Heavy drill presses you like using?

[michiganbuck]

I have a Buffalo 22 which has done a nice job in my farm shop. It weighs less than a ton, has a nice range of speeds and the powerfeed is really helpful when drilling larger holes. I picked mine up for $250.00 a few years ago.

Here is a link which has pictures and specs - VintageMachinery.org - Photo Index - Buffalo Forge Co. - Buffalo Forge #22 Drill Press

I didn't own it but used a modern buffalo and think that one of the best I have used. It may be coming up for sale as the owner is retired. It is located just south of Lansing Mi. No I don't want to ask because the owner now incapasated likely does wish to sell it but the sons are looking to clear the shop.

 

[j king]

Use to see a few of these at HGR in cleveland.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

have you gotten one yet???
I have a carlton and I have not ran it. but you can tell a lot from the way it's put together.
I took the head off arm, arm off column and column off base to get it home. its solid!!! I have a Dayton drill and i love it but i cant wait to run this thing. the feel to it, the ergonomics are on point!
i never understood why many other makers have the arm taper/reinforcement on the bottom?? i can only imagine it preventing you from lowering all the way down with a hole near the column.
the spindle is counter-balanced.
head rides smooth on the arm, to the point i can push the head without using the handwheel!!! it rides on bearings then is clamped slightly upward. again im new to metal work and never ran a radial but i could see a small(3/4") bit centering the head with everything unclamped.
what else.....
micro feed
you can pass electricity and coolant through the column, so have a neat setup.
it has a auto reverse for tapping
coolant reservoir in the base
4mt, seems small to me
12" of spindle travel
carltons heads are HEAVY, id guess mine is 600lbs. and they market "low hung gears". where the last gear transmitting to the spindle is as low as possible. so its not way at the top of the spindle and twisting the further you feed. now i cant attest to the benefit of such feature but makes sense.
2" spindle btw

id be lying if i didn't disclose to you the negatives im aware of;
no second keyhole in the spindle to hold tools UP
only 4 feeds, does have 12 speeds though
heavy 6000 and big, 9ft tall with head up(positive in my book)

Has it got a " Jet-Brake " ? Things may be different in the USA but over here in the UK it's mandatory to have one on a radial arm drill. I personally wouldn't run a radial arm drill without one. It could be the difference between getting hurt and getting killed.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[Mike C.]

Nope, we don't have those here. Just one of those Darwinian devices that thins the herd of careless machinists. Everybody in every shop I have worked in is terrified of the radial drills... and that's probably a good thing. A radial drill is certainly no more dangerous than an lathe or large milling machine as far as injuring or killing somebody. Everybody I train to use one is taught that you don't even put a drill in the spindle until the work is firmly fastened and you have selected the proper speed and feed rate. Only then do you put the drill in and line up the hole. I find the most dangerous thing to deal with is stringy stainless swarf slinging around because it won't break into a chip. Just stop, remove it from the drill, and start again.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Nope, we don't have those here. Just one of those Darwinian devices that thins the herd of careless machinists. Everybody in every shop I have worked in is terrified of the radial drills... and that's probably a good thing. A radial drill is certainly no more dangerous than an lathe or large milling machine as far as injuring or killing somebody. Everybody I train to use one is taught that you don't even put a drill in the spindle until the work is firmly fastened and you have selected the proper speed and feed rate. Only then do you put the drill in and line up the hole. I find the most dangerous thing to deal with is stringy stainless swarf slinging around because it won't break into a chip. Just stop, remove it from the drill, and start again.

Hi Mike, I agree a Radial Arm Drill probably isn't a lot more dangerous than a big Lathe or a Mill. It's just probably the easiest to fit a " Jet-Brake " to. Regarding the long, curly chips I used to cut the automatic feed momentarily to break them off. This was relatively easy to do on the " Asquith " drills. The machine I disliked being around the most was the Vertical Boring Machine. That big chuck flying around right in front of me always gave me the creeps.

Regards Tyrone

 

[paracongo308]

I always liked any of the 5 Cincinnati Bickfords we had in the die shop like the one in the lower center photo. If you needed to drill up to a 4.5 inch hole these would easily handle it. They had 2 tables 90 degrees apart so you could straddle a 25-30 foot long job on them.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I always liked any of the 5 Cincinnati Bickfords we had in the die shop like the one in the lower center photo. If you needed to drill up to a 4.5 inch hole these would easily handle it. They had 2 tables 90 degrees apart so you could straddle a 25-30 foot long job on them.View attachment 184055

Some great photos there. Reminds me of some the shops I worked in over here. Especially that very nice lay out machine, was it a " Portage " ?

