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Wadkin bench drill restoration

This is where we don't want anything but evidence of your finest wood butchering in all its glorious, and photograph laden glory. Bring your finished products or WIP's, we love them all, so long as there's pictures, and plenty of 'em!

Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 21 Aug 2016, 17:49

The paints barely dry on my last one and I've started another. I had no intention of doing this one yet but after using it a bit I noticed the bearings squealing like a stuffed pig so it has jumped the que. So while checking out the bearings I thought I may as well make it look pretty. This is how I got it a while back after a 13hr road trip because the seller wouldn't put it on a pallet for a courier.

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This one dates from 1952 and was made for the aircraft industry to do high precision drilling of non ferrous stuff. Its a shame its last place of work had been using it as a router. Poor thing only has 0.5hp in it

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The motor is mounted with 4 wheels, one wheel is fixed position the other three are mounted with eccentric shafts to make adjustments for wear and to maintain the vertical position

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Just to make sure I put them where I found them.

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Me thinks someone has been in here before me, this doesn't look very wadkin'sh

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Butchered spanner to get the nut off

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It was well greased if nothing else

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby 9fingers » 21 Aug 2016, 21:14

I don't know is all Wadkin drill are like this but yours and others I've see are all single speed with direct drive motors.
Given that Wadkin traditionally seem to be the Rolls Royce of workshop machinery in terms of features and design, single speed seems to be a serious deficiency.

2700rpm would be OK for modest sized drills but useless for forstners etc.

These days we have inverters for speed control but not in the days of that machine. Adding a nice sensorless vector inverter to that would turn it into the mutts nuts of a machine.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 21 Aug 2016, 21:49

Bob can you remember that freestanding drill I had the LM borer? That was single speed 2800rpm. I have a tooling catalogue from 1950 which has in it Jennings twist bits, forstner bits and a multitude of other bits that were used in the borer and other machines like the LQ recessor which speed went from 2000 to 6000. I know very little about wood working but I have seen the mention of going too fast for a fortner bit. Has opinion changed over the years?
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby 9fingers » 21 Aug 2016, 22:30

wallace wrote:Bob can you remember that freestanding drill I had the LM borer? That was single speed 2800rpm. I have a tooling catalogue from 1950 which has in it Jennings twist bits, forstner bits and a multitude of other bits that were used in the borer and other machines like the LQ recessor which speed went from 2000 to 6000. I know very little about wood working but I have seen the mention of going too fast for a fortner bit. Has opinion changed over the years?


Carbide bits are more than able to resist high temperatures that come with high speed use but I think the wood would burn. Working in metal you would flood with coolant ( but 1/2 hp would be no good!) but no chance of doing that with wood.

Carbon steel or High Speed steel would soon burn up and lose their temper due to the friction.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 22 Aug 2016, 11:36

I just checked my wadkin catalogue and it says the boring tooling is made from the highest quality tool steel. I don't know what that would be in 1950 but this tooling is meant for machines that run fast.
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby 9fingers » 22 Aug 2016, 11:58

I can only conclude that wadkin knew what they were doing and yet virtually all other drill makers were and do produce multispeed machines.
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Commander » 22 Aug 2016, 12:15

Oh goody, another one! I can't wait to see how it turns out!
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 22 Aug 2016, 14:01

Rather than a drill press, I think what you have is a vertical borer or jig borer. Made for pcision drilling of parts in a factory, probably set in a jig. I would imagine fairly small holes given the speed.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 22 Aug 2016, 15:03

This is the only info I have been able to find about it.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Mike G » 22 Aug 2016, 15:07

Oh, that photo!!! :o

Thank goodness it was posed, because if it wasn't, that drill would grip in that little sheet of metal he is holding just with his fingers, and turn it into a rapidly spinning finger-chopper.
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 22 Aug 2016, 18:55

I totally agree and how many people have actually done it because of trying to rush. :oops:
There seems to be quite a few asset tags on this. Can anyone make out what it says at the top of the sticker, Looks like BA Ltd?

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I quite like these isolators. This ones in rough shape inside the ceramic is cracked and loose. There doesn't appear to have been any provision for a on/off switch you just use the isolator.

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Because they are made from cast ali you cant really use anything too aggressive like a wire wheel. Otherwise you'd loose the writing. A little paint stripper an a stiff brush.

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When taking the tags off that are pinned I have learnt that its best to protect the tag from drill slippage. These pins were made of hardanium because it took ages to drill them. Even new HSS jobbers would barely touch them. After reducing the head I had to coal chisel the head off.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Andyp » 22 Aug 2016, 20:38

wallace wrote:Can anyone make out what it says at the top of the sticker, Looks like BA Ltd?

