Repowering an IMA drill machine

might not have been hard, but I'm still impressed :) That table rack and gear is just begging for a 12V window motor and spare PC power supply. I've seen a couple of builds on here (tables for drill presses and heads for bench mills) doing that and it looks dead neat. I'm idly thinking of it too (have the motors and PSU) for my drill press, but there's a long long list of projects ahead of it and ever less time to do them!
 
I checked it out tonight, and I don't think a 12vdc window motor will raise it. Pretty hard cranking. The head cranks up pretty easy, but not really not travel there. I'm still working on machining out some other things for it, and figuring out what to do about permanent wiring. Run it off the vfd controls? Or incorporate remote controls? Hmmm...


---------------------------------Why buy something when you can build it for twice the price!
 
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Had some time to work on the gearshift levers, I think they came out nice. The mounting blocks are so big because there are ball detents in them.


---------------------------------Why buy something when you can build it for twice the price!
 
Bringing this thread back from the dead. I’ve been running this drill press for years now with no issues, it has performed without issue since the initial rebuild above. For some reason I got a hair in my ass a couple weeks ago and started phase 2 of the rebuild.

First order of business: motorized table lift. It was mentioned above years ago, so I aimed to make it a reality.

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I had a couple of these nice gearmotor setups lying around, perfect size for this job. By shear luck they happened to be a 110vac, dual direction motor. I whipped up an adapter to go from the pinion shaft on the table to the chain sprocket on the motor setup (small chain drive behind the cast alum cover) and mocked it up to test. Of course the little motor didn’t have enough ass to lift the table. Fortunately a little online research turned up that these little units are quite versatile. Made by Oriental Motor, you can buy a large number of different gearboxes for them. Mine was a 12.5:1 ratio. I found a NOS 100:1 ratio box for a good price on eBay and installed, it lifts the table no problem, albeit a little on the slow side.


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A few years back I built and installed a spindle light for my mill, best add on I’ve ever done. I can’t take credit for the brilliant idea, I saw it online back then, no idea where, but a million thanks to the genius that came up with it. I decided my drill press needed one, so set to it.

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This is the housing for the light, machined from scrap aluminum.

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Marked out and drilled/tapped some 2-56 holes, and bolted a piece of plexi onto the face of the housing.

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Chucked it back in the Monarch and used a cutoff blade to cut away the excess plexi. Use a freshly sharpened blade or the plexi will melt instead of cut.

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A shot of the small cavity to give the wires/solder points some space. I simply used a drill press to take out most of the material, and a dremel to smooth it up. The light itself is a led cob, halo ring they sell for cars (supposed to put around headlights, bah I have better use for them). Bought a pair for $15 on eBay, they sell a hundred different sizes.

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Here it is powered up. As you can see, there are no shadows anywhere, and it’s bright as hell. Simply powered by a cheap 12vdc wall adapter. Much better than the single or even dual lamp setups on most machines.



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Just wanted to say Thanks!
your pictures helped me crank open the same drill press that were broken and bring it to life...
 
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