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New drill press

bruceg

Plastic
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Location
Fairfax, Missouri
i have an old SE 1235 Solberga drill press. The MT4 spindle is worn & it's having trouble holding large bits, 1.5" +. I called Willis & they have no repairs. We're in the ag business & need a large drill but not a precision drill. This time I'm looking at new drills. A new Solberga this size w/power feed costs about $9000. The Baileigh 1850G is around $7000. Any thoughts or better ideas for a new or newer drill appreciated.
 
Can you send it to a local spindle rebuild shop and have them hard chrome and regrind the taper?
 
I once made a replacement 2MT spindle for a Rockwell drill press from a Collis extension socket. I have some extra long extensions, possibly specials, that I have made into lathe boring bars.

They still make extension sockets, in many sizes. Tool Holders, Mill Holders, Collets: Collis Toolholder Iowa
Here are the dimensions of the long 4MT-4MT version. Tool Holders, Mill Holders, Collets: Collis Toolholder Iowa
Here is a new one on eBay. Collis Tool 0373251 MT4 Inside Morse Taper | eBay

A simple and cheap fix for the current drill would be to lightly ream the spindle and Loctite in a short Collis 4MT-4MT extension. Tool Holders, Mill Holders, Collets: Collis Toolholder Iowa You would lose about 6" of headroom.

Larry
 
i have an old SE 1235 Solberga drill press. The MT4 spindle is worn & it's having trouble holding large bits, 1.5" +. I called Willis & they have no repairs. We're in the ag business & need a large drill but not a precision drill. This time I'm looking at new drills. A new Solberga this size w/power feed costs about $9000. The Baileigh 1850G is around $7000. Any thoughts or better ideas for a new or newer drill appreciated.

My early 1950's 5 MT Alzmetall AB5/S arrived with a similar issue. There were "lumps and bumps" - not just "burrs" - raised on the inside of the taper around the edges of the drift azures from 60-70 years of use of said drifts to release the drills.

A not overly tedious application of a 5 MT rough then finish reamer, a bit of fiddling with blue and use of a brand-new 5 MT -> 3 MT adapter sleeve for test, and it was soon VERY acceptable.

If not "good as new"? A near-as-dammit imitation thereof.

:)

Reamers were cheap enough. The rougher was Russian made off ebay! I have two OTHER 5 MT "holes" so it seemed well worth having the reamers.

Didn't take that long. Worked them "by hand", not power. Nothing had to be torn-down nor shipped off for third-party work.

You, too, might want to try 4 MT reamers FIRST?

Solberga's & Alzmettal's are "well worth the effort".
 
paper shims

when I bought my shop 37 yrs ago , we had an old camel back drill press that had a worn out spindle . the old timers probably bought it used 50 years before that . They told me to just cut up a bunch of news paper squares , and wrap one around the drill taper before putting it in the spindle . Sure , the drill will run out a bit , but running big drills at slow speed was never a problem . So thats what we did for 20+ years until I sold the machine to an Amish guy for $500 . Probably still drilling holes today
 
Wow, I had no idea that Baileighs were so expensive. Makes $9000 sound like a steal for the Solberga. But personally I'd just spend $100 on a reamer.
 
when I bought my shop 37 yrs ago , we had an old camel back drill press that had a worn out spindle . the old timers probably bought it used 50 years before that . They told me to just cut up a bunch of news paper squares , and wrap one around the drill taper before putting it in the spindle . Sure , the drill will run out a bit , but running big drills at slow speed was never a problem . So thats what we did for 20+ years until I sold the machine to an Amish guy for $500 . Probably still drilling holes today

We had an old blacksmith in town yrs ago who could make about anything work. Miss him.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll not give up on the drill.

I located an outfit that prides themselves on older machine repair. Thanks folks
 
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if it was me, i would take a male taper, put some diamond (or other) slurry on it, let spindle run slowly and recondition the taper by hand. what is there to loose?
 
if it was me, i would take a male taper, put some diamond (or other) slurry on it, let spindle run slowly and recondition the taper by hand. what is there to loose?

"Loose" indeed. As in making it worse?

At the age of the DP?

Count on this! Yah BEST get them bumps around the drift azures out FIRST!

Hence the reamer.

And it MAY be all yah really need, too!

It is only a DP, after all.

Not a super-precision lathe, jig-bore, grinder.... nor even a mill.
 








 
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