Buffalo No. 15 Drill Press Restoration

chevydyl said:
Nice job man, paint looks good
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Thank you! If I do it again, I think I'll purchase a HVLP paint sprayer from Harbor Freight. The thickness of that industrial style paint did not self level as much as I had hoped. There are some brush marks still apparent. It looks really nice from 5' away. Up close, it's kind of... eh... But in reality- it's a drill press. Not painting the Mona Lisa here! This is the best job I could do with a brush. I'm happy enough with it. :)
 
Exciting update: I was able to find a new (reconditioned) spindle direct from Buffalo! It's a #33JT, which is kind of a drag since I already bought a brand new #2JT heavy duty chuck, but the nice folks at Buffalo are throwing in a #33JT chuck for me as well. One nice thing is that while the 34-02 Jacobs chuck I ordered already was an upgrade to a 1/2" capacity, it appears that all of the #33JT chucks are 1/2" capacity by default. The #33JT is also a larger taper and therefore more surface area. This will be nice for the larger capacity chuck as well. And super bonus- they also had ONE pulley guard in stock as well, which I properly snatched up!

So a huge shout out to Buffalo Machines, Inc. Did you guys know that they are still around and still producing machines? More importantly- did you know that they still stock OEM parts for these old, vintage machines?? I sure didn't! I couldn't be more excited to have found a reground spindle and the pulley guard. Man, I looked all over the internet for a pulley guard- they just don't seem to be out there. Be sure to check them out if you're looking for parts! Nice folks- I personally talked with them on the phone for the parts order.

http://www.bmt-usa.com/6.html
 
That's badass dude, good on you for sniffing them out lol
And in that case send me the spindle and I'll fix it, you can either keep it or pass it along to another buffalo owner, what'd you think about that, unless you gotta send that one in for a core


What'd the replacement parts cost you?
 
chevydyl said:
That's badass dude, good on you for sniffing them out lol
And in that case send me the spindle and I'll fix it, you can either keep it or pass it along to another buffalo owner, what'd you think about that, unless you gotta send that one in for a core


What'd the replacement parts cost you?
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I did offer the spindle as a core, but they said it was beyond repair and didn't mention anything at all about sending it back to them. So... Sure thing! I'll send you a PM for shipping address. And I know- who would have thought they'd have these parts sitting on a shelf there!? Or that the were even still in business! I'm super stoked!

Yeah- the parts were NOT cheap, but I could find only *ONE* shop willing to take on the project (a precision tool grinding company) and their quote was far more than the replacement cost... I just keep telling myself "you only spent $50 on the drill press; you can splurge on an expensive replacement spindle." I have to be honest- I'm so new to machining that I think I also have to adjust my perception of what "expensive" means. Good grief is EVERYTHING in machining well over $100 each!?
 
to be honest, that's what got me into machining, I went to a shop and wanted two 4 small bushings made, he quoted like 250 or something, he said I know a guy with a small lathe for sale, I bought it, and I been buying machines ever since, it never stops. I run it as a machine shop welding shop on the side, and will be taking over some work when that same guy retires :)
 
VFD's are great. Saves all the hassle of a phase converter with less expense (at least until one has purchased more VFDs dedicated to separate machines). Your Buffalo is an interesting model. It looks like a transition from the one that I have (and the one on Vintagemachinery(dot)com) in that it has the sliding rod motor mount yet still uses the forward column clamp arrangement. By all means be extremely careful with that forward clamp; I really suggest that you rig an interior sleeve to prevent the bolt from being over-tightened. Buffalo changed the column clamping arrangement to the rear pattern like Atlas and Delta when they manufactured the official "15 inch" model. There are O&M manuals and catalog details readily available for those later models. Buffalo is still in existence or least they were about 6 years ago, but they do not have much information on the older products.
Enjoy your "new" drill press.
Regards, Geoff
 
110octane said:
VFD's are great. Saves all the hassle of a phase converter with less expense (at least until one has purchased more VFDs dedicated to separate machines). Your Buffalo is an interesting model. It looks like a transition from the one that I have (and the one on Vintagemachinery(dot)com) in that it has the sliding rod motor mount yet still uses the forward column clamp arrangement. By all means be extremely careful with that forward clamp; I really suggest that you rig an interior sleeve to prevent the bolt from being over-tightened. Buffalo changed the column clamping arrangement to the rear pattern like Atlas and Delta when they manufactured the official "15 inch" model. There are O&M manuals and catalog details readily available for those later models. Buffalo is still in existence or least they were about 6 years ago, but they do not have much information on the older products.
Enjoy your "new" drill press.
Regards, Geoff
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Buffalo is still in business. I was able to purchase a new spindle and, by luck, the pulley guard over the front pulley. It should arrive here on Monday. That's a good idea about machining a spacer. Once I get this lathe up and running, that sounds like a nice first project! I was curious though- you mentioned that you made your own spindle. What material did you make it out of and how did you cut the splines? I've been kind of curious if the splines could be cut on the lathe. I've seen what I'm going to call a "scratch method" where you advance the cutter longitudinally down the work with cutting a thousandth at a time. But this method was used to cut a keyway in aluminum. I'm not sure that would work in a very hard steel bar (drill rod?). Of course if you have a mill, this is probably a nonissue. I don't anticipate getting my mill for another year.
 
Not all spindles are hard, take a file to one and check, the spindle on my mill is soft the spindle in my lathe is soft, the spindle in my friends big ol prototrak k4 is soft, is has a 40 taper spindle
 
I believe that I used ANSI 1144 steel which is a proprietary product sometimes called "Stressproof" or "Nealloy", etc. by Niagara-Lasalle Steel. This steel machines very well but is very tough, not hard, although it can be heat treated if desired. However, as far as I can tell none of these light drill press spindles are heat treated so any decent steel, like 1018, or 12L14 (smooth to machine), or even 1045 (not so easy to machine, 1045) would work nicely. Buffalo told me they had nothing for my machine, so I'm glad you were able to get the parts you need. The spline was a sort of metric hybrid with the spindle pulley from Harbor Freight; I measured it as best I could and took some liberty with the ID radius. I was lucky and the fit came out very nice.

I am fortunate to have a 1944 Nichols horizontal mill, and I cut the spline with that machine using a shaped cutter. I have a typical photo of the spline machining. I had never used a single point cutter before in this sort of application, but it worked beyond any expectations I had. I would NOT recommend trying to use your lathe carriage as a shaper to cut splines. It takes a lifetime to do it and it loads the apron. My Asian "Birmingham" 14 X 40 lathe does not have a robust carriage travel rack and I had a bad experience trying to use it to cut a keyway once. My 10" Logan was far better for that, but still it is agonizingly slow just to cut one short keyway. I have a photo that leaves a lot to be desired, but maybe it will give you an idea of the setup.
Geoffspline44.jpg spline44.jpg spline44.jpg
 
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