[Drill] My Solstice/Christmas/New Gregorian Year present to me.

NortonDommi

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Health and prosperity to all in the new calendar year.
Well,in the interests of saving fine machinery from the knackers yard and increasing my hoard of junk to annoy the neighbors I just could not pass up this item that popped up on Trade Me. After some frenzied and heated bidding I finally won out with a bid of NZD$91:00.
A phone call to a mate to borrow his trailer and another to borrow his No.1 son,(Gene,pictured in one of the photo's),and a quick drive acroos the harbour I came home with a No.1 Denbigh Camel Back Drill.
It has obviously been dropped on its side at some time as the shaft for the feed has a very slight tweak in it which should be no problem to straighten.
I have a shed to build along with other maintenance tasks that must be completed this Summer and then it will be a strip down and rebuild with new paint. It has a 1 & 1/2 H.P. 3 phase motor which I will run using the two capacitor static converter. I have a couple of spare single phase 2-H.P. capacitor start motors but will try it as it came first.
When I was doing my time we had a lot of old line drive machines that were run off a 150 H.P. electric motor after the original steam plant was junked and when I was at base one of my jobs was to dress the belts so appreciate just how good a transmission medium they are and I have developed a love of old machines from this otherwise misspent youth. Fond memories.
Anyway attached are some photographs,I hope I haven't wasted near a 100 bucks.

Denbigh Drilling Machines - http___www.lathes.co.uk_denbigh-drills_.png
 

Attachments

  • Denbigh move.zip
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Thanks Ulma Doctor, I think it looks great too and the fact that there is only that slightly tweaked shaft,(talking one tight spot with about 0.010" interference in one spot),when using hand feed is a nothing. The Tanner,(1950's made locally),is a great machine but I have pushed it to the limit at times so it will be nice to be able to handle heavy stuff comfortably.
Middle of Summer here but just had a monsoon like deluge which is good because everything was getting dry and friends on tank water will be happy. South Island is getting a good dump. On the news it said many states in America are experiencing some very cold weather,(frozen sharks washing up!),so hope the homefire is burning bright.
 
Great looking drill press. Very nice find!

.......and yeah, the other thing that got me excited was seeing leaves and blossoms and t-shirt weather.
I am near Canada's capital of Ottawa and we are having some of the coldest weather on record.
Currently at -29 deg. C. (-20 F) with the wind making it feel like -36 deg. C. (-33 F).
Just opening a door creates a frozen fog cloud outside.
One or two days of it I could stand.....but we've been like this for a week and it's not done yet.

It just makes everything harder.
I have some work to do on my truck mounted snow plow, but luckily it's too cold to snow.
I also need to replace a relay/sequencer in my homes electric furnace, but I don't want it offline too long.
I have been starting each vehicle every day to make sure they will, but have had to bring batteries in for warm-up and full charges.

Sorry, not meaning to whine......
-brino
 
Great looking drill press. Very nice find!

.......and yeah, the other thing that got me excited was seeing leaves and blossoms and t-shirt weather.
I am near Canada's capital of Ottawa and we are having some of the coldest weather on record.
Currently at -29 deg. C. (-20 F) with the wind making it feel like -36 deg. C. (-33 F).
Just opening a door creates a frozen fog cloud outside.
One or two days of it I could stand.....but we've been like this for a week and it's not done yet.

It just makes everything harder.
I have some work to do on my truck mounted snow plow, but luckily it's too cold to snow.
I also need to replace a relay/sequencer in my homes electric furnace, but I don't want it offline too long.
I have been starting each vehicle every day to make sure they will, but have had to bring batteries in for warm-up and full charges.

Sorry, not meaning to whine......
-brino
It makes our -11ºF seem positively balmy.
I can remember a week long period in central Wisconsin when I was a teenager where the temperature never got above -20ºF and dipped below -30ºF a couple of times.
I'm glad that I don't have to face that any more. Retirement has its advantages.
 
