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I finally finished the restoration of this Walker Turner drill press. I restored this DP for a gentleman as payment for some machines that I got from him. You can read more about that here.

 

In my opinion the 20 inch Walker Turner is one of the best drill presses ever made and I wish it was mine. This one came with the production table, 1 hp 3 phase motor, and power-feed. It was in pretty rough shape when I brought it into the shop ... Ugly blue paint job and lots and lots of rust.

 

It's a floor model but as you can see in this pic I lowered the head so it wasn't so top heavy when transporting it.

Disassembling the DP was a challenge. Everything was heavily rusted. To give you an idea of how bad it was, this is the inside of the gear box for raising and lowering the table. Rusted solid!

I pulled off the motor, powerfeeder and spindle and then I used my old Hercules chain hoist to get the head off the column

I then tried to get the table off, it was rusted solid to the column. It took a couple of weeks of soaking it with Acetone and ATF and lots of heat to finally get it to bust loose.

The base was even worse. No amount of heat, penetrating oil or banging with a BFH was getting the job done. I finally had to make a puller, or I guess you would call it a pusher, out of an old barbell weight and three ½" bolts to push it off. Even then it took about 2 weeks to get it to budge a 1/16 of an inch, but once I got it moving it came off fairly easily.

         

To get the rust and paint off I made an electrolysis tank and used a 30 inch saw blade for the anode.

I put the base in for a couple of days and let it cook ... it got rid of most of the paint and rust.

    

Next I used fine grit sand paper and scotch brite pads to shine it up.

Then I finished removing the rest of the rust and old paint and prepped it for fresh paint.

Three coats of paint and it was looking good as new.

I used the same steps to clean up the head and table.

The powerfeeder wasn't working when I first tried it. I took it apart and found a couple of the clutch discs were in wrong. It was then working but when I cleaned it up I found a couple busted gears. I informed the owner about it and he decided he didn't want it repaired so the powerfeeder didn't get put back on.

The owner doesn't have 3 phase power in his shop so I added a Teco FM50 VFD.

Now the motor will run on single phase 120 v power and the VFD also gives it variable speed which I really like.

So here's some pics of the DP all restored.

    The DP looks and works great .... now I don't want to give it back to it's owner.

 

    Thanks for looking,

 

    Shane

 

Edited November 7, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Shane,

 

Did you replace the missing piece in the base?

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

UNBELIEVABLE!!! For being in such poor shape to start with and then when you finished it, is unreal.

Very Good Job!

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Harry Brink
Bulldog Woodworking
Montana

Along the edge? Nope, someone cut that out for some reason. There's plenty of webbing under there so I left it as it was, just cleaned up the rough cut a little.

Shane,

 

It looks fantastic.

The Cutler-Hammer Art Deco switch looks much better where it's supposed to be.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Amazing job.

Simply amazing as is all you work. Great job.

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

Shane;  You are incredible.

 

Dennis Mitchell

 

 

Buckeye, AZ

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

I am impressed.

Now I suppose you will restore that annode/saw blade to it's former glory too?

Absolute perfection!!

---

Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Shane,

 

As always, a superior restoration!

 

Please talk to us about polishing the base and table.

 

What grit emery cloth?  What color Scotch Brite pads?  Orbital tool or Pad tool?  And, probably the most important question, how long to do the base as an example.  I cannot seem to get to that level of polish and shine.

 

Ray

 

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

What jaw dropping restoration job! Total make over. Excellent.

 

 

---

 

 

Take the first step, it will lead you to the LAST.
www.bandsawblog.com

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

You have some talent sir. One word WOW !

Wow that looks awesome. I can see why you would want to keep it.

 

Awesome work and I love the detail step by step you give. You have sure help me a lot.

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Hey man, that's a fantastic resto, I would have junked it. Wish you were a bit closer, Im in Australia.

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Man oh Man.. I found this site because of this thread about your drill press... What an amazing job! I have the Walker Turner 1100 Drill Press, about ten years older.  I recently "upgraded" the motor mount to the later model like yours, with the quick belt release.

 

My Table elevator looked exactly the same inside!  Remarkable amount of gunk in there. I don't know how you found this, but the upper bearing retainer, above the spindle pulley, was a BEAR to remove, to change the belt. I had to drill and tap holes in the top of it, and use bolts to draw the retainer up, while muscling it back and forth with a channel locks!  Ugh!

 

 

Mine was repainted a green color by a high school.  I cannot WAIT to repaint it a nice gray, but can't justify the time on it yet, working so perfectly, until I get my shop more cleaned up from a move!!

 

 

Thanks for posting all the pics too! 

 

 

 

Bernie

 

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Amazing job on the DP. Those are one of the dest made in my opinion. You did a super job and I don't blame you for not wanting to return it. Thanks for sharing.

Outstanding!!!

 

Looks like new. One heck of a job and machine.

 

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Incredible!!!

Edited November 3, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

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Edited November 7, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk