Thread: New camelback junior!

I just had to share this incredible find. I bought it over the weekend and waiting on the truck to arrive for delivery









This should make an excellent addition to my bladesmithing shop!

Now THAT is a little beauty !
To find an intact line shaft model of a Junior , complete down to the belt shifter , is truly remarkable !

Tom ........... a motorized Junior owner , and VERY envious !

Yes, that's a beauty! It's rare to see a Junior in complete, original condition. That one is an early one, probably made prior to 1925. We've tried, on this forum, to come up with a timeline on the early Buffalo Forge drill presses, but haven't been able to come up with much. As far as I know, the Junior was introduced sometime around 1910-1920 and made up into the 1940's.

My Junior is a late one. It has the motor mount base and V-belt pulleys on the spindle. I think that was the last version that they made? And I believe that the Juniors were only made in the one size.

Shop hell! Put that in the living room. Or it would make a great center piece on any dinning table.
have fun
i_r_

When I get it I will take some serious detail photo's, by serious detail I mean macro lens.

I was able to find one site with an ad showing 1922 on the date and I have been looking for the patent as well but no luck on that either.

Ed

Thats a sweet little drill press! great find!

Several such - probably acquired in the 1920's and 1930's - were still in-use at E.A.Myers/Radioear, Canonsburg, PA in the 1960's, converted to local motor drive. FNG replaced them with - IIRC - more modern Hamilton 'sensitive' models.

ISTR the most significant weak link was the rod supporting the table and its clamp, which tended to wear and lose precision of alignment to the quill axis. Should be easy enough to correct that IF it is a factor at all.

Bill

Oh before i forget, where exactly is the oil points on this?

There's a threaded plug , on top "corner" of the spindle pulley - It looks like a set screw .Take it out to oil the pulley .
The spindle is just oiled by dripping a little on it , where it passes through the top of the pulley . Also put a couple drops in the ball thrust bearing at the bottom .
The quill just runs in a plain cast iron bore . If you take the belt off , you can just lift the pulley off , and put a little oil on it there .
A drop on the belt shifter arm pivot , a drop or 2 on the idler shaft , and the same for the flat belt pulleys at the rear - There may be oil holes in the pulleys for this .

That's about it - not much to it

Here's a picture of mine - One of the later , motorized ones . Exactly the same , except for the base and motor , instead of flat belt stuff :



These are really cool little drills , and you're lucky to have found such a pristine one - The usual finds are generally MUCH rougher and/or incomplete .

Tom

Recently turned one down..... probably got scrapped.... they wanted 30 bucks, and I didn't want a project. Quill was really wallered out.

Originally Posted by i_r_machinist

Shop hell! Put that in the living room. Or it would make a great center piece on any dinning table.
have fun
i_r_

I was thinking the bedroom.
On the nightstand, right next to the bed.
C'MON MAN

Ok several things.

First the type of oil, I am assuming since it's open and not a sealed unit then to use lube and not oil, so question is what type of lube does everyone use?

Second I was browsing the patent office files and it looks like there is no patent on this model. I did see several similar designs, the other option is covered under several patents and i have not looked there yet.

Motor speed is what? The only reference I saw was in an ad that stated 550 RPM but I think going variable speed might be a better option.

Here's mine, with the 3-speed V-belt pulley. I first wondered if someone had adapted the V-belt on there, but no, it's all integrally machined with the splines and bearing retainer. And somewhere I've since seen a picture of another one with the whole V-belt rig. It's essentially the same setup as Tom's, but with V-belt pulleys and 3-speeds.

I need to make up a replica of the idler arm and pulleys. Other than that, it's in pretty good shape. I've got a nice little old motor set aside for it. I also have a smaller, more vintage chuck. I plan to set it up to be a permanent spotting drill.

http://xstrange.com/Machinery/Buffalo%20Jr%201.jpg
http://xstrange.com/Machinery/Buffalo%20Jr%202.jpg

I just use oil for the spindle - Use something with a little body , like medium way oil or bar & chain oil .

The drill has 2 speeds built in , but I guess , if you were going to use a motor to power it , I guess you could use a multi-speed pulley on it . I wouldn't bother , if it was me .
The motor version uses a 1725 rpm motor & obviously is direct drive . At least , that's the motor I have .

I wouldn't try to get too much speed out of it - The spindle just runs in plain iron bores in the quill . NOT a high speed set up - Pretty primitive , actually .
In fact , if there's much play at the spindle , you'll need to think about some machine work , to press some bronze sleeve bearings into the quill .
If you want/need accuracy , that is .

Tom

Update! ETA is the 10th Has a good 1,000 miles to travel.

Bruce, that is a nice one you have there.

Also on the units that tom and bruce posted I noticed there's a missing section below the table on the left compared to mine that is. Am guessing that's for the motor belt?

Do you mean the belt shifter ?
The sliding rod and casting assembly , on the base of the column , is for shifting the line shaft flat belt from the tight to loose pulley .
On the motor drive ones , it was replaced with an electrical switch - You can see the switch (shiny brass) on the base of mine .

That's what is so amazing to me about yours - It's totally complete - As if it were just unhooked from the line shaft and unbolted from the bench :~)

Tom

Ok she arrived today! wohoo

Now I was going over real good and found this one screw hole with nothing in there. was curious what it is for?

Ok here we go!





down to the nitty gritty.

is she square?


I have to say she has class and style


bearings is tight, shaft is tight.

If I had to guess I would have to say this is original. I am not sure of the date but it's old.




Now I was NOT expecting this find. Is this the original one??



This is the chuck, the only thing I can see with a date code on it. 1902.


Here we can clearly see where it appears to have a dimple stop pin and that's not engaging, I suspect it's gummed up.


This is the dimple itself.

I sure do wish modern crap had this much style, class and fines about it, it just kills me to see the flimsy, thin, weak, horrible setup that many tools today have. It is as if they WANT you to break them.


This little number just screams bring it on!

Pulleys look quite good, the very last one is free spin, the shifter works quite good to, smooth and good motion.