My new drill press

Varga Knives

Varga Knives

Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
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I want to share what I think was a great find. Patience paid off and, while the wait to find the right piece was long, I love this drill. I found it on CL and drove 65 miles to pick it up. Turns out the seller lives about a mile from where I shoot and we work with a lot of the same people. The end result was that I met a great guy and ended up picking this drill up for only $120.

It's a 1945 Craftman Industrial, 1/2 HP, 101.03662 floor model with the slow speed pulley. It's all original and only missing the quill return spring cover and the pulley cover. It could use new belts and the missing parts I will keep hunting for.

DP3.jpgDP4.jpgDP6.jpgDP7.jpgDP8.JPG
 
Nice find! One of my presses is a WWII era Atlas floor press. From the looks of the Craftsman body it may have been made by Atlas as well. I love my old press, it's still a hell of a workhorse. Mine actually still has an original motor made by Packard's electrical division!!

That's a very cool old machine, hope it serves you well:thumbup:
 
Thanks. It was in fact made by Atlas and also has the original motor. It makes me sad to think of what quality and heavy duty construction America once produced that is so lacking in most things you can buy today. But that's a discussion for another day.
 
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Glad you found this instead of the HF one you were looking at! Older machines have much more character and tend to be more heavy duty! I found my 1972 Craftsman for $100! It's all cast iron and ruggedness! Good stuff!
 
Luckily Harbor Freight was out of stock of the one I wanted or I would have picked it up for about the same price!
 
Nice looking drill press, has a real steampunk feel to it. Hell I would move out one of my newer drill presses for one like that.
Nice score.
CW
 
Thanks guys! I forgot to metion it also has a reverse switch, although I have yet to figure out what I could do with that.
 
Usually a reverse switch on a drill press is used for rigid tapping... With everything fixtured nice and secure, you run the tap down into your part under power, then back it out under power in reverse. I've done a lot of it on a huge (to me) radial drill, but never on a "small" drill press.

NICE SCORE!!! Tools like this were built when they wanted them to last! :thumbup: :cool:

It's incredibly frustrating yet also funny, when you search for drill presses on CL. Sellers list them as "INDUSTRIAL" and "HEAVY DUTY" because the Harbor Freight sticker on the front of it says so... :rolleyes: ;) LOL

Glad you were patient and held out for this one. :)
 
strider214 said:
Thanks. It was in fact made by Atlas and also has the original motor. It makes me sad to think of what quality and heavy duty construction America once produced that is so lacking in most things you can buy today. But that's a discussion for another day.
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Aha, so I my spider senses were working yesterday! Great machine bud, enjoy!:thumbup:
 
Thanks Nick, I don't know that the reversing is something I will ever need but it's nice to know it's there.

Jonny - Always trust in the tingling!
 
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