What's new
What's new

Morris small radial drill Hanford surplus.

donie

Diamond
Joined
May 17, 2003
Location
Walla Walla Wine and Wild Turkey
I have the thread on the rusty B&S Mill with a vertical head.
I walked around a corner at the salvage yard into this sweet little radial drill, a rusty mess, but certainly savable, everything will still move.
I am not familiar with this brand, I will show the tags.

Z0PHSNB.jpg


Carlton box table,

TMx5Eqy.jpg


zWeuYcf.jpg


Hanford was not shy spending tax dollars on the cold war, this machine is of very high quality, I want to take a chance on it, 50 or so hours work, it would look pretty good! Morris Mor-Speed, pretty catchy.
Its hard to show scale sometimes in photos, I don't think this weighs much more then 4000lbs.


DTdOsvh.jpg



Just for fun on trying to show the size of something, look at these vises, they are 8" monsters, the front one is a Hollands, its just nearly unbelievable, the balls on the handle ends are hollow, probably to help prevent busting a knee cap, I think its over 400lbs.
The Parker behind is likely a hundred years old, Parker vises were very heavy, but the Hollands makes it look a little light, I am thinking around 300lbs. There are several 6" vises in the salvage yard, these make those look puny.
suTbe1G.jpg


The Hollands, hollow balls on the ends of the massive handle.
LJk0Hxs.jpg


The classic Parker, I have a 6 1/2" Parker, I thought it was big until I saw this monster.
You can hold a 6" vise in these.
HDheEfE.jpg
 
Thank you for taking the time to post that. The machine in the video shows what a nice machine the one in the scrap pile once was. I hope I can inspect the drill more closely this week. But WoW! That is going to take a lot of time to get going, If I was still working, there is no way I could justify fixing these machines, it would be much more economical to buy running machines that would make money today.
I have been poking around at the B&S mill, it seems to be not as bad as I first thought, things are freeing up with a little tugging, I got the clutch to disengage, the main spindle feels good and the vert head rotates.
The drill appears to have been out in the weather longer. The only positive is, its still sitting upright in the yard.
They had union painters out at Hanford, they could really slap it on machines that didn't need painting, and do it on a 5yr schedule, and they perfected machine clown colors, the multiple paint jobs seem to be coming off the drill nicely, the original paint looks pretty good.
 
Thank you for taking the time to post that.
Most welcome. Nostalgia for radials thing, kind Sir.

Every hour on the marvelously useful radials - moving spindle to the hole location instead of shifting a heavy workpiece to move each wanted hole or tap location to the spindle generated appreciation out of the unused sweat budget!

Radials still do better work than most might expect when they ARE badly worn, too, BTW.

Hanford? This one may NOT have all that much wear, the ugly is scraped off.

Same with that mill and the "self cleaning" paint that sorta scabs-off after time out in the sun, rain, and temperature changes.

:)
 
This machine like the mill appears to have little use, I couldn't see a drill mark on the table.
I have used these drills a little in the past, but a size or two up, this is the smallest one I have come across.

The column lift appears to use the main motor via a shaft running to the top of the column on the right, that turns the acme screw on the left side, I was looking for a separate lift motor and thought it was missing.

The story on the machines was, whatever project the machines were active in, was cancelled or postponed, the machines sat for a decade or so, then were sold. The machines range from WW2 to the 1950s and all seemed to be in good working condition.
I have got rusty old mills and lathes going, the radial drill is constructed differently, I am not sure where to start.
 
This machine like the mill appears to have little use, I couldn't see a drill mark on the table.
I have used these drills a little in the past, but a size or two up, this is the smallest one I have come across.
It is also the handiest size for a general-purpose shop - four-foot a pragmatic maximum.

For all its power, my Alzmettal Column drill's column will never be any more than 15 inches from the CL of its spindle, so there's the limit to reach-over on larger parts. Less than half that of the radial.

The radials take taller work as well - fastened to the side of the table, as is done now and then with a mill.

Another side-of-the-table trick is to bolt-on a heavy plate, drill a pilot hole. Back-out, put an unwieldy casting atop the table, pick up that hole, apply the oil can, and now run a PILOTED cutter quite a long distance when the HBM's are booked solid and backlogged, all three shifts for long weeks.

