1945 Walker Turner Radial Arm Drill Press Restoration

[luke000]

Last Firday I went to an estate auction for a man who ran a construction company and all of his tools/and equipment were for sale, most of the stuff went for crazy high prices but I was able to get a few nice things at good prices including my favorite piece! I have wanted one of these for about a year now since I saw one I craigslist for $1500. So when I found this one at the auction I knew I had to grab it up, even though I wasn't sure where I am going to put it at the moment ;D. Enter my brand new used 1945 Walker Turner radial arm drill press! This is a single phase machine (also available in 3ph) 16 speeds from 160-8300RPM, head tilts 45 degrees to either side, 18x26 inch table. My plan is a total tear down and rebuild including new paint, new wiring, new bearings (where needed) and some other things along the way.

We got the drill out of the back of the guys barn with his fork lift, and then brought it to my schools welding lab where I am gong to do the restoration on the tool.

First thing I did was wash it down and get all the grease off of it, then I started to take it apart. Next step is to start cleaning individual components and prep them for paint!

On the way from the barn to the school:




In the welding lab














Initial clean up

 

[luke000]

Forgot to mention, it came with 2 Heinrich vises, an 8-inch and a 4-inch. As well as a lot of drill bits! My biggest decision is what color do I want to go with- I have narrowed it down to two, standard machine grey, or vista green. The grey I can get at lowes but the green I would have to get mixed up I think somewhere.
Here is an example of both:

 

[Finnigan]

That is so rad! Does it work in its current condition?

 

[luke000]

That is so rad! Does it work in its current condition?

Yeah it ran great while we had it on the trailer, no complaints on how it ran other than the ram travel and pivot felt gummy and stiff.

 

[my-79-750-k]

You can never go wrong with the old machine shop green. Our radial arm at work is green (faded and cracked), and it just looks right.

 

[luke000]

I apologize for the huge lack in update so far :-[ Since my last post I got the drill press torn apart and all the individual pieces stripped down. I also purchased a few replacement bearings. But since the school semester stared again, I have not gotten much work done on any of my projects. Today, I finally went out and bought the paint! Some Sherwin Williams Industrial enamel in dancing green, I wanted something different than machine gray. I hope to start painting and assembly a week from today! I just need to track down a nice pallet to assemble everything on.

 

[luke000]

A real update! I worked for about 8 hours straight today on the drill, got the table assembled and bolted to a pallet, I replaced about a dozen of the OE bolts with new grade 8 bolts and hardened Teco flat washers. After that I got all of the major parts prepped and primed. Next step is the first coat of color. I changed my mind on the color after seeing it in person, I decided to go with a richer and darker green.


The forklift helped me assemble the table ;D



Parts all primed!

 

[jpmobius]

Looking good! . . . . . so what happened to the El Dorado boat project?

 

[luke000]

Looking good! . . . . . so what happened to the El Dorado boat project?

:-[ life has done its best to get in the way with that project...2015 has not been a very conducive year for me and projects. But I will say 2016 will be the year of the El Dorado! She is currently buttoned up for the winter at the shop, with her structurally refurbished hull and new interior paint. Over the winter I plan to do a few thing here and there, I am going to be ordering a new windshield in Feb and once spring time rolls around it is going to be all hands on deck! (pun intended)

 

[luke000]

While waiting for my next paint day on the drill press, I took the motor home and decided to start rebuilding it! I don't have a ton of experience rebuilding electric motors but I have watched a few youtube videos and read through a few tutorials (including one very detailed one for my exact motor) BUt I am going to give it a shot. I havent done much on the motor yes besides stating to make sense of and removing some of the wires and switch box. I also ordered up some new SKF sealed bearings that arrived today.

 

[luke000]

Well I got the motor torn down today, it took some doing together it to this point, including a few different gear pullers; one to remove the pulley, one to remove the front end shield, and two to remove the bearings off the shaft. I also had to figure out a way to separate the rotor, bearing and rear end shield. I noticed a 1/4-20 screw that was on the backside of the bearing near one end, it had just a simple plug in there, so i put a longer screw in there, as well as drilled and tapped a second one 180 degrees from it and did the same thing, by slowly threading the screws in, they just pushed the rotor/bearing assembly out of the end shield. When I go to assemble the motor, ill just put some 1/4-20 plugs in there.

