Clausing 8530 Restoration

[ElginAgain]

I'll be documenting the restoration of my 1969 Clausing 8530 here. It was listed as a drill press on a craigslist ad for an estate sale, with no price, just the one photo, and the sellers were unresponsive to my emails so i drove 50 miles to check out the situation in person. Turns out their grandfather was a metal fabricator and machinist who had collected a ton of stuff that they were now tasked with selling. I was surprised to see it hadn't sold the first day of the sale. It's got an ugly paint job, but looks to be in pretty decent shape overall. I didn't spend much time looking at it before other people started showing up and I got nervous someone else would buy it before me. They were asking $1000 so i threw out an offer of $800, they excepted and were quick to help me load it into the bed of my truck with an electric/hydraulic stacker. I didn't even bother trying to plug it in and see if it would spin, I just rolled the dice and took a gamble on it. I've attached the one photo that was on Craigslist, it's actually the only photo I have of it fully assembled. Then I got a few random photos as I was taking it apart to get it out of the truck and into my shed.

Welcome to my first thread here and thanks in advance for any help you can offer along the journey.

-Elgin

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this

 

[Aukai]

Welcome

 

[ElginAgain]

I decided that the base was a logical place to start. It had been carelessly painted red on the front and sides but not the back. The top has a bit of silver spray paint on it, someone has sprayed that stuff in all the wrong places of the machine itself as well.



There was significant pitting and rust on the top and a little inside.


I decided to go with Rustoleum rattle can paint because it's easy and readily available. Getting something nicer and using a spray gun is such a hassle and time suck, plus it'll be easy to touch up should the need ever arise. $97 later I was well stocked and ready to get started.


First step was easy-off oven cleaner, it stripped the red paint no problem but didn't do much to the original paint beneath it.


The badly rusted spots were hit with a wire wheel to get the bulk of it off, then all surfaces were sprayed with phosphoric acid to convert the rust to iron phosphate. The phosphoric sat for maybe 30 min to and hour then was rinsed off.


A little sanding of the chips in the paint was done to smooth out the surface. I didn't feel like sanding every last bit of paint off though.


Finally a primer and Rustoleum smoke gray paint were applied.

 

[graham-xrf]

It's going great!
Something we are not counting (yet), but you will feel it and know it later when you have got it all together. It becomes "yours" way beyond the $800. You will get the pride and satisfaction every time you use it.
So welcome to HM!

 

[wachuko]

Well that is a great start!! Base came out great!

 

[JPMacG]

Nice score! I keep my eye on Craigslist for an 8520 or 8530. They rarely show up and when they do either they sell within hours, or the asking price is over the moon.

 

[34_40]

I like the Smoke Grey. And you are doing a great job applying it too. You're off to a great start.

 

[ElginAgain]

It's going great!
Something we are not counting (yet), but you will feel it and know it later when you have got it all together. It becomes "yours" way beyond the $800. You will get the pride and satisfaction every time you use it.
So welcome to HM!

I definitely know that feeling, I get it every time I use my Rockwell Delta drill press. I really like the feeling of saving a piece of American iron from going to scrap and restoring it to it's original glory. I'm pretty limited on space in the shed shop so I've been thinking of selling the drill press once the mill is up and running, but I'm struggling with the idea because I put so much work into it and have become quite attached.

 

[jcp]

I went through mine (also a 8530) 4 years ago. Took it down to every bolt and nut. Clausing has some parts available but they are tear producing high. If they don't have the part they will send you a drawing with all dimensions. I even used the same color as yours.