Happy New Year

We had one at work. At the closing down auction it went cheap, but it's was still more than what you paid. You did very well on very useful machine. I liked using ours. Ours' was great at drilling large holes. The round table made for quick alignment . Is you power down feed hooked up? Ours wasn't. Get a can of spray beltdressing , it'll need a dose every once in while. One new large Morse Taper shanked drill is going to cost as much as the machine, chuckle.

Even us on the wet ( correct spelling) coast are having a cold spell, -5 C this morning. We even had an ice storm, we lost power for 9 hours. Since we are on a urban circuit with mostly underground lines, this was very unusual. The Douglas fir tree in our back yard lost four large branches, one was 6" at the butt. The wife got some neat pictures, though, one of a barb wire fence that was solid with ice.
 
I saw pictures of Niagara Falls and all I can say is Wow! I think the coldest it got last Winter was about 1 degree C. We got a frost a couple of years ago but it does snow up South. Very temperate at the moment 25 - 28 during the day dropping to around 18 at night. Need beer.
Great looking drill press. Very nice find!

.......and yeah, the other thing that got me excited was seeing leaves and blossoms and t-shirt weather.
I am near Canada's capital of Ottawa and we are having some of the coldest weather on record.
Currently at -29 deg. C. (-20 F) with the wind making it feel like -36 deg. C. (-33 F).
Just opening a door creates a frozen fog cloud outside.
One or two days of it I could stand.....but we've been like this for a week and it's not done yet.

It just makes everything harder.
I have some work to do on my truck mounted snow plow, but luckily it's too cold to snow.
I also need to replace a relay/sequencer in my homes electric furnace, but I don't want it offline too long.
I have been starting each vehicle every day to make sure they will, but have had to bring batteries in for warm-up and full charges.

Sorry, not meaning to whine......
-brino
brino I cannot even imagine cold like that, and I wouldn't want your power bill. Been looking at this you tube and thinking about building a waste oil burner for a friend who lives in a valley and his shop gets damp in Winter, This Irish guy seems to have a lot of good info, don't know if you are interested but here it is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqe1yTIkHEFx17lmI1zvttA

I'm glad everyone likes the drill. Downwindtracker2, yes,it's complete and everything works,as mentioned there is a very slight tweak on the shaft at the hub for the handle. It was moved to where I picked it up and I suspect that it may have been laid on the handle side. Operation is not affected just can feel slight hesitation when feeding in one spot and I can see were the friction is occuring so will be an easy fix. It doesn't look as if it has been used that much but it is well oiled with what appears to be way oil in all the right places.
As I said 1/2 the plant in the machine shop when I did my time were line drive and it was my job to look after the belts. Most of them were leather and I still have a tin of dressing I made in 1977. Belt on the Denbigh is conveyor belting and I'm conversant with that too. Drive for the downfeed was an old timing belt which I have dumped so that is really the only thing to make,I still have a few packets of Alligator clips sitting on a shelf and spoke to a friend today who told me he a has a pile of belting in a shed that I am welcome too :grin big: so all looking good. Been making new bucket pins and sorting out damage on neighbors baby digger last couple of days and have a new shed to build before getting into any major rebuild though. Winter project.
 
Good score. I have one the same that came from a scrapyard in Manurewa ( long gone) 25 years ago. A good machine
 
She's a beauty. I keep looking for one. No luck yet, but I'm a patient man. Enjoy your summer, and good luck with your shed build. Cheers, Mike
 
Does yours have the two speed gear box ? Ours was fussy. Not all of the millwrights get the adjustment correct. And he was English too, he should had affinity for that English machine. It's easy sometimes to look good.

A story about cold. In the '70s I lived in northern BC . I can get cold enough that locals complain amongst themselves. Jimmy had left his Christmas bottle of overproof rum on the seat of his truck, it froze and broke. He was broken hearted, we were out of work and that was his Christmas cheer.
 
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