not suzuki related, ID of an old drill press

[bighole]

DSCF0139.2.jpg

Recently acquired this old, leather flat belt-driven drill press. All I know is that it came from the University of Michigan's machine shop. The thing is huge, about 6' tall. It was frozen solid but being used to working on old bikes, had everything loosened and lubed in no time. The motor was shot, so replaced it with one I had lying around. Only problem is, the motor is a left hand turn, regardless of how the electric is hooked up. I may get another motor but am thinking of just selling it. Can anyone shed some light on the manufacturer? I dont recall seeing any markings on it.

-John

[H2RICK]

John, I'm certainly no expert on stuff like that but I've been around machine shops forever, it seems, and kinda remember a drill press (or pillar drill as our Brit friends call 'em) like that when I was VERY young.
It was old at that time so I'm thinking pre WWII time frame....maybe the '20's. The flat belt drive is the tipoff. That setup was used in production shops where they had a line shaft driving many drills, grinders, etc and the flat belt was used universally in that situation to drive each of them. The line shaft arrangement fell out of favour in North America after the war because of new workplace safety legislation in many jurisdictions. The Brits (Triumph for one), however, continued using the line shaft arrangement in many of their factories well into the 60's. Their industries just did not have the capital to invest in new equipment as quickly as they'd probably have liked.
Many of those old presses in North America were converted to individual motor drive because the presses themselves were built to last and no one likes to just toss something that's still serviceable.
Most of those types of presses filtered down from larger factories to smaller shops as the big guys upgraded to more modern equipment and I'll bet this one was donated to the university probably sometime in the 50's.
I'm sure if you look carefully with a strong light you'll find a makers plate rivetted to the frame somewhere.....under 6 or 8 coats of paint....and grease/grime as well. Let us know if you can identify the maker. From the looks of it, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it's close to 80 years old or so and MIGHT even be a Brit product.

[bighole]

Rick,
Thank you very much for the info. Next time I'm out in the shop I will check a little closer for an ID badge of some type. It is a monster, but also very accurate.
I remember seeing vintage photos of machine shops with the belt set ups like you mentioned and agree that it is very possible this was retrofitted with an electric motor.
-John

[mnellis]

I haven't seen one of those in many years but if I recall the style was a "CamelBack" drill press. There were quite a few mfg. of those things and most were used, as was mentioned, in manufacturing with overhead belt drives. Yours is interesting since it has the angled drive shaft coming from the ground. It doesn't look like it has power feed on it as well but I can't tell for sure from the view shown. Do you have a picture of the other side?

The model you have is probably from the early 20's or so. You got a nice piece of american history from the late part of the 2nd Industrial Revolution.

[bighole]

I have been doing a little more research as this vintage stuff (not just bikes) piques my curiosity. I love knowing the history and stories behind the machines we dig out of the cobwebs...
Mike, you are partially right. Many of these presses were a "camelback" style where the drive motor was originally mounted from the manufacturer. However, looking closer, it is obvious that the motor on this one was added much later. The mounting brackets are home made from channel steel and fitted to the frame. This means that as Rick stated, the original placement of this machine had it on an external power, or shared drive belt so it was not originally designed as a stand alone unit.
I went over it with a fine toothed comb and there are no markings what so ever, although I did find a space that looked to have a builders tag placed there at one time.
How it works- If you follow the belt from the motor to the floor it spins a horizontal driveshaft. On the other end of that shft is a wheel that rubs against the cone(seen behind the caging at the bottom of the angled driveshaft). You'll notice a handle rising vertically from the base, seen just ahead of the belt. That handle acts as a clutch, moving it adjusts the wheels position against the cone changing the speed and torque of the drill head. Kinda cool!

-John

[Suzukidave]

Hi John , unless you already have one you might think of turning that into a light weight milling machine . You would be surprised how often a milling machine comes in handy once you have one around