Pressmatic Drillination!!!1

By Jonny | Published 2013/07/06

That's right, I got myself a drill press. Picked it up off of Craigslist, it's an old Delta Rockwell.

Based on the serial number it's likely an early 70s model. You can see that the base is pretty crudded up. Also the cord on it was totally without insulation and the wiring inside from the switch to the motor was hard as a rock and brittle. I replaced all of that.

Here is the table. I'm going to be cleaning it up and building on to it with a fence, largely for wood use.

Largely cleaned up with a random orbit sander. It will get some further sand blasting and probably filing. I'll need to make sure when the new table addition is in place it's totally perpendicular with the bit. Fingers crossed there.

Before sand blasting.

After

You can also see in this pic that I'm cleaning up the lower plate as much as possible.

I decided on doing a crinkle coat paint covered in beige, because I love beige. That's just how hardcore I am. I know the original color is a bluish green, but I am not going for a vintage restore or anything like that.

Here you can see the post cleaned up a good deal and the base top leveled further and of course the beige. I did a lot of work on the bottom plate with a file. The slots had a lot of flashing and the surface was very pitted and uneven. There is still of course some pitting and I could work it down further, but it's going to be a functional press I'm not aiming for total perfection here by any means.

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