Qualters and Smith Qdm750 Restoration

Had a few hold ups with the progress on this, the spray gun I was going to use had a broken lid, I haven't used it for so long I completely forgot this happened last time it was used, it's an American Graco brand and a replacement cup is more expensive than I think it should be, so I bought a budget Italian midi gun with 1.2mm fluid tip after the Chinese touch up gun I use for rough work failed to work properly.

£28 including tax from spray guns direct, it seems to work very well for the price just had a little go with it this evening.

This is what I just painted this evening, I'll just touch on paragon paints advice to thin 15% for spraying advice, I found this to be too little I tried with 20% and this also seems to go on a bit dry, by the time I got it spraying satisfactorily I'd estimate it was nearer 25% .

I have painted the main castings, I used the Chinese touch up gun, which wasn't working properly, and the paint not thinned down enough to spray properly despite paragon's instructions, there's some dry matte areas not really visible from the photo but I'm going to give them a quick key up with a fine mirka pad a dust over with some suitably thinned paint out my new gun.

I've got a couple of projects on the go currently so progress hasn't been very fast, but the painting is finished and has been left long enough to reassemble, got the main castings back together, the ID plate riveted back on.

The inverter enclosure painted and back on.

Got the motor painted to match, the lid finished also.

The switches put back for the last time hopefully.

Pressed the spindle bearings out, the grease had turned semi solid so it did need taking apart, I will source some good quality bearings to replace all of them from a supplier recommended my Martin, I did wonder whether it's necessary but if it's done it's done.

Progress has continued slowly, very slowly but surely, I just uploaded the latest photos and this saga and it has hit 100 photos hopefully the end is within sight.

The spindle assembly was cleaned meticulously and reassembled with some good quality bearings, acquiring this odd mix of imperial and metric over the Christmas period postponed things a little.

The bearings in tbe spindles are open, so I stretched some of the plastic wrapping over to prevent debris falling in, a little ocd but they weren't cheap.

The upper thrust bearing pressed in.

All the back gear assembly given its final clean, and spindle assembly fully assembled with dust covers and circlips in place.

Before I reassemble this lot, just for those interested in possibly owning one of these old machines, possibly due to this one not having much use it's still being visible, the quill bore has been honed to fit, which explains why the fit is what you'd expect from a good quality milling machine quill.

Quite possibly no interest to 99.99999% of human kind, maybe even less.

The spindle, quill lock, and pinion arbor refitted.

The backgear and front pulley assembly fitted, as suggested by Martin in a previous thread, make sure the quill is moving freely up and down before knocking down the 2 locating dowels and tightening down.

Earlier in this thread you'll see the top of the drill casting had a slight wear mark where the back gear had worn into it, so I skimmed about a millimeter off the top of the back gear, so I could put an oilite washer underneath.

Removing the quill spring was a mistake, I would advise against removing this for any individual thinking about this, trying to put it back drew blood on both hands, and snapped the centre part where it attaches to the pinion arbor, luckily I was able to anneal it and re-bend a flat to hold in the arbor split, the paint also got a bit damaged

For anyone replacing the bearings, on this revision the bearings are 25mmx52mmx9mm and 1"x2"x3/8" for the upper pulley assembly, and 1"x2 1/4"x5/8" deep groove, 17mmx40mm12mm angular contact for the spindle.

An excellent restoration job Pete. You can be very proud of that and I am sure it will give you many hours of faithful work. Mine is a delight to use and just oozes quality, as you said earlier the quill bore honing demonstrates the level of accuracy the makers were aiming for and achieving. Mine has no measurable slop in the quill even when fully extended and it certainly did not have an easy life being from a car factory.

Well done!

Martin

You've done a great job there, Pete. Makes mine look rough by comparison but then again at least I'm not afraid to use it. The back gear came in handy when I had to drill and tap lots of holes last week.

For anyone considering one, these are very nice drills. I've always assumed they would be on a par with Meddings but I happened to pick up a Meddings drill recently and it's yet to be seen which one I keep.

Thanks both, I've wired up the motor and inverter, so over the weekend I'll have a play with that setting it up.

I also have a Meddings in a quite sorry state, the same as one recently posted on here in a 'what is a Meddings drill worth' thread, so I can't draw any honest comparison yet as I'm yet to fully dismantle it.

Yours is the floor standing model Ajax, so other floor standing equivalents might be comparable, but in the bench top category I don't think there's many comparable, Obviously the Kerry iterations which appear to be linked in design closely, but there aren't many bench top drills rated for putting a 20mm hole in steel.

I'll take a look at the Meddings when time permits and possibly give it the same treatment, although it's not back geared so it will not be replacing this, which model of Meddings do you have Ajax?