Member postings for Jon Halland

I picked up a Meddings Dril Tru (SE: DTB03689 cast: 9373/LT/III) last autumn which has not had one careful owner. A few bits are missing: the knob for the switch, handle for the table, cover for return spring and the threaded bar and nut that holds the belt cover.

Do anyone know the thread for the belt cover bar (a non fitting bolt was jammed into the thread on the base but it has only damaged the first thread)?

The quill, bearings and nearly new chuck all seem good.

The main problem is the spindle pulley and axle. The pulley it is off centre on rotation and also not square on the axle when the square pin is tapped in place, when the pin is not in the is a fair bit of play for the pulley to wiggle on the axle. See pictures.

My experience with spline axels and pulleys is limited and they have all been snug fits. Centred and square on the axel by the fit of the bore, easy drop in of the square pin, tighten set screw(s) - all good. So how bad is this? Replace or refurbish with a bush? Note: I don't have a lathe, a milling machine or the skills to do a refurbish.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I will post when I get it sorted .... workshop is full of UFO's (Un Finished Objects) that have build up over vinter.

I would like to mount a VFD on the side on the motor of my Startrite Mercury pillar drill. The motor has no points to attach onto apart from its own mount which is welded onto the casing. The middle part of the casing is not cast (the ends are alu castings) so I guess mild steel. I have not been able to get the end castings off, so I'm thinking about making a mild steel bracket and spot welding it on with stator/rotor/windings in place.

I have a stick welder and would drill a couple of 3-4mm holes in the bracket and spot weld it onto the motor casing. Is this a feasible approach or do I run the risk of damaging the insulation on the windings?

Thank you for all your inputs. I take there is not a great deal of confidence in the 3 way style.

I had a look at the float lock vise (thanks Clive), which I had not seen before. Its like a toolmakers clamp for the vice and single plane move/loock. It seems very easy to position and lock, something that is as easy to use as just holding a vice by hand, so for ligther use.

My drilling is up to 12mm with std drills and step drills for sheet material.

Have anyone tried to combine the float lock with a normal drill press vice, it seem so simple?

Michael thanks for the nippy ebay link - I would like one. This one has been on ebay for some time....maybe is to do with the £200+pp price tag?

I need a bigger vice for my now renovated Startrite Mercury drill, something like 100mm jaws and possible to clamp down. While looking I saw a 3 way vice from Axminster:

https://www.axminstertools.com/axminster-3-way-unigrip-vertical-horizontal-drill-vice-ax23561

Chronos have one that looks near identical from Soba.

I like my tools to be flexible and they could be useful when drilling anything with right angles or T-connections. Does anyone have thoughts or experience with this type of vice?

Switch in perfect condition arrived yesterday. A huge thank you to Richard.

I've decided to skip the reverse run for now and focus on getting the drill finished. I can always program the reverse on the inverter when needed. This will hopefully prevent all the bits from complete amalgamation with the disc sander project, which started when I got fed up hand sanding OZ redwood for a pepper grinder (it has not been seen lately.....).

Thank you so much for the switch it will make that part easy.

Just give me a shout if you need help with how to wire things up next time.

Hi Richard,

I got your PM and replied to it, don't know if it got to you.

I was in the workshop looking at mouting the inverter, no obvious place, so I will probably have to cut and weld up a bracket.

I may just place it away from the drill and use an ON-OFF switch on either the 1 phase input for the inverter or work out some control on/off. In either case it would be great to have a switch that fit. Btw I am an electronics engineer, so that part is not a problem.

Edited By Jon Halland on 01/10/2021 07:33:43

Hi Richard,

Thank you for the offer, I PM'ed you a few days back but don't know if it worked.

The motor is 3 phase and as off this week runs of an inverter that give the options of: forward, revers (requires an external switch), and variable speed via potentiometer on the inverter or use an external one.

I intend to use the variable speed control on the inverter and put a rotary switch in the original position to get a REW-OFF-FWD operation. I would like to keep an original look and feel if possible. This requires a 1 pole 3 position switch but it will only be switching low voltage control signals. What I can see from the pictures on lathes.co.uk it looks like an ON-OFF-ON-OFF switch that would probably not do this directly. It may be possible to add some small electronic switches and just use the mechanical positions.

Jon

Got the pulley off with a couple of heat treatments, penetrating oil and gentle tapping with a wooden dowel while hot.

So there is an inner spacer quite tight. The leftovers of the o-ring is in an inside groove on the spindle bush.

Pulled the bearings and spacers off in one go. Bearinngs are metric 47/25/12 mm and the pulley bore 5/8''

As can be seen from the pictures everything goes on from above to the seat on the spindle bush..

Still considering how to separate this. The spacer do not support the inner races, so it looks to me that these are 'one way' bearings - no way to get a tool on an inner race to pull it off without damaging the bearing.

