Rockford Machinery Drill Press

[Spike]

I picked this floor model drill press up twenty some years ago from some guy's junk pile. I derusted it some, replaced the wiring, and bought a new chuck for it. It's been fine ever since. The thing is I have seem many that seem to be exactly the same but with different brand names. What gives?
-Spike

 

[xman_charl]

mine, is over 20 years old, did have 1/2 hp ac, now 1 1/2 hp dc.




Charl

 

[Spike]

Other than the name they could be twins! I wonder just how many brands the same machine was sold under. Mine works well but is nowhere near a precision tool, but since it found it half buried in mud and then have gotten twenty years of use from it I'm not complaining.
Thanks!
-Spike

 

[AR. Hillbilly]

Mine is a Cal-Hawk. I've had it over 20 years and used it hard. I just recently replaced the belts.

 

[mike1]

I have and identical one that is branded Orbit. I purchased it back in 1978 and haven't had any issues with it .

 

[47convertible]

I think there were only two or three factories that made these drill presses. The best of them seem to have been from Taiwan.
Orbit was, I believe, the predecessor to Jet. I got an old Jet 17" floor model from a farm in Western Oregon a couple of years ago figuring just to fix it up a bit. Ha ha.
One thing led to another, spindle, spindle bearings, new rack to raise and lower bed, old column had a crack hidden by rust so new column and had to machine an adapter since I couldn't get the original dia. Then the icing on the cake was putting on a 1.5 hp DC motor and 60M controller. I turned off as much of the 'donkey tracks' in the plate as I could and still maintain good spacing for T nuts. It did have a decent US made Jacobs 5/8 chuck but not the one with ball bearings. My cheap fixer-upper turned into a major rebuild project. I actually like that old DP better than my much newer 20 inch Jet. DC motor with variable speed makes a big difference.

Jerry

 

[47convertible]

Mike, I think Orbit was rebranded to be Jet. I have an old Jet 17" with the blue label and it looks a lot like these others. I think there were only a couple of factories that made them in China/Taiwan is why they look so much alike and I bet lots of parts would interchange. I got mine from a farm as I wanted to convert a drill press to DC variable speed power and didn't want to do that to my very nice Jet 20MF that I bought new. The 17 inch press was a real project but once I was in it I plunged ahead with new spindle, spindle bearings, a new column as I found the original was cracked, a new rack to raise/lower the table and on and on. But I really like that 1.5 hp DC motor and controller. It has a good Jacobs 5/8 chuck which runs true.
Jerry

 

[The Liberal Arts Garage]

Good, got the message........BLJHB.

 

[Billh50]

There are many different machines that were made by the same companies but have different names on them. It is like that for many different products also.

 

[47convertible]

Geez, where did all those photos come from. I thought I fixed that post. Apologies to everyone. Mea culpa, mea culpa.
Jerry