Info on Denbigh Pillar drill

Hey y'all,
I picked up this big old Denbigh Pillar drill for £150 the other day, and i was thinking about doing it up. However, i would like to know if anyone on here has any associated paraphernalia that goes with it. adverts, catologues from denbigh themselves, anything like that. Also, it works, and will be used in our forge quite regularly, and i don't know whether to overhaul it over christmas this year. It's in storage at the mo, hence it is in the garage until we move premises in around 3 weeks. Thoughts?

thanks,

Paul

It is well worth rebuilding in my opinion. There is a picture of your drill (or something like it) in the Denbigh mill entry at lathes.co.uk. Might help to compare it with yours. Youtube has some Denbigh drill videos. Your drill has a Crabtree reversing starter. That might imply that it has been used for tapping?

That looks just like my uncles except I don't remember the starter being that modern ,the taper is badly worn on his but as far as I know it still works, I was always impressed with the power feed. They were made up here in Tipton Staffordshire (hence the Staffordshire knot) although that part now comes under the West Midlands.

I take it you have found Tonys' page? Denbigh Milling Machines

Hi pstuds, one of Mrs T,s friends has a Denbigh hor. milling machine going begging. It's just outside Cambridge. I think she only wants scrap price for it. PM me if interested. Ted

PM sent, however, Practical Machinist is being abit funny and saying it hasn't sent, hope you get it alright.

Paul

That looks like a classy piece of iron to me, what is the function of the gear box on top? Is it just back gear? In any case it defiantly looks like it's worth the trouble to get it up and running.

Yes i believe it is, the belt that's on it is knackered, so once we have moved in, we will have it up and running and I will know for sure, just looks like a back gear,

rusty old tools said:

That looks like a classy piece of iron to me, what is the function of the gear box on top? Is it just back gear? In any case it defiantly looks like it's worth the trouble to get it up and running.

Click to expand...

Gearbox on top is back gear I think ,I have certainly seen some big drills used.The gearbox next to the star wheel is the power feed ,driven by the little flat belt on cone pulleys to give 3 rates.

By the way it looks smaller than the one I know or perhaps you are a big fella.

Darn little here, except for a few photos: Denbigh Engineering Co. - History | VintageMachinery.org

Be sure to add your machine to the owner's registry. Doesn't matter if your machine is exactly like the others, it's a record of surviving machines and who has them.

i know it looks quite small in the pics, but in actual fact it is a pretty big beast, the only smaller one ive seen didn't have the back gears. I had a look on vintage machinery, and graces guide, how can there be so little info on such a big company????

Paul

Hello neighbour, glad to see you have been keeping busy, don't go buying expensive belts, probably find something here.
Richard

Hey Richard! good to hear from you. Sorry i haven't been in touch about the Gantry cranes, we won't be moving in until July, and i don't know whether we will be using a Telehandler or not. However it would be good to borrow your crane, if you are ok with that of course! I also wouldn't mind looking round your amazing farm again!

Paul Stoddart

I have what looks like an identical Denbiegh drill. Mine came out of a scrapyard after it had been in a fire, so not a nice as yours. I have had it for25 years or more and is a great machine. It shows it's British origins by leaking oil... Around 1930s is my guess.
With the back gears (don't forget to fill the gearbox with oil) and low speed it does aroudn 1 rev per day

Paul, I am delighted to see you have one of these nice old drilling machines, Please take off that horrible Hammerite blue, and repaint her in a slightly dark battleship grey, which was the colour that they were in when they left the works of The Denbigh Engineering Co, If you polish up its bright work, you will have a very handsome looking & handy machine.

I have never known a Denbigh to be reversing, I think it is somebody's home spun idea, When you change from direct drive into back gear or vice -versa, stop the machine and pull the belt round by hand, & pull your gear lever over to the appropriate setting, Or you will be liable to smash up the dog clutches in the gearbox or something worse.

I have worked in a couple of firms who had this pattern of Denbigh's, I also for a while many years ago purchased one but sold it on as my space was at a premium.

As regards the gearbox, the one annoying feature they have is throwing & leaking oil, Do not over fill the gearbox, only some reasonably thick oil in the bottom of the box, Unless you are doing a lot of work in back gear a coating on the gears of a gear lube I think would suffice, But every week you would have to lift off the top cover and oil the clutch & the upper parts of the clutch & shaft.

