acpken Posted October 4, 2013 Report Share Posted October 4, 2013 (edited) I was wondering if there are any vintage/antique power tool users in here. I am... by choice Show 'em if you got 'em... ken 1950's Delta/Rockwell industrial 24" scroll saw 1940's? Delta tablemount drill press Edited October 4, 2013 by acpken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted October 4, 2013 Report Share Posted October 4, 2013 My delta drill press is older then yours! If it works man, no need for others right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted October 4, 2013 Report Share Posted October 4, 2013 I have one of those drill presses, too, but the bearings are worn out, and were discontinued a long time ago. I use it as a fret press now. Also have a Unisaw and 14" bandsaw from the early 40's, both of which I have modified in ways that would horrify most tool geeks. The Unisaw is fantastic. The bandsaw is adequate. Old machines are pretty much a crap shoot, rarely the holy grails that enthusiasts make them out to be. I used to be really into them, but have ended up with about a ton of relatively useless iron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted October 4, 2013 Report Share Posted October 4, 2013 Haha i will say i love my ancient drill press, but my old bandsaw is 400 pounds of iron thats near useless. Debatimg on wjat to fo with it honestly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acpken Posted October 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2013 I have always had good luck with older tools, just not the new ones. I burned up a six month old name brand table saw's motor on a sheet of plywood, and it was almost the same price to buy a new saw as replace the motor. Never again. Now I go to antique auctions and estate sales looking for the best quality tools I can find. Bearings for just about everything ever made in the USA are available either at machinist bearing supply houses or Ebay. All I needed to replace my drill press's bearings were an old bearing so it could be measured. It did take awhile to get it apart, but you can see it turning in the photo. I just bought a 1940's Rockwell 8" bench mount table saw for scrap price a couple of weeks ago, and it is much better built than my 'new' saw ever was. The cool thing about it is that it has a cast iron table with slots either side of the blade, and the blade can be set with enough height to use a 5" diameter blade, so I can use this as a fretsaw. I wish I could find a Unisaw or even a Uniplane, but all I'm really looking for is a decent three wheeled belt sander and a 12" disk sander. I could have had a radial arm drill at an estate sale last summer, but the seller was offered twice what he wanted for it... and what I already paid. ken ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted October 6, 2013 Report Share Posted October 6, 2013 Some things are good. Table saws and drill presses are good. Theres not much fancy stuff to go about em, and its pretty simple design. Things like bandsaws with the new computer balanced wheels and bearings, precision manufacturing just wasn't present in the 50's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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