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Bought a Leland Gifford drill press

fatjay

Plastic
Joined
May 19, 2020
I brought home a big old Leland Gillford drill press over the weekend that I found for sale for $200. I greased it up and got all the belts adjusted and it works great, but there is a few things I'm not sure about. There's a foot pedal, which I think puts it in neutral and stops the bit from spinning. It has a 1hp electric motor, but I think it may have been originally designed for a line shaft drive. Also it looks like there is what I think is an auto up/down which is currently not functioning, and I'd like to get that going.

Any information such as year or how it spent it's life that would be appreciated.

Here's a video of it in opperation: https://i.imgur.com/48ETPyQ.mp4

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WAY COOL!!! I can't wait to hear more on it! Looks like your bobcat is in dire need of a new edge on her bucket too.:D
 
I've got one and I love it. Have you checked out the sliding head yet? That was a game changer for me. I was thinking that the foot pedal moved the belt off/on the line shaft but I didn't look at it that closely. Note the coolant tank on the back and how the table has a built in drain. Speaking of the table, wait till you try and pick that bad boy up. It is about 3" thick in the center. It looks like your's might be a little newer than mine and has the power down feed which is very cool. I'm sure you'll love it.
 
I have the same basic machine. I think there are pictures and a little story if you go looking - many years ago on this site. If I remember correctly, the patent data plate identifies patents from the early '20s. The foot pedal arrangement on my machine is positioned perpendicular to yours. My pedal is connected to rod links that shift a belt from a fast pulley to a loose pulley (this for a line shaft installation) - operates like a clutch.

I got my machine for about $35 from some lady many years ago that wanted it removed from the garage of her newly purchased home. Just this month, I moved it out of a storage place and brought it home again. My two upper rear pulleys are in poor condition - the flanges are chipping and the wheels are cracked. I am considering turning a set of hardwood replacement pulleys.

I will try to post some more recent photos here. Some portions of my machine have been removed (I still have them all). The diagonal strut pushes up and rearward to simultaneously tighten two belts. Very clever arrangement (this was the subject matter of one of the patents).

Dave
 
I thought it might have been a line shaft machine that was later converted to electric. I took some better pictures today. This thing seems to have come with all the bells and whistles. The plate goes up and down with a half inch drive ratchet and is very solidly mounted. I already lost one drill bit that went down the hole and there's no real easy way to access the inside.

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That's a really interesting down-feed mechanism. Curious to see what's inside that drum...

I have the motor spindle version, 3LMS I think mine is called, with same power feed design.

Inside is a sprag clutch. Pulling handle wedges dowel pins against a drum. Releases when you bump the handle other way. The knob/ pin locks out the down feed.

There are additional complications from an adjustable depth stop kickout that was partly missing on mine.

Foot pedal on mine operated a fwd/off/rev switch reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory.

I’m guessing photos I posted long ago with photo bucket are gone. I’ll try to take some.

Scott
 
The plate goes up and down with a half inch drive ratchet and is very solidly mounted. I already lost one drill bit that went down the hole and there's no real easy way to access the inside.

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First photo, hole in the table shouldn't be there if there is no way to access it. I'd tap it for a pipe thread and install a flat top electrical box plug. The cast manufacturers plate seems to be held in place by three screws. What's behind it?
In the second image, what is the function of the shift lever on the back of the colmn
 
I looked at my L-G press - here is what I found. The cast mfg plate hides nothing. My machine has no maker plate and no evidence of holes in that area.

The lever behind the column is not a shifter. Instead, on my machine, it is a pivoting link that connects to the foot pedal for shifting the belt left or right. The lever is pinned to the column perhaps to preclude unwanted rotation of the belt 'derailer' mechanism. My 'derailer' mechanism is a shaped round stock structure that would crash into the fast and loose pulleys if allowed to rotate.

The column in the machine shown here has an 'overbite'. The centerline of the spindle is forward of the table jack screw by several inches - shown clearly in the photo with skidder. See the pair of adapter blocks mounted just above the maker plate on the column. My machine, on the other hand, has no overbite and the spindle aligns with the jack screw.
 








 
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