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Picked up a cute little camelback

rusty old tools

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Location
Pomona CA USA
Picked this up over the weekend from another member here, initially I thought that it would be a quick and easy fix up and put in to service, the table didn't have any holes that I spotted, but I got a little supprise when I got it home, this drill had seen the most extreme arc of shame and the table had been once broken in two! Then someone came in with nickel rod and attempted a repair only to fail and go back to good ol brazing rod, the results are pictured. The table is no longer flat, and the repair is quite ugly, so now I'm looking in to options, I do not own a welder of any sort nor do I have experience, and I'd rather not have braze on this bare metal surface. Right now I'm considering grinding out all the nickel and braze and finding a good shop that can weld it up with cast iron filler, I can then grind it true, another option would be to have another casting made, which I could machine and grind. Everything else should be repairable with relative ease, a new cord on the motor and the spindle needs rebuilt, there doesn't seem to have been a switch mounted anywhere that I can find so I'll need to add one somehow, maybe mounted to the bench, I know a few of you have these drills, what do you have for a switch on yours? Other than the aforementioned issues the drill is complete and I'm quite happy to have acquired it, it will make a nice companion for my little canedy Otto that I've got on my bench currently. image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 
you should know better, as soon as you find yourself thinking "quick and easy fix", all sorts of alarms, bells and whistles should start going off! :D (not judging, just bitter experience..)

P.S., if you are not too concerned with "authenticity", consider finding another table of about the right size, and shim/bolt/graft it on to the top of this monstrosity. no welding, grinding, or milling..?
 
I have a camel back that also has a table that has a very hard life. It's not broken but has so many holes drilled into it that it looks like swiss cheese. It has too much damage to drill and plug with cast iron plugs

I've been considering taking the original table, filling all the holes with bondo or some other hard putty, planing it all flat and trying to use it as a pattern for casting a new one.

I have no idea how much that will cost or if I can find a foundry around Houston that is economical... But that is my plan ;)
 
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I have no idea how much that will cost or if I can find a foundry around Houston that is economical... But that is my plan ;)

Steve, there's a small foundry down here in Victoria that does cast iron as well as some other metals. He might be a little on the high size, but I bet he will work with you. I've been thinking of getting him to do some straight edge castings for me some day. He also has a oven for stress relieving, too. Ken
 
Steve, there's a small foundry down here in Victoria that does cast iron as well as some other metals. He might be a little on the high size, but I bet he will work with you. I've been thinking of getting him to do some straight edge castings for me some day. He also has a oven for stress relieving, too. Ken

In about 4 weeks there will be a heat treating oven sitting in the shop :) Large enough to do up to 48" castings.
 
If the table has the material in it, and the brazing is at least holding it together, even if ugly............... then maybe put it on a suitable mill or lathe and face it down flat. A bumpy table is no fun. But they usually have extra material, and/or large ribs, so the exact thickness of the surface is not necessarily an issue.

My old Clausing 1800 has an arc, but the table has deep ribs under it.
 
The goal is to keep it as original as possible, it's wearing it's original paint and I intend to keep it, the table will need painted though after the repair however I will try to match the look the best I can, I will polish the bright work up, there aren't too many of these around that are un-f**ked with, the only issues being some dirt, a worn spindle and of course the table, I bet the Motor is perfectly fine with a bit of cleanup and some oil, but we'll see. I was told this came from a local shop that is still around and still running Lineshaft equipment, perhaps I will call them and see if I can get some info on this machine, I believe they may have been the original purchaser
 
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I've been considering taking the original table, filling all the holes with bondo or some other hard putty, planing it all flat and trying to use it as a pattern for casting a new one.

rusty - I went this route on a HS Hammer DP I got recently. Used the 2-part epoxy grey putty that you knead manually to mix. Worked well. If you can do the planing flat afterwards, and can get the table top normal to the spindle axis, you might decide that the repaired table is more in keeping with having the machine be what you describe as "as original as possible" than fitting it with a new table.

By the way, your photographs show the machine bolted to the ceiling. Interesting. Hadn't thought of that.

-Marty-
 
This worked for my Walker-Turner drill press which had a severe arc of shame problem. Looks good, works well and preserves what's left of the original.



George
 
This worked for my Walker-Turner drill press which had a severe arc of shame problem. Looks good, works well and preserves what's left of the original.

Excellent solution to an all-too-common problem.

If you had installed the screws from the bottom into blind holes and bondoed around the edge, you wouldn't even know it was there.

Steve
 
Excellent solution to an all-too-common problem.

If you had installed the screws from the bottom into blind holes and bondoed around the edge, you wouldn't even know it was there.

Steve

You could even bond it with aluminum-filled epoxy: no screws anywhere, 100% contact and the epoxy color would blend perfectly with the cast iron.
Going this route, you don't even need to be extra careful in planing/milling it perfectly flat, since the epoxy would fill the gap.

Paolo
 
This worked for my Walker-Turner drill press which had a severe arc of shame problem. Looks good, works well and preserves what's left of the original.



George

You know the old expression: "Great Georges think alike"........a piece of plate is the most logical repair and keeps at least some of the originality.

The "other" George
 
I dunno about others, but "useful" outweighs "original" to me.

I see a properly done repair as a normal part of a machine. A complete kludge is a different matter, of course. I'm not running a museum.
 
I dunno about others, but "useful" outweighs "original" to me.

I see a properly done repair as a normal part of a machine. A complete kludge is a different matter, of course. I'm not running a museum.

I'm mostly in this camp right now... Machine hast to earn its keep. In a few years I'll probably switch camps and give all the machines a face lift and repair them to original condition if possible... Just have to have the free time..
 
Agree I would put a 1/4 to 1/2" steel plate on top screws from under (or top) paint the sides and done.
My camel back has the rectangle table .. likely sell it soon to make room for my Atlas.
camera down but will post some photos when i get camera running.
 
Funny, when I rescued a nearly dead HS Hammer drilling machine it never occurred to me to fix/fill to divots and holes in the table. It's originality was already lost, not my 'arc of shame'and the hole in the center is kind of convenient.
 
Here's the arc on the Atlas-Clausing in my personal shop. Looks worse than it is, most are just divots, and the table is thick, with large ribs underneath,so it is in no particular danger.



 
Well you've all given me something to think about with regards to the table, it's not real thick so I'm not sure I want to just grind it flat, I have some doubts about how well it's actually stuck together too, I'm considering a variation on the plate idea, if I can find a peice of cast iron large enough, perhaps from an old cooking pan, then I think I can braze it on with a charcoal fire, the beauty is it takes care of all my preheat and slow cooling and I will have a solid repair that if it takes will be invisible when I'm done and add the needed thickness to the table. I will set it aside for now and think about it. The column on my canedy Otto is the same diameter so I can move the table over if I absolutely need to drill a hole with it and still haven't fixed the old one, I doubt that will happen though.

I put a cord on the motor today and it gave it a bit of oil, it fired right up and ran nice and quiet, it sat still on the bench without vibrating around, so no issues there, I'll take it apart though and clean it up to make sure there isn't any junk making its way in to the bearings, I just wanted to test that it would run. It has slip rings rather than a commutator, a bit of an unusual arrangement. The brushes looked fine and should last for many more years.image.jpgimage.jpg

The original cord was pretty scary looking image.jpg

As for the upside down photo in the first post, I'm not sure how to fix it, it was upright when I took it and upright when I uploaded it.
 
Here's my cute little camel back, a Barnes friction drive. It too has a wicked arc of shame.

I need to do something with this, all it does is sit around the shop and collect chips from other machines.

P1000964.jpgP1000962.jpg
 








 
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