You'll not match the HBM's precision, but many times you don't NEED to anyway. Had more than one such part, that could be a bronze sleeve or even a roller-bearing. Bare steel is OK with go-slow and plenty of oil - mebbe some white lead - for onesies or fewsies, though.

And then.. even MORE useful yah don't have a 5-inch bar and several 3-inchers on the HBM line at all.

You might give a think to grabbing that radial. Between you, work will "happen" for it more than you might expect. Not all of it even metals.

Put a hole saw anywhere yah want it on a full 4' x 8' sheet of plywood? Easy, peasy and fast enough to make a decorative divider with a hundred such holes. Steel, FRP, or shiney-wood just as easy, they just smell dif'frent.

Even makes a half-decent sheetmetal or Metalphoto label punch, even a rivet-setter, spindle not rotating. But that IS cheatin'.

;)

Not a lot to go wrong with them, and not hard to fix when it does..
 
The mill is a piece of cake, I have got a lot of things unstuck, and its still in the scrap yard, they will get it to me in a day or two. I looked at the drill again today, its just going to have to be pretty much dissembled to get it working, I will need a gantry crane for that, and have to do much of it in my drive way.
If the mill doesn't knock the crap out of me to get going, I will probably do it. The drill is small enough it can be moved around on a pallet jack, a plus.
I took a couple more photos of it this morning.
x8RDiYe.jpg


0w6G6B7.jpg
 
The mill is a piece of cake, I have got a lot of things unstuck, and its still in the scrap yard, they will get it to me in a day or two.
Great news!

I looked at the drill again today, its just going to have to be pretty much dissembled to get it working, I will need a gantry crane for that,
Not necessarily. There's space to get ignorant bottle jacks and grillage UNDER all of it. It doesn't need to come off the column, just has to be moveable to no fewer than two positions to clear the rust.

Plus - I don't think it actually WILL need the full teardown.

It has that common-sensical - even "elegant" - design -similar to the older Cinncinati-Bickford's that became the "Super Service" legends. Our three-footer was such. The five and eight were built by American Tool Works.

To wit, using a motor & drivetrain as partial counterweight rather than hanging one up-top, where it is hard to service, parking another on a sort of a "back porch" at floor level, where more complex power transmission goods are involved.

Also more crap grows on it and greater risk of damage from jockeying workpieces about. Those vulnerabilities many other radials exhibit add-up over the years.

This one didn't have them at-risk.

It should be a good 'un.
 
The machines head seems overly large for the size of the machine, and its too tall even with it almost all the way down to use an engine hoist to remove it and, to clean the slide ways.
The head itself seems good the quill moves freely, and all the levers move easily and feel oiled.
 
The machines head seems overly large for the size of the machine, and its too tall even with it almost all the way down to use an engine hoist to remove it and, to clean the slide ways.
The head itself seems good the quill moves freely, and all the levers move easily and feel oiled.

Well it ain't LIGHT, but still .. there is good deal of "air" inside that cover on the head. And there is enough travel to get it clean without removal.
Messed-up gib or such? Diffrent story.

Even so, I have too limited space (and budget). to be married to a gantry or such.

You ain't doing one of these every week. Nor even one every five years?

One in ten-plus year projects, such as getting the turret-top back into as much as onto the Quartet combo mill or the head back onto the oolumn on the Alzmetal AB5/S.

I rented a forklift for a day. Or more than a day if there is a lot of other stuff grouped-up as needs one.

Not that expensive, averaged over the near 30 years, same house.

Off-topic, got a rush of brains to the anatomy earlier today.

Needed a shipping weight, 10EE MG unit. Danged things can't help but hang one position on a chain or straps, go some OTHER way when yah try to lower them properly aligned onto the scale.

Cheated this go.

Hung the MG off the hook. Put the scale atop a castered die cart.
Pumped the scale up UNDER the MG, aligned just where it needed to be.
Got the reading. 247 lbs, Avoir, Lowered the die cart.

Kinda neat to learn something new, 75th year. Equally humbling it TOOK me 75 year...

