# Finishing my Nantong Drill Press



## modela (Sep 11, 2012)

*                     Finishing my Nantong Drill Press                 *







For some reason I always seem to be drilling something that is too deep  for my Clausing drill press or wants to run at a faster or slower speed  than it will run.  When I saw this on Craigslist, I took a shot at it.

It was the typical used and under cared for machine needing lots of  cleanup and TLC. I pulled it all apart to find some of the bearings were  rough and the 3MT taper chuck was really stuck.  These pictures show  everything cleaned up and ready to go.  At over six feet tall it is  incredibly tall so I wasted no time in taking the motor off and removing  the spacer block and the cross feed table.  It came with a nice stand  with adjustable feet.








Although there is some damage to the top of the cross feed table, the  gibs and feed screw adjusted nicely and work smoothly.  The block where  the crossfeed table mounts took some kind of oddball size t-nuts to I  took it to the Bridgeport and widened them slightly to take standard  1/2" t-nuts.











There was the usual electrical messes.  The input cord was flopping in  the breeze, handing down out of the box with wires rubbing on the hole.   The box itself was only held in by one screw and the switch was loose.   So I fixed each one of these.






The head moves out on a gear.  It had about 1/8" slop in it because  there were no jamb nuts on the adjusting set screws.  In addition, the  allen hex heads were broken out.  Cleaning, adjusting, and lubing  tightened it right up.








One of the nice things about this is the way the head moves out to almost 20" on center from the post.  

With the new bearings, the thing is very quiet, surprisingly so.  The  motor bearings sound new, so everything is tight.  I believe you could  use this as a milling machine.  It uses a 3MT taper collar.  It has good  sized roller bearings in the quill and the quill works smoothly.

I am looking forward to putting it to use.

Jim​


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## gus (Sep 12, 2012)

Hi Jim,
Congrats.
You have great Radial Drill. With so much dedication and care from new owner---Jim,this machine will have a better life.
Looks like the previous owner was a butcher.He drilled holed into the table. 

I used to have a China 5 footer Radial Drill Press in tip top condition even after ten years of faithful service.Some colleaques from Service Dept came over and asked to used same drill.A week later to my horror,i  found pedestal had holes drilled.Of all the cheek,they denied damages done.These guys are banned forever from entering my machineshop.My Bridgeport Mill,Okamoto Surface Grinder and Leblonde Lathes are out of bound to them.


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## modela (Sep 15, 2012)

I agree.  My I had to cordon off my shop.  When I finally built a separate shop I found many pieces missing or damaged.  It is frustrating.

By the way, what did you use the drill press for?

Jim


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## gus (Dec 29, 2012)

modela said:


> I agree.  My I had to cordon off my shop.  When I finally built a separate shop I found many pieces missing or damaged.  It is frustrating.
> 
> By the way, what did you use the drill press for?
> 
> Jim



Inherited the Radial Drill from the Service Dept. Their new boss was not a hands on engineer. The drill press was becoming an eyesore. So I happily volunteered to adopt same. Had it cleaned up and gave it a professional coat of paint. The Chromed handwheels looks very new.I also took over his 18" Pedestal Grinder.Also an eyesore. Gave it a good coat of paint.Some guys came in and asked to grind an axe.The axe would be ruined.Tried explaining,he won't listen. Told him to go away.His boss came and I suggested,he should call the GM to talk to me.Days later the GM asked what happened? Ha ha ha.

In our line of repair work and fab-shop ,you never know when  urgent jobs turned up requiring some big holes drilled. Oxy-cutting is ruled out.


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## modela (Dec 30, 2012)

Gus, you are right, some guys should just stay out of a shop.  It seems like I am always trying to drill a hole in a plate that bumps up against the post.  It shouldn't be the case with this one.

I didn't paint this one but I did really clean it up.  It was filthy and I plan to do some wood drilling as well.  I kind of like to intersperse wood working.  It makes you keep your equipment cleaner and the wood chips soak up a lot of grease.  When I rebuilt my Bridgeport I scattered sawdust all over the floor--great for soaking up solvents and oils.

I added a simple digital scale with readout, making the brackets as needed.  It is nice to locate holes quickly without measuring. The first one would not hold tolerances.  When you ran it back to the stop is showed differently every time.  I sent it back and bought a oil resistant one.  






Front bracket:





Rear Bracket:


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## gus (Dec 30, 2012)

Please vendor website.


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## modela (Jan 1, 2013)

I bought this on ebay.  Item   230747956571.  Get the stainless steel one. The other one is not oil resistent.         













*                 SUPER HIGH ACCURACY 12" DIGITAL READOUT (DRO) WITH REMOTE READING                 * *                 BRAND NEW * IN STOCK * Available For Immediate Shipping                 * *Click Small Images to Enlarge*



*Click Small Images to Enlarge*









High Precision Tool 
Upgrade  your Milling Machine or Lathe to Digital reading.  This digimatic scale  is designed specifically for convenient display of any axis of a  machine tool movement. Can be mounted on almost any surface, offering  the user precise linear measurment capabilities. Precise depth control  floating zero allows you to set "zero" anywhere within operating range  with a push of a button.  
Cut the rule to any desired length!  
Features: 



Rule made of STAINLESS STEEL to promote high accuracy and repeatability.
Super Large, easy to read display shows inch, decimal, fractional and metric readings
Magnetic Remote display with 50" cord for easy installation and access
Can be used in Vertical, Horizontal or any position
Preset function: Easy to set up and convenient to use.
Measure range: 0-12"
Accuracy: 0.001"
Reading: 0.0005"/0.01mm/64ths/inch
Include brackets for vertical or horizontal mounting
DRO rule can be cut to fit specific applications.
 



Check our 
	

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## ZipSnipe (Mar 20, 2013)

How are you liking this DRO so far? and is it fairly accurate?


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## modela (Mar 20, 2013)

So far I haven't used it very much.  I plan to build some jigs and fixtures but it is quite tight and the digital readout seems accurate.

Jim


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