Arboga rebuild

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  • Doc Nickel
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2003
    • 5773

    Arboga rebuild

    A month or so ago, I gloated about my $150 Arboga gear-head drill press. Time, as always, has been against me, but I've managed to sneak in a few minutes here and there to fix of paint this or that part.

    One of the worst issues with the drill was this section that got chipped out:



    It's the boss where the clockspring went, which got broken out when the drill fell over. Fortunately, it fractured at a setscrew hole, which limited the damage. I could have left it alone and just redrilled a new setscrew hole to one side, but I decided I'd risk welding it up.

    I picked up some more "Muggyweld" rod, which worked reasonably well on my old Rockford drill, and cut and ground a chunk of filler from one of the Arboga's switchbox fragments.

    The welding was uneventful, as was the crack at the front of the casting (which I think predated the fallover) that you can see just to the extreme right edge of the photo.

    After welding, which was kind of tricky due to the pressed-in-place motor windings (the motor housing is part and parcel of the head casting) I set it up on the mill and rebored the hole:





    Not a huge project, but if nothing else, I'm glad to be finally making some progress on it.

    Doc.
    Doc's Machine. (Probably not what you expect.)
  • Black_Moons
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2009
    • 9096

    #2
    Nice repair. I allways love repairs that put something 100% back into shape, with 100% strength. Just paint it, and it will be like it never happened.
    Play Brutal Nature, Black Moons free to play highly realistic voxel sandbox game.

    Comment

    • lazlo
      Senior Member
      • Jun 2006
      • 15631

      #3
      Nice job Doc!

      What is Muggyweld? I was guessing it was NiRod, but I quick peek at their web page claims it's a proprietary alloy. I'm guessing it's pretty expensive...
      "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."

      Comment

      • wierdscience
        Senior Member
        • Jan 2003
        • 22086

        #4
        Nice job Doc,sucessful cast iron repair is an artform of it's own.
        I just need one more tool,just one!

        Comment


        • #5
          Good looking repair. You'll have a very nice DP when you're finished.

          Comment

          • Doc Nickel
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2003
            • 5773

            #6
            Originally posted by lazlo
            What is Muggyweld? I was guessing it was NiRod, but I quick peek at their web page claims it's a proprietary alloy. I'm guessing it's pretty expensive...
            -It's very expensive. I bought half a pound, which I think was what, seven rods? And with shipping it was something like $63, which is right at $9 a rod.

            But, it seems to do what it says it can do. I welded up a big hole in the column of my Rockford camelback drill with it- though I have yet to finish that project, the welding went okay.

            It's not a miracle rod, but it sure seems to make cast iron a lot less troublesome, so I plan to keep some on hand.

            The front quill-clamping flange crack I wasn't able to get full penetration on, in part because I didn't want to get burn through into the finished quill bore. So I'm not sure I trust it to not crack again if I use the clamp, so I probably won't if I don't absolutely have to.

            The weld IS softer than the base iron, too, which makes it tricky if you're drilling and tapping right on a weld junction. Just an FYI.

            Doc.
            Doc's Machine. (Probably not what you expect.)

            Comment

            • JCHannum
              Senior Member
              • Nov 2001
              • 10091

              #7
              While it is always best to do a proper repair and a nice job was done, what is the advantage of the very expensive Muggy weld over brazing?
              Jim H.

              Comment

              • Evan
                Senior Member
                • May 2003
                • 41977

                #8
                Excellent drill press. I recommend that you clean the motor windings with hot soapy water and then let them dry for a few days. Then soak them in some spray on insulating varnish and let that dry a couple of days. You should be able to pick some up at a rewind shop. The other thing to check is the detents for the shifting levers. They wear and under load will slip out of gear.

                I completely overhauled my Strands which is the same as the Arboga. The later models have a rectangular table. They are worth about $3500 to buy new.

                Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

                Comment

                • macona
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2006
                  • 9425

                  #9
                  I have one of the Taiwan copies and its pretty good as well. Gave it to my dad. No room for me.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Doc,

                    Tell ya what. I'll save you from having to do all that repair work and swap you even for my HF 16 speed floor mounted DP. Sounds like a good deal to me.

                    Stan

                    Comment

                    • Black Forest
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2010
                      • 8984

                      #11
                      Evan, I have that same drill press. Mine has a rotating round table. Does yours rotate also? For a light duty drill press it is not bad. The only thing on mine that doesn't work is the light under the head.
                      Location: The Black Forest in Germany

                      How to become a millionaire: Start out with 10 million and take up machining as a hobby!

                      Comment

                      • Doc Nickel
                        Senior Member
                        • Mar 2003
                        • 5773

                        #12
                        This one came with a surprisingly substantial X-Y mill style table. Which will be very useful since I tend to keep defaulting to the vertical mill for drilling- despite the fact that I had four other drill presses prior to this one- because typically when I need a hole, it needs to be at least semi-precisely located.

                        Doc.
                        Doc's Machine. (Probably not what you expect.)

                        Comment

                        • CountZero
                          Senior Member
                          • Mar 2009
                          • 193

                          #13
                          Is it the "universal drilling/milling" version with the threaded spindle nose?

                          Comment

                          • Evan
                            Senior Member
                            • May 2003
                            • 41977

                            #14
                            Does yours rotate also?
                            Yes it does, a very nice feature and it locks very solidly with just a short throw of the lever underneath. The head can also be racked up and down as well as the table. The head can also be turned all the way around giving about four feet of daylight under the spindle.

                            Mine is about 60 years old but there is very little difference in the design for later models.
                            Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

                            Comment

                            • Doc Nickel
                              Senior Member
                              • Mar 2003
                              • 5773

                              #15
                              Originally posted by CountZero
                              Is it the "universal drilling/milling" version with the threaded spindle nose?
                              -No, it's not their mill-drill. The table mounts to the usual round or square-table arm with a central shaft/pin. It IS an Arboga table though, either refitted later, or maybe special-ordered by a shop that needed more precise positioning.

                              Doc.
                              Doc's Machine. (Probably not what you expect.)

                              Comment

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