The inner diameter of the pulley got values around 23.9x mm (the rim has a small taper, so I can't a proper hold) I guess this is equal to a 15/16'' bore (=23.81mm)?

On the lower end of the spindle bush I measured diameter values of 28.68-28.71mm which is 1.129'', which is close to 1-1/8''.

Anyone who know or can verify this?

The housing do not have a seat for the outer race of the lower ball bearing to set to.

The whole spindle bush assembly is fixed to the housing by the grub screw on the upper bearing.

The spacer is for the outer races, don't know if there is support for the inner races, I guess not.

My guess is that assembly would have been something like:

Press upper bearing onto spindle bush (does it have a seat for the inner race to set to?), spacer, press lower bearing onto spindle bush keeping the spacer free to move (so tension is not put on the bearings), drown the spacer in grease so it does not rattle when the spindle is turning, place/press/tap the bearings into the housing using the outer races if necessary, fit the pulley.

I did not find an o-ring as per the manual, but what would be its purpose? Do not look like a good seal is possible, no need for a rubber guide with 2 steel bearings, what would prevent it from sliding of the spindle bush, noise damping ???

Yesterday I was cleaning the cast iron body, the only parts left on the body are the whole Spindle Bush Pulley Assembley, quill removed. While cleaning I noticed the following:

Bearings run tight, a flick of a finge gives less than 1 rotation. I would expect many rotations for a light bush/pulley in ball bearings. No noise or noticable sideway or up/down play in the bearings. When scrubbing the pulley from above there was a small clunk sound and i moved downwards about 1 mm. The sound was from the inner pulley hitting the top of the base. From below it was possible to see the outer race of the lower ball bearring move up/down in the houseing. When turning the pulley the outer race could also turn, but so could the inner race ie not stuck.

Checked the manual (http://www.altsawsandspares.co.uk/spares.html) and did the following:

Tigthend the grub screw through a hole in the pulley (second gear from below - see photo). This stopped the whole assembly moving up/down and the outer race of the lower bearing rotating. Loosening increased the up/down movement to ~5 mm, but it did not free the whole assembly for lifting up and out of the housing.

Removed the 2 grub and 2 set screws for the pulley and applied light tapping and light force with a puller, heat - not moving.

Just back from the workshop and events overtook this post. What I was after was info on how the bearings are seated and the spacer to best work out how to dissamble. The heating yesterday must have gotten the old grease to move so I could lift up the whole assembly until the bottom bearing was ligthly stuck at the top. A few taps with a hammer from the bottom through a pice of wood got the whole assembly to get out. Will post pictures later.

Thanks Rod and DC31k. Good info on the BA thread history. BA thread gauge on the way.

The guy who sold me the drill said it was originally in a factory where he started working in 1964/65.

I grew up metric and have lived happily so far........so new for me to try to work out any inchy threads bar UNC.

I checked again over 1/4'' and get ~9.5 threads, so ~38 TPI. I cant get closer with only a caliper and magnifer.

The 4BA is a likely candidate, thanks.

I'm renovating a Startrite Mercury MkI - 5 speed (age before 1965), it came without the on/off switch on left side and a different external switch/fuse arrangement. I may put an on/off switch there or a blanking plate. There were no screws in the nutsets, but the serial number plate screws fit, so I measured it up:

Outside thread: 3.47mm, 40 TPI (counted over 1/4''.

This rules out M3.5 since the thread count do not fit either normal (pitch 0.6) or fine (pitch 0.35) and the diameter do not fit the wiki BSW or BSF tables.

I could be UNF #6, but I have another screw that measure 3.50mm, 40 TPI, but that do not fit. The screw that fit is not tight, so I guess it is not the 0.03mm difference but thread geometry?

If anyone know the what the thread is it would be appreciated.

Hi All,

Thank you for the nice welcome. Chris I am indeed in Aldridge - just a bit SSW of Lichfield.

Howard, thanks for your good advise. I'm trying to educate myself about the diffrent drills from the many threads on this issue but also work out my own requirements. So far my thourghts are:

1. Light-ish weight, so I (or with a helping hand) can handle the head myself when not on the stand.

2. I engineering terms my requirements are light duty, say drilling 10mm holes in 8mm mild steel. I can't imagine jamming a 7/8'' drill 3'' into cast iron any time soon.

3. Speed range min down to 100 rpm (countersinking in steel and plastics), not much need for fast speeds - I'll just go a bit slower on the feed.

4. MT2 taper for flexibility, quill lock, depth stop

regards

Hi All,

I'm not a model engineer but have been reading a good few forum post here with a lot of great info and interesting projects. I like DIY, woodworking and is just starting to do a few metal working bits (racks for my smoker, anglegrinder guide, scribe for marking lines). Doing theese I realised my little Taiwan bench pillar drill is not up to the job, so a project could be finding and fixing an old school floor drill. That vould clear up space on the bench..... just need to find some on the floor.

If its not broken don't fix it - but you can always look indside and then fix it

Cheers