Photo Index - Walker-Turner Co., Inc. - 20" Drill Press

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Walker-Turner Co., Inc.
Jersey City, NJ; Plainfield, NJ

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Drill Press
Machine Size:	20"
Submitted By:	Dick Streff

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	20" Drill Press
Date of Manufacturer:	?
Serial Number:
Last Updated	3/18/2007 12:00:00 AM

Comments:

I bought this sorry looking drill press at a state auction a few years ago. It was out on the university's ag farm and looked as if it had been stuck in a barn for several years underneath a pigeon roost. It was grimy with dirt and bird poop, laying forlorn on its side in a field of other auction lots. The motor mount tilt plate was broken and some chips were missing from the edge of the coolant trough on the production table. Still it was a noble old press and deserved better than what I thought it would get if I didn't buy it so I did.

I finally tracked down the motor plate late last year and that served as the impetus to finally get it in running condition again. I had to fix a lousy brazing job on the handwheel hub also.

As drill presses go this one is nothing short of stout. It has (or had) a couple unique feature that make it worthy of inclusion in the archives. I bought the machine as it lay on its side. What I didn't realize till I stood it up to load that something wasn't normal about the column. It was heavy as hell, and much taller than normal. Like a couple feet taller. It wasn't till I got it home and cleaned some of the accumulated crud off that I realized someone had spliced a couple extra feet of 1/2"wall tube on the top of the column with a solid slug of dowel. What in tarnation they could have been drilling with the head that high I can't surmise. The badges on the machine indicate it was Department of Army property out the "Chicago Ordnance District" at one point. The job of adding on was a decent piece of machine work so I doubt it was the staff at the ag farm. I'd have to surmise that someone in an ordnance plant in the midwest probably spent more time than they want to remember standing on a chair drilling some piece of weaponry for Uncle Sam's arsenals.

Also, the press has a unique pulley on the motor. It has an integral planetary gear reduction built in that gives the press six speeds from 1200 all the way down to 110 RPM. I'd seen that type of reduction advertised before for these presses, but it was on the Rockwell era machines and was mounted on the spindle pulley instead. If anyone has any dirty paper on this mechanism it would make a worthy inclusion in the archives.

Photo 1:

Comments: Drill press cleaned up and ready for service.
Source: My coolpix.

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Photo 2:

Comments: Shot of the planetary gear reduction pulley mounted on the motor.
Source: My coolpix.

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Photo 3:

Comments: Two foot chunk of 1/2" wall pipe I lopped off the top of the column
Source: My coolpix.

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