I have been rebuilding a 1963 Rockwell/Delta 11-100 drill press. The drill press was a crusty rusty mess but I have just about finished the drill press. I built a drill press stand and it will have 6 drawers. The drawer fronts are all cut out and need finish sanding and finishing. The top drawer I carved on my Shapeoko 3 XXL with the HDZ. I might paint the r in the Rockwell logo but might just leave it alone. This is just a piece of shop furniture I am going to give to my Grandson.
I am almost done and will deliver it to my Grandson on Saturday.
Since this is a shop utility project I was going to edge band plywood but had a bunch of Rosewood so I decided to make it look pretty.
The drill press top was formica laminated to two pieces of maple plywood. I cut the grooves for the top t-track with the Shapeoko.
I also cut a groove in the bottom of the table to use toggle clamps to secure the top to the cast iron table. The side edges of the cast iron table have two flat spots that make it perfect to secure the top to the drill press.
I had cut the off center pocket with the pocket and cut some inserts to go in the pocket. There is a .5" offset hole to help remove the insert and to rotate it to a fresh surface when you drill through too many times.
The Rosewood drawer fronts look fantastic and will look even better when I get them installed.
I will be glad when this project is finished. It has been about 2 months since I started by disassembling the rusty drill press. I sand blasted the parts and used Evaporust on the screws, nuts and bolts and polished everything up. I bought the Sherwin Williams Delta original color and spray painted them. I sprayed the stand with the same paint. I made the drawer boxes with pocket screws and bought over extension drawer slides from Amazon. I love starting projects and am tired of them by the finish. However I try to always finish what I started. Just be glad to have this out of the shop and delivered to my Grandson.
I am going to Houston on Saturday and going to see Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on Sunday and return home on Monday. Back to other projects.
The only thing I dont like is the position of the on/off switch. The original drill press had no on/off switch and the operator was supposed to supply it. I bought a magnetic on/off switch and mounted it on the left side. Many times you are using your right hand to hold something and it is low enough my Grandson can hit the off paddle with his knee or hip if required. If he does not like the position he can change it anywhere he wants.
The drill press proper is all original parts. I did replace the motor with a modern motor and a link belt for smooth operation. The table was added on top of the original table. Glad this one is in the bank.
Anyone interested I created a build document to give to my Grandson. It documents the steps it took to rebuild this rusty crusty new looking drill press.
The pdf is too big for the forum but here is a link to google drive if you want to see it.
