Reassembly Begins: Craftsman King-Seeley 103.23141 Drill Press Restoration, Pt. 20

Finally the moment has arrived where I reassemble the drill press. It kept getting superceded by events but now the moment is here!

Here are some of the chemicals I got together...lithium grease, silicone lubricant (like light oil), anti-seize for fasteners, and two kinds of synthetic grease.

You'll also note the two bearings that will go on the top pulley shaft.

The two Nachi bearings ready to go.

Moment of irony: when the press was built in 1952 or so, the bearings that were used were American-made. You probably couldn't even source a Japanese bearing. Now here I am using these, which are better quality than the originals.

They slip over the pulley shaft easily.

I managed to not lose the original circlip and so it goes back on.

There is a spacer piece between the bearings. I lubricated its inside and ends with some Mobil 1 synthetic wheel bearing grease. Maybe not necessary, but I figured it might make occasional contact with the pulley shaft while rotating, so why not.

By the way, I strugged for years removing and replacing those clips using a screwdriver or pliers; you may have too. So much easier and safer with the proper tool - for not much money.

The pulley assembly drops right in with a gentle mallet tap.

There are two retaining screws - I believe they are 8-32 x 1 1/2 inches - that go into the side of the head and locate the pulley shaft in place. They need to be reinstalled, or the pulley will tend to bounce up and down and create vibration. My original screws were trashed when I removed them, so I sprung for new stainless steel screws.

There are several column locking shafts that go through the head horizontally and hold the table and the head in place.

This is one of them, I lubricated it with a light coat of synthetic grease. These parts don't rotate after they're installed, but the grease made assembly a tad easier, and will protect the shafts from corrosion for decades.

I also used a Sandflex polishing block to clean up any light corrosion on hardware that I missed earlier in the process. That bolt is nice and shiny now.

You might think "why bother?" but my thinking is that I have it apart, I'm trying to restore it so it's like a well-maintained original, so why not? Only takes a few seconds to do it right.

The other thing I did on reassembly is to put a touch of anti-sieze compound on all fastener threads. It will be easy to take apart if needed, and it will again provide corrosion protection.

That's the brush from the jar in my hand, NOT a fastener! The stuff is really messy but I still love it.

The quill shaft - long story short.

I put the quill in, and assembled the whole press. When I ran it, I found I had a bad vibration from the front - the whole drive was shaking.

Turns out there was vertical play in the quill. There is a locking collar (right side in the picture) that locks up against a thin steel washer and rubber washer.  The purpose is to eliminate end play on the quill shaft.

I had about 1/32 of a inch - maybe 1.5 mm - of play and it was causing the vibration. Solved the issue by putting second washer - the thicker one - on the shaft to take up the play. The rubber washer has shrunk over the decades and didn't take up the play on its own. This was an easy fix and solved the issue.

Modern synthetic grease on the quill.

King-Seeley says to use "cup grease" here. I presume they mean "cup" as in a wheel bearing cup, so that's what I used.

When I originally took the quill apart, there was decades-old grease just caked on here. Hopefully this modern grease will last a long time and not dry up so much.

The quill easily slides in from the bottom. I think this was a test fit - note the quill was yet to be lubricated.

Remember that the teeth face backward - they'll engage with the feed pinion.

We're looking at the quill and its splined shaft from the back of the head. The whole head is still upside down at this point.

You can see how the quill splines engage with the top pulley assembly.

And the feed pinion engages with the quill.

It's really straightforward to put it all back together, nice to be using clean lubricated parts.

For a moment I imagined myself as an assembler in the King-Seeley factory in Michigan in the early 1950s.

Quill lock lever (front) and tension adjustment (back) in place.

I'll put the chuck on when the head is back on the column.

Since the press is so heavy, and I'd like to have some mobility, I made a mobile platform using a Bora base kit.

The base itself is 3/4 inch plywood. The wheels are pretty well designed and it's easy to put together.

Remember the adventure removing the rust from the base? Here it is installed on the mobile base. A far cry from where it was.

There's a shoe that goes in the back of the casting where the column fits into the base. I coated it, and the inside of the casting, with anti-sieze. It may help make it easier to take apart in the future if needed. (Not by me, I sincerely hope).

