Joe Michaels
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2004
- Location
- Shandaken, NY, USA
I am getting a Barnes 20" Camelback drill press ready for use in my blacksmith shop. It is my second camelback drill, and I really do not need another camelback drill. The price was right as this drill came as a gift, delivered to me, and is so unmolested that I felt I owed it a good home. I call this drill press "the Survivor" as it is un-modified and un-damaged aside from a few extra holes in the table and some wear on the loose pulley's bushing. The drill press has the original tight/loose pulleys and has a foot pedal belt shifter.
The mainframe casting has the W.J & John Barnes name on it, along with a patent date of September 23, '83. The '83 is how it appears on the casting. The fasteners on the drill press, such as the bolts to mount the lower cone pulley/tight/loose pulley assembly, are all square-headed. There is a small engraved brass dealer's plate on the drill: 'J.A. Fay & Company
Chicago Store
J. A. Roche, Man'g'r (this is how 'manager' is abbreviated on the nameplate)
another small brass plate has the number 1720 on it. I suspect this was a property ID number.
The dealer's plate is interesting in that it is small, the top line uses a fancy larger type font for the J. A. Fay lettering, while the lines below are smaller and plainer lettering. I tried online searches for "J A. Fay & Company" in Chicago and got no results. Why a dealer would include the store manager's name is another little mystery. I do not recall ever seeing a store manager's name on a dealer's plate on old machinery or old machine tools.
The drill press has the lever feed as well as the worm-geared fine feed, but does not have power feed nor has it got back gearing. It looks to have had a fairly easy life, and somehow avoided being converted to motor drive. It evidently saw enough use to put some wear marks on the belt shifter 'wings' (cast iron parts which bear against the edges of the drive belt to shift it).
Hopefully, some of our members can give me an approximate age of this old drill press. It does have the number 3 Morse Taper spindle and has an ancient Jacobs chuck (knurled body) on the arbor. The quill is actually a good reasonably snug fit in the mainframe. There is a really well made sheet-metal guard over the bevel gearing. This guard includes a flanged edge on the conical sheet metal guard over the bevel gear on the spindle. The guard is put together with rivets and fastened to the drill press mainframe with filister (aka 'cheese head' in the UK) screws, none of which are buggered or damaged or mis-matched. The guard is held to the mainframe with some formed steel straps that are accurately cut and formed.There is even a small notch in the flanged portion of the guard to allow greasing of the bevel gear on the spindle.
I find it hard to believe a drill press could survive un-changed and un-damaged from the late 1800's, but the square head bolts rather than hex head bolts would seem to support this era. If the drill press does date from the late 1880's or 1890's, it would be somewhere around 130 years old. That has me wondering if the system of Morse tapers was already well established for drill shanks, lathe centers, and drill press spindles.
I have built a skid out of hollow steel structural tube and angle, and the drill press is now bolted to the skid. I am finishing a countershaft assembly which will be mounted on this skid. The countershaft has a 'drum pulley' to retain the use of the tight and loose pulleys on the drill press. I got hold of an old cast iron belt pulley from a farm tractor (it is showing traces of Allis-Chalmers orange and had a plain keyed bore rather than splined bore). I machined the crown off this pulley so the belt can be shifted as required to start or stop the drill press. I found Barnes literature from Old Woodworking Machinery, and Barnes spec'd a drive pulley speed of 225 rpm. The countershaft has a 3/4 HP modern electric motor and drops the speed to the drum pulley via a V belt. I'm using a tractor adjustable top link to tension the flat belt from the countershaft to the tight/loose pulleys.
I need to get some flat belting for this drill press. Somewhere along the line on this 'board, there was discussion as to how to determine the length of flat belting. The bottom and top cone pulleys are on fixed centers, so the belting has to be cut to maintain some tension. I plan to use rubber/canvas belting rather than leather, with 'hook' type lacing. Barnes specs 2" wide belting for this drill, which seems a bit like overkill, but I will go with that width. I'd appreciate the rule of thumb for figuring flat belt length for pulleys on 'fixed centers', to maintain good belt tension.
I know the countershaft and use of the tight/loose pulleys is totally unnecessary, and a simple V belt drive to the lower cone pulley with switch on the motor would be fine. However, seeing how the whole works survived intact with no brazed repairs or modifications of any sort, I felt an urge to preserve the old drill as intact as it was. I am not going to 'pretty it up' with repainting. Just clean the machined surfaces, wash the painted surfaces down to get rid of grunge, and probably give the painted surfaces of the castings a little wipe with linseed oil. There is too much patina and sense of the age of the machine to start in with filler, enamel and the like. Besides, the drill is residing in my blacksmith shed, not in a toolroom or museum like setting. Call it a very sympathetic re-use of the old drill.
