Royersford Drill Press?

I recently acquired what i believe is a Royersford drill press. Looking for any extra info i can get about this drill press. Year? Model? and possibly any leads on parts as i can already tell its already missing things.

Any help would be appreciated

One more pic of the head

Oh boy. Tell me you have at least some of the missing parts. Or are you equipped to cast and machine them yourself?

Royersford made these "sensitive drills" beginning around the turn of the 20th century, and extending up to the years of "Delta", "Wallace Turner", and others who made the more modern bench drills, perhaps the 1930s.

One respondent here in previous discussion indicates one maker continued even up to WWII, to include US Department of the Army "instructions for use."

Check out Royersford Foundry & Machine Co. - History | VintageMachinery.org. Under documents you'll find catalog cuts, but not this. Under pix you'll find pix.

A copy of HG Barr's somewhat innovative "sensitive drill" primarily, and copied almost verbatim by Francis Reed, LeBlond, others. And similar to other company offerings of small floor standing drills by Pratt & Whitney/Sigourney and others. I would call the "Excelsior" almost "arch-typical" of the type.

I myself have recently given away parts from my Royersford "Excelsior" DP (same machine) to another respondent for the price of shipping. This a machine which my wife got a little pissed at the machinery confusion standing in her way between the door and the loft stairs, and "gave it a push" to get it out of her way. It fell over and landed on the concrete in pieces - and I deemed it "non-fixable" simply in the labor involved. And the availability of other DPs on the Craigslist market. Another similar DP was found (and has been THREE TIMES over - one resold) in the two years since this happened. My wife has learned to be MORE CAREFUL in passage to the loft as she fears the result of more damage should it occur? (3X multiplication!)

The usual pricing on these runs $100, but the HG Barr currently "in waiting" I got for free - and the labor to haul it out of the cellar before the house sold. I paid $50 for the current whole Excelsior AND a Providence Machine Co. 12" grinder on a 3rd floor Providence, RI "triple decker" complete with winder staircase. Gravity CAN be in your favor - if you keep control of the two-wheeler.

The machines are out there. Unfortunately the usual defect is missing one or more of the two tables, and the defect seems common. Its hard to come up with a COMPLETE machine. The swivel table can be used alone without the lower, but the height limitation built into the machine severely limits the height of object or length of drill in the chuck. One imagines the lower table rigidly mounted was most used "in the day."

Anyway, if you let us know what you're looking for we might be able to make suggestions for replacements, or sketches so you can have parts made - or make them yourself. I have done sketches for others.

Joe in NH

dundeeshopnut said:

Oh boy. Tell me you have at least some of the missing parts. Or are you equipped to cast and machine them yourself?

Click to expand...

I have the ability to have parts machined but as it stands currently im thought was restore whats here and set it in a safe corner and add parts as i come across them over the next few years. I essentially paid $50 for the drill press so its not breaking the bank thank god.

Joe in NH said:

Royersford made these "sensitive drills" beginning around the turn of the 20th century, and extending up to the years of "Delta", "Wallace Turner", and others who made the more modern bench drills, perhaps the 1930s.

One respondent here in previous discussion indicates one maker continued even up to WWII, to include US Department of the Army "instructions for use."

Check out Royersford Foundry & Machine Co. - History | VintageMachinery.org. Under documents you'll find the original catalog cuts.

A copy of HG Barr's somewhat innovative "sensitive drill" primarily, and copied almost verbatim by Francis Reed, LeBlond, others. And similar to other company offerings of small floor standing drills by Pratt & Whitney/Sigourney and others. I would call the "Excelsior" almost "arch-typical" of the type.

I myself have recently given away parts from my Royersford "Excelsior" DP (same machine) to another respondent for the price of shipping. This a machine which my wife got a little pissed at the machinery confusion standing in her way between the door and the loft stairs, and "gave it a push" to get it out of her way. It fell over and landed on the concrete in pieces - and I deemed it "non-fixable" simply in the labor involved. And the availability of other DPs on the Craigslist market. Another similar DP was found (and has been THREE TIMES over - one resold) in the two years since this happened.

The machines are out there. Unfortunately the usual defect is missing one or more of the two tables, and the defect seems common. Its hard to come up with a COMPLETE machine. The swivel table can be used alone without the lower, but the height limitation built into the machine severely limits the height of object or length of drill in the chuck. One imagines the lower table rigidly mounted was most used "in the day."

Anyway, if you let us know what you're looking for we might be able to make suggestions for replacements, or sketches so you can have parts made - or make them yourself. I have done this for others.

Joe in NH

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response Joe. What is seen in the pis is all I have of the drill press. Probably what made it hard to find any info. I did a full restore on an Atlas Model 74 Floor stand drill press a couple months back but never one this old and would like to get more ducks in a row before taking it apart. I will gladly purchase any parts that become available over the next few years.

tcrawford1994 said:

I have the ability to have parts machined but as it stands currently im thought was restore whats here and set it in a safe corner and add parts as i come across them over the next few years. I essentially paid $50 for the drill press so its not breaking the bank thank god.

Click to expand...

Fine minds think alike. Of course so do s#itty minds - but we won't think that even possible!

What you have is a "throw-back." A machine made before the advent of centralized grid electricity and motors. And in today's world, a rarity, both in the marketplace and in production.

How much has come to centralized easily available electric power - but also how much has also been lost?

Were the power plants shut down tomorrow, we would literally all be up a certain creek. Not that they are going to - and there is still independent generators and fuel oil/gasoline to power everything - for a while.

We don't think about it much - most don't have time - but we exist in a very "thin" technological bubble. As things get more technical, that bubble gets stretched thinner and thinner.

