Restoring a drillpress

[1-800miner]

I never posted pictures of the projects I have done because 1. I was too lazy to figure out how to post pictures and 2.Most of my work is rough around the edges, never did much care about spit and polish. Get it built and put it to work, worry about the paint later.

This is an Aurora drill press around a hundred years old. I bought it, sprayed some wd40 on it to free the sticky parts and put it to work.
I dug it out of the burnt shop today. It is the only machine that remotely survived.

I am staring this thread because I want the machine to get rebuilt and drill holes for another hundred years.
All the Babbitt has melted out, so I need a tutorial on pouring bearings.

All the moving parts are relatively free. The quill shaft and the power feed shaft are bent when the roof collapsed on them. I am hoping that they are simple keyed shafting. I can see the entire power feed shaft. It has a pinion gear pinned to the end of the shaft. So I am ok there.

I have to get the quill shaft out to see how the drill end is configured.

I had a 1 1/2h.p. motor on it and it would drill a 1 1/2" hole through inch plate without grunting.

So friends, I have a project. Tell me about Babbitt and tell me what to look for as I tear it down.
Sandblasting and painting are in order. I know you are going to tell me to paint it gray.
I am thinking red with black pin striping or black with gold pin striping.

When I am done I want to tow it in the Christmas parade. I will keep in touch.

The corrugated tin on top...part of the shop roof that didn't want to come off.

[v860rich]

Good for you and good luck with your restoration.
You might try Keith Fenners YT channel as I seem to remember he poured a few different Babbitt bearings.

THANX RICH

[BCRider]

That looks surprisingly like the one that Keith has.

I only recall my father pouring a babbit shaft guide for a machine. It wasn't a rotating bearing. Instead it was a hexagonal guide rod. I do recall that he sealed off the base of the casting that was to hold the bearing with what he called "elephant ****". It was a black putty that apparently doesn't melt or degrade from the temperature of the babbit. I seem to recall that it was commonly used by the old cast iron and threaded steep pipe plumbers of old.

The hex shaft was supported accurately in place and both the outer casting and the hex shaft were heated up with a propane torch so the babbit wouldn't flash freeze against the cold metal. When hot enough that it would almost melt the babbit the pour was done using an old plumber's lead melting pot to melt the babbit.

After the pour had cooled the fun of removing the hex bar began.It was driven out with a lead hammer. These days a dead blow would do the job nicely. Once out he used some sort of scraper to shave off a couple of thou off each of the 6 faces and carefully test fitted the shaft a number of times until he got it right. When it was still snug he pushed it back and forth a few times then hit the side lightly with some taps of the hammer to bump down the few high spots that were preventing smooth movement. that did the job and it worked well until the machine was sold or traded off a few years later.

It's odd that after all these years I recall that one job so clearly while lots of other stuff was just taken for granted. I guess I found it to be something new and special at the time. Hell, I don't even recall what the machine was used for. It wasn't something that I ever recall seeing running during my visits to the shop when I was a kid.

[1-800miner]

I have helped do big bearings on ball mills and crushers.
We mixed flour, salt, and, maybe backing powder to make a doughy dam to hold the Babbitt and make the grease grooves around the shaft.
Smells like home made bread when the Babbitt hits it.
Used an acetylene torch to soot the shaft.

The upper shaft support has removable caps. that will be straight forward.
The lower shaft support is a unit. I don't know how to go about that.

I had a few pounds of Babbitt in the shop, sitting right beside a few pounds of Cerro alloy.
I imagine it all melted together, Wonder what kind of alloy it is now.

[J Tiers]

As for general restoration.... the motor is scrap, as I assume you already know.

If the spindle itself is bent, that's a problem. It almost certainly has an MT socket. But it is more likely that just the top drive shaft to the spindle is bent. Could be keyed, could be splined. The very old small drillpress I have is keyed, so you may be in luck there.