The mainframe casting has the W.J & John Barnes name on it, along with a patent date of September 23, '83. The '83 is how it appears on the casting. The fasteners on the drill press, such as the bolts to mount the lower cone pulley/tight/loose pulley assembly, are all square-headed. There is a small engraved brass dealer's plate on the drill: 'J.A. Fay & Company
Chicago Store
J. A. Roche, Man'g'r (this is how 'manager' is abbreviated on the nameplate)
another small brass plate has the number 1720 on it. I suspect this was a property ID number.
The dealer's plate is interesting in that it is small, the top line uses a fancy larger type font for the J. A. Fay lettering, while the lines below are smaller and plainer lettering. I tried online searches for "J A. Fay & Company" in Chicago and got no results. Why a dealer would include the store manager's name is another little mystery. I do not recall ever seeing a store manager's name on a dealer's plate on old machinery or old machine tools.
The drill press has the lever feed as well as the worm-geared fine feed, but does not have power feed nor has it got back gearing. It looks to have had a fairly easy life, and somehow avoided being converted to motor drive. It evidently saw enough use to put some wear marks on the belt shifter 'wings' (cast iron parts which bear against the edges of the drive belt to shift it).
Hopefully, some of our members can give me an approximate age of this old drill press. It does have the number 3 Morse Taper spindle and has an ancient Jacobs chuck (knurled body) on the arbor. The quill is actually a good reasonably snug fit in the mainframe. There is a really well made sheet-metal guard over the bevel gearing. This guard includes a flanged edge on the conical sheet metal guard over the bevel gear on the spindle. The guard is put together with rivets and fastened to the drill press mainframe with filister (aka 'cheese head' in the UK) screws, none of which are buggered or damaged or mis-matched. The guard is held to the mainframe with some formed steel straps that are accurately cut and formed.There is even a small notch in the flanged portion of the guard to allow greasing of the bevel gear on the spindle.
I find it hard to believe a drill press could survive un-changed and un-damaged from the late 1800's, but the square head bolts rather than hex head bolts would seem to support this era. If the drill press does date from the late 1880's or 1890's, it would be somewhere around 130 years old. That has me wondering if the system of Morse tapers was already well established for drill shanks, lathe centers, and drill press spindles.
I have built a skid out of hollow steel structural tube and angle, and the drill press is now bolted to the skid. I am finishing a countershaft assembly which will be mounted on this skid. The countershaft has a 'drum pulley' to retain the use of the tight and loose pulleys on the drill press. I got hold of an old cast iron belt pulley from a farm tractor (it is showing traces of Allis-Chalmers orange and had a plain keyed bore rather than splined bore). I machined the crown off this pulley so the belt can be shifted as required to start or stop the drill press. I found Barnes literature from Old Woodworking Machinery, and Barnes spec'd a drive pulley speed of 225 rpm. The countershaft has a 3/4 HP modern electric motor and drops the speed to the drum pulley via a V belt. I'm using a tractor adjustable top link to tension the flat belt from the countershaft to the tight/loose pulleys.
I need to get some flat belting for this drill press. Somewhere along the line on this 'board, there was discussion as to how to determine the length of flat belting. The bottom and top cone pulleys are on fixed centers, so the belting has to be cut to maintain some tension. I plan to use rubber/canvas belting rather than leather, with 'hook' type lacing. Barnes specs 2" wide belting for this drill, which seems a bit like overkill, but I will go with that width. I'd appreciate the rule of thumb for figuring flat belt length for pulleys on 'fixed centers', to maintain good belt tension.
I know the countershaft and use of the tight/loose pulleys is totally unnecessary, and a simple V belt drive to the lower cone pulley with switch on the motor would be fine. However, seeing how the whole works survived intact with no brazed repairs or modifications of any sort, I felt an urge to preserve the old drill as intact as it was. I am not going to 'pretty it up' with repainting. Just clean the machined surfaces, wash the painted surfaces down to get rid of grunge, and probably give the painted surfaces of the castings a little wipe with linseed oil. There is too much patina and sense of the age of the machine to start in with filler, enamel and the like. Besides, the drill is residing in my blacksmith shed, not in a toolroom or museum like setting. Call it a very sympathetic re-use of the old drill.