Someday that bubble is going to burst. We have seen it in 1964 Blackout, the 2008 Ice Storms, and other times periodically what happens when it does. Even the recent CoVirus was a sharp point attempting to puncture the technological bubble. (Got toilet paper?)

Not that a 120 year old drill press will be our salvation - but it does remind of where we were - and certainly a warning to a last ditch where we could return to if we have to.

You can find "cast dolly wheels" on Craigslist for about $10 each. Or buy "casters" with 4" cast wheels for about $21ea at Home Depot. Trying to get them with actual "spokes" for period appearance is hard, but solid wheels were used too in the day and recycled from dolly use MAY have the advantage of needle bearings - which will make your DP drive easier. A step pulley from a Logan Lathe is a near duplicate to the rear-mounted step pulley/sheeve. See Ebay.

More discussion of the varied manufacturers of the "Sensitive Drill Press." Including a pix of my complete "Excelsior." https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...en-drill-press-359108/?highlight=Francis+Reed

Joe in NH

Joe in NH said:

Fine minds think alike. Of course so do s#itty minds - but we won't think that even possible!

What you have is a "throw-back." A machine made before the advent of centralized grid electricity and motors. And in today's world, a rarity, both in the marketplace and in production.

How much has come to centralized easily available electric power - but also how much has also been lost?

Were the power plants shut down tomorrow, we would literally all be up a certain creek. Not that they are going to - and there is still independent generators and fuel oil/gasoline to power everything - for a while.

We don't think about it much - most don't have time - but we exist in a very "thin" technological bubble. As things get more technical, that bubble gets stretched thinner and thinner.

Someday that bubble is going to burst. We have seen it in 1964 Blackout, the 2008 Ice Storms, and other times periodically what happens when it does. Even the recent CoVirus was a sharp point attempting to puncture the technological bubble. (Got toilet paper?)

Not that a 120 year old drill press will be our salvation - but it does remind of where we were - and certainly a warning to a last ditch where we could return to if we have to.

You can find "cast dolly wheels" on Craigslist for about $10 each. Or buy "casters" with 4" cast wheels for about $21ea at Home Depot. Trying to get them with actual "spokes" for period appearance is hard, but solid wheels were used too in the day and recycled from dolly use MAY have the advantage of needle bearings - which will make your DP drive easier. A step pulley from a Logan Lathe is a near duplicate to the rear-mounted step pulley/sheeve. See Ebay.

More discussion of the varied manufacturers of the "Sensitive Drill Press." Including a pix of my complete "Excelsior." https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...en-drill-press-359108/?highlight=Francis+Reed

Joe in NH

Click to expand...

Hey Joe,
After taking a closer look at your McMullen Drill Press part of me is starting to believe that is what i have. Is there any way you would be able to email me as many pics of yours as you can so i have some detailed images to go off of as i start planning my restoration?

[email protected]

As im a michigan resident it would seem to make sense if it had come from Grand Rapids. Again i appreciate any help.

Travis

If it says "Excelsior" in an arc across the bottom trumpet - it's a Royersford Production. Look at pix at the Vintage machine site above for a confirmation of that thought.

I'll pull one which shows the name.



This particular one shows a "lower" step pulley. Mine does not have this convention being designed more for an overhead counter shaft. Most makers adapted their construction as the market changed.

As to specific parts, I can photo these. You let me know what you want and I can make it happen.

Good luck with this. At times I've had no less than five of these around from various makers - all in various stages of completeness. You're fortunate in that my Royersford is the most complete of all.

Interesting story on that. As I said it was first listed for $200 on Craigslist along with the 12" Providence grinder - but with the caviet written on a "3rd floor tenement location." That obviously scared the buyers away.

Then listed at $100, otherwise the same information.

Still not moving for three weeks at $100 the seller then lowered the price to $50. I decide to move.

Confirming a meet time with the seller, he described the location as "near Providence Hospital." I arrived to find the building hard upon the hospital location and the seller willing to help.

The structure of this turn-of-the-century tenement was typical with three floors with circular wooden stairs in the two front corners closest to the street which each served two floors. There was a third staircase on the back left corner which serviced all three floors. The building was not updated but was a sort of "classic" in its own way. Very substantially built with hardwood trimming & rosettes, tin ceilings, and the stair-builder certainly knew his stuff. A walk to the top was effortless and without error the entire three floors. Not a single squeek either.

He helped me load a two wheeler and I guided the DP to the stairs. I had foreseen a methodology of me going first, followed by him - and between us would be a rope attached to the axle of the two wheeler. My instructions were "If it seems like I'm having trouble with control, tug up HARD on the rope and catch me.

Step by step I took it down the stairs. The two wheeler didn't have the "crawler" feature which allows one to travel easily over "edges" but I was able to descend in a "bump-by-bump" mode with successive fairly controlled "drops." Only once I had to shout "Catch me" lest the two wheeler careen out of control into the plaster/lath walls of the stairs.

Once on the ground floor it was a simple matter to go to the truck as the former owner had fitted the triple with handicap ramp.

As it turns out, the Owner's Grandfather had owned the triple his entire life, dabbled in machinery and had on the third floor both his living area AND in a front room his machine shop. The DP and Grinder were older, but most of his work he had done on a South Bend Lathe - which was already removed. On Grandfather's passing, the grand-son had inherited the property and had plans to renovate the 1st floor to a doctor's office and apartments above. A sensible plan considering the location. I'm sure he did well.

But meanwhile, another machine "saved"

There are too many machines and two few custodians. Welcome to the club!

Joe in NH