# Finishing my Nantong Drill Press



## modela (Sep 11, 2012)

For some reason I always seem to be drilling something that is too deep for my Clausing drill press or wants to run at a faster or slower speed than it will run.  When I saw this on Craigslist, I took a shot at it.

It was the typical used and under cared for machine needing lots of cleanup and TLC. I pulled it all apart to find some of the bearings were rough and the 3MT taper chuck was really stuck.  These pictures show everything cleaned up and ready to go.  At over six feet tall it is incredibly tall so I wasted no time in taking the motor off and removing the spacer block and the cross feed table.  It came with a nice stand with adjustable feet.






Although there is some damage to the top of the cross feed table, the gibs and feed screw adjusted nicely and work smoothly.  The block where the crossfeed table mounts took some kind of oddball size t-nuts to I took it to the Bridgeport and widened them slightly to take standard 1/2" t-nuts.







There was the usual electrical messes.  The input cord was flopping in the breeze, handing down out of the box with wires rubbing on the hole.  The box itself was only held in by one screw and the switch was loose.  So I fixed each one of these.




The head moves out on a gear.  It had about 1/8" slop in it because there were no jamb nuts on the adjusting set screws.  In addition, the allen hex heads were broken out.  Cleaning, adjusting, and lubing tightened it right up.






One of the nice things about this is the way the head moves out to almost 20" on center from the post.  

With the new bearings, the thing is very quiet, surprisingly so.  The motor bearings sound new, so everything is tight.  I believe you could use this as a milling machine.  It uses a 3MT taper collar.  It has good sized roller bearings in the quill and the quill works smoothly.

I am looking forward to putting it to use.

Jim


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## 7HC (Sep 11, 2012)

Very nice, and seriously heavy duty!  )


M


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## jumps4 (Sep 11, 2012)

that is really nice, good find
steve


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## pineyfolks (Sep 12, 2012)

Nice drill:thumbzup:. Does it have power down feed?


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## modela (Sep 12, 2012)

pineyfolks said:


> Nice drill:thumbzup:. Does it have power down feed?



No it doesn't, unfortunately. It would probably weigh a ton if it did.   )

If I need one I can probably use my Bridgeport.

Jim


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## joe_m (Sep 12, 2012)

Good save/rebuild. If the spacer is original then you might consider listing it on fleabay. I stumbled across the vertical mill spacers on ENCO and had a mini heart attack when I found out how much a round piece of metal with three holes goes for. I'da never thought to just remill the slots to take a standard t-nut - sure beats hunting down (and paying for) a clamp set that's only good for one machine.


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## modela (Sep 12, 2012)

joe_m said:


> Good save/rebuild. If the spacer is original then you might consider listing it on fleabay. I stumbled across the vertical mill spacers on ENCO and had a mini heart attack when I found out how much a round piece of metal with three holes goes for. I'da never thought to just remill the slots to take a standard t-nut - sure beats hunting down (and paying for) a clamp set that's only good for one machine.



There seem to  be a ton of t-nuts out there--look at grainger's.  Individually they really get you.  I started milling down some t-nuts I had and thought, this is "nuts".  Milling the slots worked great.


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## HMF (Sep 29, 2012)

Jim,

I really love to see your projects on here! Keep up the good work!


:tiphat:Nelson


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