I think it is a possible restoration. Stuff like it has been fixed after being on a sunk ship that was raised, for instance. And a lot of factory tools were restored to use after bombing and fire damage in WWII.

[flylo]

Good for you! Lot's of youtube on it. Hear's one, in 12 minutes you'll know how to pour babbit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZh2VZbqQiI

[lynnl]

I have a couple of questions about that babbitt video:

1) There appeared to be some voids in the middle of at least one of the halves; does that not matter much?

2) The scraping: I assumed he was scraping away flash from the pour. Then why was he repeatedly needing to test the rotation of the shaft?

[vpt]

Nice drill press! I guess all the camel backs of that era looked nearly identical. Looks very much like the 1909 Barnes drill press I rebuilt years ago but bigger. I ended up selling it just last year to a guy that has a personal collection of lineshaft machines.

I will be watching the rebuild. I didn't have to pour babbit with mine so no help there. But I did replace the thrust bearings in the spindle of mine which I found on ebay.

[flylo]

I have a couple of questions about that babbitt video:

1) There appeared to be some voids in the middle of at least one of the halves; does that not matter much?

2) The scraping: I assumed he was scraping away flash from the pour. Then why was he repeatedly needing to test the rotation of the shaft?

I've never done it but I'm not sure if it was voids or maybe just a different color from being colder as when done I didn't dee any voids & I think he was scraping the flash off the overflow.

[Rosco-P]

I have a couple of questions about that babbitt video:

1) There appeared to be some voids in the middle of at least one of the halves; does that not matter much?

2) The scraping: I assumed he was scraping away flash from the pour. Then why was he repeatedly needing to test the rotation of the shaft?

Babbitt bearing are scraped-in to fit the shaft that is run in them, so you have good contact all around. A running (not the right word) fit. A groove will also be cut in to the bearing for lubrication.

[1-800miner]

Any one have a good witches brew to soak burnt tools?
I have a stock trough around 200 gallons. I am throwing the lathe chucks, drill chucks, anything with moving parts into it.
I will let the stuff soak until I can get to them.

[fixerdave]

Any one have a good witches brew to soak burnt tools?
I have a stock trough around 200 gallons. I am throwing the lathe chucks, drill chucks, anything with moving parts into it.
I will let the stuff soak until I can get to them.

Diesel is probably the easiest. I knew of one guy that soaked a seized mc crank (with bearings) in it for months... just kept checking it until it spun.

[lynnl]

Babbitt bearing are scraped-in to fit the shaft that is run in them, so you have good contact all around. A running (not the right word) fit. A groove will also be cut in to the bearing for lubrication.

But in the video he poured the babbitt into the two halves of the "mould" with the shaft in place. I'd think that would give as good of a fit, and close contact, as possible.

All of the scraping was at the periphery.

[J Tiers]

But in the video he poured the babbitt into the two halves of the "mould" with the shaft in place. I'd think that would give as good of a fit, and close contact, as possible.

All of the scraping was at the periphery.

Where the halves join, they may not join tightly, if the caps have shims between them and the base casting half, as is normal. Common to scrape a little slope on the edge so it does not present a 90 deg edge to the oil, which might remove oil from the shaft. The slope scoops in oil. Some say it might pull in dirt, but it surely does help the oil stay on the shaft.

It's possible that the pour mentioned didn't fill all the way, so there was a void. That could be what was commented on above somewhere. Some pour it with an undersize shaft in place, and bore to size, finishing with scraping. That avoids most issues with voids.

Any void may allow oil to escape, and prevent the oil wedge from building up, if it leads to the edge of the bearing. The gap where the shims go also does that, which is why some engines have the caps on a slant.

In the case of this drill press, it might be good to survey the journals and see if any are pitted from the fire. That's going to potentially affect how big the bearings are, depending on how bad the pits are (if any).

[alcova]

I have some books that are Machinists stories from jobs they did in late 1800's to early 1900's and sometimes they got voids in the babbet and if they were small ones they would call them oil reservoirs... they would hold extra oil for running