Regards Tyrone.

 

[Mike C.]

That's the big brother of the machine I run at work. Note, not a Cincinnati Bickford, but a G&L Bickford (you can see the G&L logo on the part of the arm that wraps around the column). The one I run is a comparatively wimpy little 9" column, 4ft arm, 5hp machine, but still a hell of a lot better than a 1hp chinese floor mount drill press. It has a T base. I have a table on the vertical of the T, leaving one side open for large motor housings and such to be bolted directly to the base. The other side is unused, but I always wanted a big rotary table for making up fast pipe flanges.

Tyrone, sitting right beside this drill press is our W&B VBM. Yes, that whizzing table is a bit intimidating, but usually not as intimidating as having to swing those big parts in the old B&B center lathe like I used to have to do. I always approach from the front of the machine if I have to lean in and observe, instead of doing it at the operator's position. My thinking is that, if it happens to hit me or grab me, maybe I'll be thrown over towards the radial drill instead of being thrown between the chuck and column.

 

[Hobby Shop]

We have a couple of these big ones and 15 or so smaller 8'ers.
They had one the same size at the last place too.

I had to drill some 4" clearance holes in some boiler plate risers, 8-10" thick. I always used a 2" pilot drill first, then in with the 4". I've pushed plenty of drills like that before, No problem.
An old fella came up and asked me "why ya screwing around kid". Just drill it with the 4". I was new and laughed, he didn't. The next hole I went in with the 4". It pushed that 4" drill bit through that boiler plate without a problem.

 

[Mike C.]

Oh, I still laugh when one of the welders walks over to the G&L with four drills to punch out 1" holes in 3/4" plate. I just ask them where they want the hole and do it. Spend less time drilling than they would have swapping drills.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

That's the big brother of the machine I run at work. Note, not a Cincinnati Bickford, but a G&L Bickford (you can see the G&L logo on the part of the arm that wraps around the column). The one I run is a comparatively wimpy little 9" column, 4ft arm, 5hp machine, but still a hell of a lot better than a 1hp chinese floor mount drill press. It has a T base. I have a table on the vertical of the T, leaving one side open for large motor housings and such to be bolted directly to the base. The other side is unused, but I always wanted a big rotary table for making up fast pipe flanges.

Tyrone, sitting right beside this drill press is our W&B VBM. Yes, that whizzing table is a bit intimidating, but usually not as intimidating as having to swing those big parts in the old B&B center lathe like I used to have to do. I always approach from the front of the machine if I have to lean in and observe, instead of doing it at the operator's position. My thinking is that, if it happens to hit me or grab me, maybe I'll be thrown over towards the radial drill instead of being thrown between the chuck and column.

Hi Mike, the W&B table edge is a bit too near my nuts for my liking. If I have to lose something I'd prefer it not to be them !

A young guy near me was killed working a bigger W & B than yours a few years back. He'd had a job on the night before which was right on the O/D limit of the machine. First thing the next morning he comes in and does what lots of boring mill guys used to do to clear the table of chips. He switched the table to full speed and let it rip.

One of the slides that the jaws bolt to came of out the chuck with the centrifugal force and dragged the poor guy into the gap between the chuck and the machine column. He didn't have a chance.

In the aftermath all the similar machines in my area were embargoed until adequate safety devices were fitted. Our machines had a strong semi circular cage fitted to them at chuck top height with clam shell doors so you could load the table. In an ideal World they would have been interlocked with the machine's electric motors but that would have been a bit complicated and the Factory Inspector's were happy with what had done.

Be careful out there. Machines are very patient, they'll wait 50 years to kill you.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[Mike C.]