I didn't have an exact idea of how hard it would be to get the column back in or how deep it should sit, so I measured to the bottom of the base casting and marked that dimension on the column with tape.

I figured I'd have to drive the column in with a mallet and wanted to have an idea of how far along I was.

Gave the column a turn and...whoosh!...it dropped right down into place! It thunked when it hit the base.

Wow. Happy happy.

(You may recall  how I got it out originally).

It will actually turn easily now that is clean and lubricated, which is why there is a shoe to lock it in place.

Here's the table support showing the column locks I referenced earlier.

You can see how they're chamfered - the chamfer will lock against the column. The sleeve on the right is threaded - the bolt or handle slides through as shown here, then turning it engages the threaded sleeve to tighten and lock the sleeves against the column.

I sprayed the top of the column with silicone lube to help the table support and head slide on easier.

Here I'm tapping the table support onto the column using a pine scrap as a caul. It went on, but it was a bit of a battle. So I made some two adjustments to my technique.

First, it's too hard to try and fit the parts on with the column upright. They're just too heavy and awkward to handle.

After I battled with the table support, I decided to tilt the whole column/base backward, supported by a box, to make it easier to access.

The second issue was that the top edge of the column is pretty rough. I took a grinder to it to make a smooth chamfered edge so the head would slide on easier.

The table support tightens as noted with a handle.

Here we have the table support in place.

The table itself simply slides over the round fitting on the front.

Then there's a bolt under the table that locks it into place. This is the tilt adjustment. Loosen it and the table can be angled as needed to drill on an angle into a workpiece.

A pin locks the table into a horizontal postion.

Note the hole to the right on the support bracket - that's where we park the chuck key.

I won't mislead you. Unless you are incredibly strong, the head is a beast to put on the column. As I mentioned, I wound up tilting the column and base, supported it on an angle, and slid the head on.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures but you can imagine how I did it. A battle, but it does go on.

Here it is.

Note the column lock to the right of the feed hub. You must have that installed on the head first, and tighten it securely once the head is on. Otherwise, the weight of the head will make the whole thing want to slide rapidly down the column!  That didn't happen to me, fortunately.

A view from behind. Note the column lock handle on the right.

Once you get that bottom hole in the head (ha ha) over the column, it gets easier to slide the head on.

There are finished surfaces inside those holes the column passes through. I had polished them and lubricated them before assembly. If it ever has to come apart...well, hold that thought.

This is a column safety lock (or "saftey" as I saw it spelled in an ebay listing...). It apparently was an option from Sears; the drill press' manual doesn't show it in the exploded diagram.

I followed the diagrams and my pictures of the disassembly to put the press back together, so I was surprised when I was left with this piece - saying to myself, "Self, where does this go?"

I reached out to TMD for assistance. He researched on the Interwebs and discovered what it was.

Of course, I had already put the head on before I discovered what the lock was for. Naturally.

I took the head off - at least it wasn't too hard to do given my newly found expertise - and put the lock on.

This is the lock fitted. Some of the pictures of similar presses on the Interwebs show this lock, and some don't...which is why I believe it was likely an option.

Ok, next time, we put a belt on, fire it up and do some fine tuning.

The complete restoration saga

Part 1 - Beginning

Part 2 - Electrolysis to Remove Rust

Part 3 - Grinding to Remove Rust

Part 4 - Leveling Base Table

Part 5 - Recreating Model Number Label

Part 6 - Refinishing Base

Part 7 - Removing Motor

Part 8 - Motor Disassembly

Part 9 - Motor Bearing Replacement

Part 10 - Start Capacitor and Motor Reassembly

Part 11 - Removing Threaded Jacobs Chuck

Part 12 - Spindle Removal

Part 13 - Quill Disassembly

Part 14 - New Quill and Spindle Bearings

Part 15 - Engine Turned Aluminum Trim Proof of Concept

Part 16 - Engine Turned Aluminum Trim

Part 17 - Cleaning and Polishing Hardware

Part 18 - Jacobs 633C Drill Chuck Restoration

Part 19 - Cleaning and Polishing Column

Part 20 - Reassembly Begins

Part 21 - Restoration Completed