I measured up the replacement bearings that I had purchased and compared them to the OE bearings and they are a perfect match, I had ordered an SKF 6301 and an SKF 6203

Next step is to clean everything up and paint the housing of the motor. I am going to use gloss black for the frame and switch box and VHT wrinkle paint for the end shields.

 

[luke000]

Well I got a solid 3 hours of painting in today on the main castings, I am finally starting to see progress being made! This is just the first coat and I will do 1 or two more. The bad news is, my college where I am working on this at will be closed the rest of the week. But this should give me some time to work on the motor rebuild.

I also decided on going to a shop/estate auction tomorrow like the one I bought this drill at. I don't have a ton of cash but enough to have some fun with ...wish me luck!

 

[Finnigan]

Looks great! Reminds me of the 'avocado' colored fridge my parents used to own

 

[luke000]

I got the motor done today! I don't have many pictures of painting or putting it back together unfortunately, most of them ended up getting deleted. The ones I do have are of throwing the rotor on my lathe and getting it cleaned up with some scotch brite. The other is starting to paint the bell housings with VHT wrinkle black. Takes at least 3 heavy coats and then let it dry for at least a day then curing it for 30 min at 200 degrees (WARNING: will stink up your kitchen if you use an oven) I painted the switch face in the same manner. Everything else got rustoleum gloss black. I stripped everything with aircraft stripper and masked off the badges, after everything got painted I carefully took a pick and chipped off all the stray paint on the badges from the PO's bad repaint and then used some rubbing compound to shine them up. I put it back together with new SKF 2RS sealed bearings (1) 6301 and (1) 6203. For all the wires that I did replace, coming from the wall socket to the switch and back to the motor, I used 10ga. It is a little overkill but..... Then today, everything buttoned down and temporarily hooked up the wiring, plugged it in, and she purred like a kitten! very smooth, quiet and no funny smells!

These are not the best pictures but it will give you a good idea!

 

[JadusMotorcycleParts]

Nice job man. What a cool project. I follow some projects over on Home Model Engine Machinist and this restoration reminded me of a few projects I have seen there Would have loved to have seen a shot of the wiring you fixed up for the motor! Did you do anything with the motors armature/windings or was it pretty ok?

 

[B541Niner]

Great job sir.

 

[Habanero52]

AWESOME!!!!

 

[luke000]

Nice job man. What a cool project. I follow some projects over on Home Model Engine Machinist and this restoration reminded me of a few projects I have seen there Would have loved to have seen a shot of the wiring you fixed up for the motor! Did you do anything with the motors armature/windings or was it pretty ok?

The wiring that I fixed up (as of right now) is still kind of a birds nest, but once I get the machine going back together, I will take some photos of it. I didnt replace any of the wiring that was inside the motor (it was in good shape for its age and would have been a headache to replace) and the only thing I had to do to the armature was clean it up with some scotch brite and on the pulley end of the shaft there was some slight mushrooming from pulling it and the bearings. I fixed it while I had it on the lathe and it turned out perfect. As far as the windings go, the only thing I did was clean them with some CRC electric motor cleaner, and although I could have used two cans, the stuff worked great!

AWESOME!!!!

Great job sir.

Thank you!

 

[andycafe]

:-[ life has done its best to get in the way with that project...2015 has not been a very conducive year for me and projects. But I will say 2016 will be the year of the El Dorado! She is currently buttoned up for the winter at the shop, with her structurally refurbished hull and new interior paint. Over the winter I plan to do a few thing here and there, I am going to be ordering a new windshield in Feb and once spring time rolls around it is going to be all hands on deck! (pun intended)

I had been wondering about El Dorado, good to see she is not forgotten

 

[andycafe]

A real update! Next step is the first coat of color. I changed my mind on the color after seeing it in person, I decided to go with a richer and darker green.

I always love the look of a new coat of paint Although I don't mind this green, I've always thought that these old machines need to be in hammer tone, reguardless of the colour ;D Still I love a good refurbishment