This W&B has a "picket fence" around the outside of the base, slightly above chuck face height to prevent that happening. I think it actually had sheet metal panels and a floor in it at one time, but neither are there, so you essentially have a handrail about a foot outside the chuck. I also don't kick the chuck at full tilt to clear chips. If it builds up a load of chips, I bring a big shop vac over and clear the table. I'm as scared of that thing as a shaper or that big roll grinder we had at the last shop.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

This W&B has a "picket fence" around the outside of the base, slightly above chuck face height to prevent that happening. I think it actually had sheet metal panels and a floor in it at one time, but neither are there, so you essentially have a handrail about a foot outside the chuck. I also don't kick the chuck at full tilt to clear chips. If it builds up a load of chips, I bring a big shop vac over and clear the table. I'm as scared of that thing as a shaper or that big roll grinder we had at the last shop.

Hi Mike, you're wise to be " scared ". A bit of healthy fear is good around
machinery, it stops you getting complacent. That's when accidents happen.

Regards Tyrone

 

[rbdjr59]

I used to run a "rafamet" VTL with a 12-ft. chuck. Maximum speed 41 RPM's. When running at maximum it scared the hell out of me. It seemed like it was fixing to take off and fly into orbit. Those VTL's will hypnotize you. More than once I caught myself leaning into the work as I watched it spin from above. Not only that but the rams will get you too. Once when changing the angle of the ram I forgot to lower it down and it fell so fast I didn't know what happened. All I knew was I was 8-ft. away and the ram was laying on the side head. Close one. Those VTL's will kill you, and fast.

 

[paracongo308]

Some great photos there. Reminds me of some the shops I worked in over here. Especially that very nice lay out machine, was it a " Portage " ?

Regards Tyrone.

Tyrone, I can't remember the name of layout tables, but we had 4 of them this size in our 3 bay 1/4 million Sq Ft die shop. When the die shoes would arrive from the foundries we would white wash them for layout which is just a scratch line on the white wash. They would then be sent down to the many different bar mills where they were machined.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Tyrone, I can't remember the name of layout tables, but we had 4 of them this size in our 3 bay 1/4 million Sq Ft die shop. When the die shoes would arrive from the foundries we would white wash them for layout which is just a scratch line on the white wash. They would then be sent down to the many different bar mills where they were machined.

Hi Paracongo, I worked on marking out for a while so most of that is familiar to me. I always wanted to work on one of those marking out machines. Went to an auction once were there were three up for grabs ( Vickers Tank factory in Leeds ) hoping to buy one for the company I was working at. Some guy bought all three !

Regards Tyrone.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I used to run a "rafamet" VTL with a 12-ft. chuck. Maximum speed 41 RPM's. When running at maximum it scared the hell out of me. It seemed like it was fixing to take off and fly into orbit. Those VTL's will hypnotize you. More than once I caught myself leaning into the work as I watched it spin from above. Not only that but the rams will get you too. Once when changing the angle of the ram I forgot to lower it down and it fell so fast I didn't know what happened. All I knew was I was 8-ft. away and the ram was laying on the side head. Close one. Those VTL's will kill you, and fast.

When I was much younger I was trying to set the gibs on the ram of a W & B vertical mill one time. foolishly I took the gib that holds the ram rack in mesh with the elevating gear completely out ! I didn't realise how small the teeth were on the rack.

The ram and turret shot down like a rocket. Fortunately I wasn't totally stupid and I'd put a big baulk of timber on the chuck just in case. This took the impact of the ram and no harm was done. It shook me up a bit though as I was stood on the chuck at the time !

Regards Tyrone.

 

[43monarch]

I don't know what is required as far as big ,but I use a Winona seat and guide machine for my drill press in the shop. It will go I believe to 2500 rpm and go to very low speeds for tapping.It has an air float table that will index to any angle in two planes and will spot a hole in seconds.

 

[Mike C.]

That Winona seat machine is what was behind my Fosdick radial drill when they tipped it over trying to move it before I got there. Demolished the Winona. Broke the head casting. A friend had won it in a city sealed bid auction for $50. I had $200 in the radial. Neither of us were very hapy, but they did refund his money. I had to take my radial as damaged and repair it.

 

[glenbjackson]

Has it got a " Jet-Brake " ? Things may be different in the USA but over here in the UK it's mandatory to have one on a radial arm drill. I personally wouldn't run a radial arm drill without one. It could be the difference between getting hurt and getting killed.

Regards Tyrone.

No jet brake. But I will be careful. And slow!! No rush. I'm a stickler for safety anyway.... Biggest reason I left the shipyard, cut to many corners some made sense some did not. But I'm not gonna be around someone else's mistake