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New to me 20 " drill press

John Conroy

John Conroy

member
Premium Member
I find myself working on alot more wood projects these days and I really hate fouling my mill with wood when i need to drill some holes. I really didn't want a drill press as I am already short of space but I found a smokin deal on this Craftex 20" model CT026. It has seen very little use but has been stored in a damp garage for a few years so had a lit of surface rust. It was in a basement when went to pick it up so I had to disassemble it to get it to the truck. The head alone weighs 150lbs so I had my son come along to lend a hand loading it. I spent some time this weekend stripping rust, cleaning and lubing all exposed metal with Fluid Film. I built a rolling base for it so I can move it around. I machined 4 screw jacks to thread through the base to the floor to stabilize it when in use. It came with a nice new Shopfox keyless chuck and it runs very nicely and has tons of power with the 1.5hp motor. Here are some pics.

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I've got the same drill press, I bought new from Busy Bee. I suspect you will like it for wood work. I don't have a milling machine and usually cuss at my drill press slop and poorly cast/milled t-slots in the table.
I made a cent base roughly 8" high that it sits on that I like but it makes it moveable, which I see you obviously need. By the way... your wheeled base looks good.
 
Congrats John. Nice find and restro. I have almost the same machine from the long defunct "House of Tools." Two things I found handy:

  1. I put RedHeads in the floor underneath. This way I can bolt to the floor and tighten up, but can also remove if necessary and there is no exposed stud.
  2. Even after attached to the floor I had too much wobble. So I fastened the column to the wall behind it with a bracket and some cross bracing and the wobble almost disappeared. I noticed a huge improvement in hole quality—especially when using a cross slide vice. I'm sure it doesn't compete with your mill, but it sure helped on the drill press for me.
 
DPittman said:
I've got the same drill press, I bought new from Busy Bee. I suspect you will like it for wood work. I don't have a milling machine and usually cuss at my drill press slop and poorly cast/milled t-slots in the table.
I made a cent base roughly 8" high that it sits on that I like but it makes it moveable, which I see you obviously need. By the way... your wheeled base looks good.
Click to expand...


Thanks, this one seems pretty tight, with the quill extended to the full 4.5 inches of travel there is no perceptable play between quill and the casting. There was some vibration when running but after adjusting the belt alignment it is much better. I suspect that once I replace the belts with better quality ones it will improve more. The motor needed to be raised 1/4" to get proper belt alignment to the idler. Idler to quill alignment is done with shims and I had to add .060" inches to the shim stack to get it right. I just used a carpenters level as a straight edge across the top of the three pulleys to check it. Is used a scissor jack under the motor to raise it for accurate alignment.

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Yeah, I thought so too when I discovered them. Home Depot carries them. I called the manufacturer and they said you can remove the bolt/Allthread multiple times with no compromise on strength. I don't think you'd want to do it hundreds of times, but for the average guy who may want to do this a few times they are a good solution. They are cheap too.

One thing I learned when using them was to give extra edge distance. Because you are banging them with the setting tool to expand them there is a lot of stress during install. Too close to an edge and you're toast. I tested them by filling a bucket with concrete and experimenting. I also leaned depth is critical; don't drill too deep.

Looked around for this type of fastener for a long time. Hilti has nothing equivalent.
 
I have the same drill press and use it for most of my drilling in metal. I find the table does t tighten as solidly as I would like, and I’m sure there is considerable runout but haven’t ventured to see how much

I’m assuming it has the mt4 taper?




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When I saw the picture of the column laying on jack stands the first thought that came to mind was." Holly shit what a forge burner!"
 
It seems we all have different first impressions when giving that pic a quick glance. Now that I look at it again I'm reminded ot a military tank barrel
 
On my 17" Jet the cast iron base flexes as well as the column . I've had dance partners that didn't move around as much.

Great job on both clean up and base. Redheads were the common construction anchor before Hilti. Hilti has an inserts as well the bolts.

When I bought my drill press , I was still working, so I thought to replace the belts with Gates from the company stores. I took the number of the belts that came with it. Well First Rope size numbering isn't industrial standard ! You will have to take them in if you want to replace them. So I'm still using the originals.
 
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I took the old belts to Napa and they.matched them to ones they had in stock. Big improvement in smoothness
 
What is the column diameter on that press? Somebody in Calgary has a new one that was delivered without the column. I've got an old press with a broken table casting and the old column is fine, thanks for any help.
 
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