:(
 
Looks a bit like the Gilbert.....when I auctioned mine,the tilting table sold for more than the drill ,and that fetched $7000.....about 1988,maybe.There was a bit of a craze for machine tools......IMHO ,the fault of this design is the arm sliding contact on the pillar is too short.....an English radial is twice ,or more as long.
 
IMHO ,the fault of this design is the arm sliding contact on the pillar is too short.....an English radial is twice ,or more as long.

Nearly all other radials have longer collars.

With all the mass out on the rail, they have to have.

By use of counterbalance, the bearing surface need not be as long. These ones have as much as a full foot more vertical travel, same mast height. And/or/else could/did use a shorter mast.
 
Looks a bit like the Gilbert.....when I auctioned mine,the tilting table sold for more than the drill ,and that fetched $7000.....about 1988,maybe.There was a bit of a craze for machine tools......IMHO ,the fault of this design is the arm sliding contact on the pillar is too short.....an English radial is twice ,or more as long.

Yes, I was there, bought a used L&S 18X60 Powerturn for close to $15000, good running machines of that size were hard to get, if you did hydraulics you need one in good shape.
Now, these machines are not worth much at all.
I can see that a longer sliding contact would be better, much like the long saddles on Monarch and Rivett lathes. This drill was in the High Energy Weapons Program, and like the rest of the machines used, there was no expense spared. The video Thermite linked to shows a nice precision drill with a hand scraped arm. Looking at the head up close, working the rusted but still working levers, and the quill is still slick and smooth, has circulating oil. Unfortunately the motor is stuck, so no further checking out the head is possible.
If they will sell it, I would like to have a better look with them dragging it out into a open area. The milling machine was in a dry spot, this drill is in a swampy spot surround by shipping containers.
 
.... surround by shipping containers.

Empty ones are safe enough... but "treasure trove"?

If those containers happen to be laden with rotabs, vises, chucks, tooling, drills, cutting tools, grinding wheels, metrology goods, and such?

Take along a "safety" man next visit and tie a rope about yer waist so they can pull you out before yah get so interested yah risk dehydration or starvation!

:)
 
It is also the handiest size for a general-purpose shop - four-foot a pragmatic maximum.

You might give a think to grabbing that radial. Between you, work will "happen" for it more than you might expect. Not all of it even metals.

Put a hole saw anywhere yah want it on a full 4' x 8' sheet of plywood? Easy, peasy and fast enough to make a decorative divider with a hundred such holes. Steel, FRP, or shiney-wood just as easy, they just smell dif'frent.

Even makes a half-decent sheetmetal or Metalphoto label punch, even a rivet-setter, spindle not rotating. But that IS cheatin'.

;)

Not a lot to go wrong with them, and not hard to fix when it does..

One place I worked about 30 yrs ago had a radial about that size or a hair bigger. One thing we used it for, and it was bolted to the floor, was to swing the head 90º to the side over a 55 gallon barrel of epoxy with a large mixing paddle in the chuck. Run the quill up and down for about an hour IIRC. Epoxy was then poured onto large (12'x12') table of a polishing machine.
 
One place I worked about 30 yrs ago had a radial about that size or a hair bigger. One thing we used it for, and it was bolted to the floor, was to swing the head 90º to the side over a 55 gallon barrel of epoxy with a large mixing paddle in the chuck. Run the quill up and down for about an hour IIRC. Epoxy was then poured onto large (12'x12') table of a polishing machine.

Walker-Turner made a "kit" to attach the columns of their modest drill presses to a beam. It isn't hard to DIY a "redneck" beam-trolley drill.

That doesn't make it any stouter, but as I already have the beam, my case, that could let me put a hole pretty much anywhere, using my carpenter's wheeled scaffolding with the addition of leveling screws and a level as the "table".

2CW
 
The trailers and storage containers are full of big truck parts, tons and tons, the few machine tools are in the weather. When the equipment was sold at Hanford,it was sold only with what is attached, all loose items in the facility were gathered and sold first by the pallet. The milling machine was sold with the vertical head, dividing head, and tool holder with an endmill in it, the horizontal arbor supports are not there. They apparently removed the dividing head so it wouldn't be stolen and just dropped it on the ground to rust. The mill was outside the gate. The machine tools have less value then brake drums, hundreds of those nice and dry.
A tired old lathe,
mKRorHM.jpg
 








 
Back
Top