, of course, and then a major cleanup. The table is in pretty good shape with no "arc of shame" -just a couple little pecker holes. Since I'm not too heavily invested I am considering taking it to a welding shop and getting the holes filled and the table ground flat afterwards. I'll price it out. I can't imagine that would cost over $100, but it is a specialty welding so what do I know. Unfortunately, cast iron welding is not a skill I have. Again- if anyone has experience here- please let me know.

Lastly, as far as drives, I'm planning on upgrading to a Baldor 1hp 3ph motor with a VFD. I think that will be make for a very powerful, very useful drill press (with speed control) while still rocking that awesome vintage iron. I'm excited about this project!

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One gallon paint can for size reference. This is surprisingly larger than I expected- a nice surprise!
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Oh- I found in a maintenance manual that I can apparently spin the knurled ring (it's on a thread, I guess) against the chuck in order to press the chuck off of the spindle. If anyone knows if I need to do this in order to get the lower bearing off, please let me know. I was not able to determine from any manual I can find what direction the lower spindle bearing is pressed on/off. I assume it will come off the chuck side. Hmmm, thinking about it- I think it would HAVE to come off the chuck side. Otherwise you'd have to press it over the upper bearing seat...
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Nice old drill press! I would leave the holes in the table alone. First, it is part of the history and age of the tool. Second, I have never seen welding on cast iron tables that I thought was totally satisfactory. Sometimes the welding ruined the part. You could always still see where the damage had been. If it can be seen, the press might as well wear it as a badge of survival. Clean up the table like new, but leave the rust in the pecker holes. That will say "not mine!" Third, they are not deep enough or large enough to interfere with using the press normally.
 
If it can be seen, the press might as well wear it as a badge of survival. Clean up the table like new, but leave the rust in the pecker holes. That will say "not mine!"

I think you make some good points! Especially the quoted part. Thanks for the comment; you've given me some good things to contemplate!
 
Real nice machine.
Congrats!
-brino
 
I was able to find answers to some of the questions I asked above.

Getting the chuck off was actually really easy. The "chuck remover" (which is what the manual calls that knurled ring) worked exceptionally well. I was able to just use a drift and spin it down which pushed the chuck right off. Easy peasy. This exposed the chuck remover and bearing which I removed just by driving the spindle out of them. Once the chuck was off, it was apparent that in fact the bearing did come off from the chuck end. Now removing the sleeve that the chuck remover threads are on from the bearing without messing it up was pretty hard. But with some careful finesse, I got it done. I'm pretty bummed to see how messed up the taper is on the end of the spindle. I'll have to research how to clean that up.

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After that I tackled getting the spindle step pulley off and the bearings pulled. The manual says to just drive the step pulley assembly out from inside the machine head with a wood dowel. That worked fine. Getting the bearings off the step pulley was a bit of a challenge, but I have a fancy gear/bearing puller that helped tremendously.

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I still have the rest of the drill press to disassembly, but probably the next step is the degrease the messy stuff so I can put it all in a box somewhere for storage. I got a new toy for that!

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That's really cool, so simple, kinda elegant, I like it
 
About the spindle taper, Tom from ox tools did a video on that exact thing, customer wanted their drill press spindle fixed, he welded up the taper and recut it on the lathe, watch the video, you need to make a test piece that blues up perfectly with that taper so you know your compound is set at the right angle when you put the spindle in the lathe after removing the test piece.
 
About the spindle taper, Tom from ox tools did a video on that exact thing, customer wanted their drill press spindle fixed, he welded up the taper and recut it on the lathe

Thanks! That sort of welding is outside my skill level (I only have a buzzbox welder, and am self taught at that) but I'll definitely try to find the video and watch it. Sounds interesting at least!

[EDIT]- I'm sure having a hard time finding that video. If you happen to know of it, please link to it. Thanks!
 
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It's a series, called Setting Up and Cutting Short Machine Tapers, 4 parts, go to the play lists and lathe related
 
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