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Looks like BAC Ltd , Briggs Automotive Company (from Google) perhaps but only been around since 2009 so unlikely. British Aircraft Corporation more likely
I do not think therefore I do not am.

cheers
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Commander » 23 Aug 2016, 06:19

In my humble opinion it doesn't look much like a "B" it looks more like an "8" or even an "S", I would however agree with the AC LTD part. I did some googling but couldn't find anything that looked promising for an 8 or an S...
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 25 Aug 2016, 18:07

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Made some bits shiny

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More shiny stuff

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I wonder why the cable feeding the motor does not have an earth wire within it, instead it has wire wrapped around and attached on the clamp that holds the cable. The clamps have brass bolts.

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derusted some more stuff

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A few bits are numbered

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 25 Aug 2016, 20:27

wallace wrote:
I wonder why the cable feeding the motor does not have an earth wire within it, instead it has wire wrapped around and attached on the clamp that holds the cable. The clamps have brass bolts.


Once upon a time (and it may still be the case), the electrical code over here did not require a ground wire if the machine was permanently wired to the building via metal conduit--in this case, the conduit served as a path to ground. I have at least two machines that were wired that way when I bought them. You may be running into a similar issue with this drill.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Wizard9999 » 28 Aug 2016, 08:52

This and the previous thread almost enough to make me think about restoring an old machine. Extremely nice work.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 28 Aug 2016, 19:43

Wizard9999 wrote:This and the previous thread almost enough to make me think about restoring an old machine. Extremely nice work.

Terry.


You get a lot more bang for your buck if you have the time to do the restoration.

(Wait--does "bang for your buck" translate to anything over there? :))

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Wizard9999 » 28 Aug 2016, 21:48

kirkpoore1 wrote:
Wizard9999 wrote:This and the previous thread almost enough to make me think about restoring an old machine. Extremely nice work.

Terry.


You get a lot more bang for your buck if you have the time to do the restoration.

(Wait--does "bang for your buck" translate to anything over there? :))

Kirk


Despite our two nations being separated by a single language you're safe with that one Kirk ;)

Terry.
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby 9fingers » 28 Aug 2016, 22:12

Wizard9999 wrote:
kirkpoore1 wrote:
Wizard9999 wrote:This and the previous thread almost enough to make me think about restoring an old machine. Extremely nice work.

Terry.


You get a lot more bang for your buck if you have the time to do the restoration.

(Wait--does "bang for your buck" translate to anything over there? :))

Kirk


Despite our two nations being separated by a single language you're safe with that one Kirk ;)

Terry.


Now with your background Terry, I'd expect you would have said ROI.

:lol:
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 30 Aug 2016, 18:35

A little more progress, this is the fence that came with the drill. Weird thing is the T-bolt doesn't fit the slot in the table.

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I started removing some paint and noticed that the fence looked to be made from brass.

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Then I started cleaning up the edge on the bobbin sander and realised the dust was grey, I could have sworn it was brass. It had a yellow hue on the bare metal.

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The table looked to be in decent condition.

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After cleaning it showed some weird damage

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I needed something to run the new wires through and found this in my junk box

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All cleaned up and shiny

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I've been using some of that metal filler that I used on the mitre saw for filling casting defects. I like it a lot better than normal car bodge. It goes on easier and only needs one attempt at filling.

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby stephen.wood125 » 01 Sep 2016, 10:11

Great progress, going to be a hell of a machine as usual!

Cheers

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby wallace » 04 Sep 2016, 16:59

I didn't put any updates of spraying up, didn't want to bore you's. One thing I'm not happy with is the paint sheen, theres one guy who mixes what I want perfect and one he always bodges it.

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I quite liked the finish on the fulcrum castings so have left them bare and used boeshield

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I had to make some 'T' bolts and found these handles in my stash, I think their off a RM planer

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When I took the motor to bits I changed the top bearing and left the lower one because I was worried about damaging things so I cleaned the other bearing and re greased. After trying it for a bit their is quite a bit of resonance. It doesn't squeal like it did but I may have to change the bottom bearing if things don't run in.
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby tracerman » 04 Sep 2016, 17:22

Sounds as if you're not entirely finished with it yet Mark , but anyway it looks very nice as usual .

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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Commander » 04 Sep 2016, 19:54

It is always such a joy to come back and see the finished project, and may I add another job well done, I hope there are many more resto jobs to come!
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Re: Wadkin bench drill restoration

Postby Rod » 04 Sep 2016, 21:22

Nice work - that seems to have gone quickly

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