These little drilling machines were supplied in batches to various machine tool factors nationwide Some which spring to mind are Thos. P Headland of Liverpool,
P & W MacLellan & Co of Glasgow, Buck & Hickman who had branches all over the U. K. C& G Oldfield Ltd of Robertson St Glasgow, & finally Paisley to name a few

The last drilling machines made by Denbigh to this pattern were produced up until about 1970 when the firm ceased trading, This must have been the last folks to build a flat belt drive machine tool in the country except the manufacturers of special purpose machine tools such as very precise instrument lathes.

I will have a look and see if I can locate a Denbigh leaflet and copy it for you, As I have one by me somewhere.

Thanks for the info! Yeah the hammerite paint will be going shortly believe me. Didn't realise they were going until the 70's. I'll be sure not to over oil the clutch. What grade oil would you reccomend using? I've never had a drill of this size before so I wouldn't know if it needs a specific weight, or whether standard clutch or gear oil would work

Pal as the gear box has a very simple dog clutch, It will be happy smothered in love That is a good medium lubricating oil, The rest of the machine ditto

Ok thanks, I'll be sure to give it a good smothering when it's rebuilt. Anyone know how easy the head is to remove on these things, the tailgate on the lorry were renting ain't beefy enough to lift te hol weight, so I wanted to split in half to make it more manageable

Paul

ive got one that needs some love too

Hi from Australia Paul and others,

I'm new to this forum but found Pauls post because I just got my hands on the same drill and am also hunting around on the web for information and hopefully some advice.

My drill has been sitting outside for a while and things are well seized up. Pauls has ugly blue paint, mine has no paint. Ive been soaking it in penetrating oil.



Ive managed to get the spindle rotating but even with the power feed gearbox and up-down moving handle thingy (very technical name used here ) removed the spindle vertical movement is locked up.

The top gear in the head is well rusted, is it supposed to slide up and down on the spindle shaft?

Also mine is missing the counter weight and chain.


So if any users have some info and perhaps close up pics of the top gears and part where the chain links to the top of the rack I would really appreciate it.


Rich

PS: Paul - you mentioned difficulty moving it - apparently they are close to 500kg which makes it challenging to move.

Mine got loaded onto a trailer and I towed it home, but at home I have no crane.

So I let gravity move it off the trailer onto the ground it was laying on its side in the rain and dirt for a week.

I then proped it up to about 40deg using a car trolley jack and then a rope to the fromt of the car (4wd) to slowly pull it upright in low range.

My drive is gravel so I then placed boards on the ground and rolled the drill into the garage on pipe rollers.

If you take your time and think things through it is amazing what can be moved.

Having very flat ground also helped.I would not want to be on the downhill side of one of these things if it got away.

Pstodds said:

Ok thanks, I'll be sure to give it a good smothering when it's rebuilt. Anyone know how easy the head is to remove on these things, the tailgate on the lorry were renting ain't beefy enough to lift te hol weight, so I wanted to split in half to make it more manageable

Paul

Click to expand...

Hi Paul,
If you can this might be the road to go down, Remove all the belt wheels as they are very easily broken, Top horizontal shaft, & gear box, little cast iron guard, feed mechanism , drill spindle etc. With this lot from memory as to the construction of these old things you should have a fair amount of taper pins & set screws to remove.
The table is a straight lift off job, As is motor and its pulley system at the bottom, By taking these off , you should find that it is a manageable weight.

The long vertical stay at the back of the Denbigh's, Which runs up the full height to the top "branch casting" I would leave alone if I could get off with it as its fit to that top branch or entablature is achieved by a white metal spacer poured in between both upon assembly, And if you disturb that set up it might prove problematic, I guess this was done for ease and economy of manufacture.

Be careful as that stay is a long slender cast- iron component, In situ very strong, but I would be frightened off giving it any shock impacts.

Possibly by going along this road, & borrowing a couple of reasonably strong buddy's, you could lower her onto the lorry tailgate on its side & the rest should be history except for the beer bill!

By removing the components you can clean, polish and adjust her back to as new.

the drill moved really easily with the aid of an engine crane, it was just trying to get it into the back of the van we hired. (we didnt in the end) anyway, thanks for the advice RE taking the thing apart, i think that will probably be the best option, shame it won't split in half though. might make it a bit more difiult to repaint but ah well. anything i should be weary of whilst dismantling it?

Thanks,

Paul