Drill press table elevation

[John T Barker]

I've got an old Powermatic drill press which has a table with no crank elevation. I've got it in a position now that I haven't changed in years and fear the day I might need to. I would like to have the crank elevation parts and put them on this machine...it should be an easy change over. I've done a few web searches and have not done real well in finding what I think I need. Any suggestions?

I'm in southeastern Pa., a half hour outside of Philly.

[Jim Dwight]

I have an old Craftsman with about a 10 step pulley for speed changes. I like the speed change feature. It goes from about 100 rpm to about 7000rpm. But it also has no elevation crank. And I have a wooden work surface with a few drawers on the table so it is heavy. What I did was to put a mounting plate up where the motor mount is for a boat trailer winch. I have a small rope attached to the table. It doesn't move the table up and down but it takes the heavy lifting out of the process. When I want to go up, I crank the rope tight, loosen the table height lock, and wiggle the table up. When I want to do down, I put some slack in the rope and let it go down a little. Not as nice as crank adjustment but much better than struggling with the heavy table.

[Ole Anderson]

I probably have the same Craftsman with the skinny belt. I usually leave the table in a fixed position and use blocks of wood and the spindle to push the head up or let it down depending on what I am doing. Yea, I wish I had a geared lift for the table, but if I had to choose, I would take the spindle lock over a lift. So useful.

[Walter Plummer]

Over on the vintage machinery web site there is a thread where he took a Harbor Freight trailer jack and mounted it upside down to the column .drill press.JPG Makes you have to bend over to far for me but maybe it could be modified?

[Ole Anderson]

Over on the vintage machinery web site there is a thread where he took a Harbor Freight trailer jack and mounted it upside down to the column .drill press.JPG Makes you have to bend over to far for me but maybe it could be modified?

I like the idea, might have to try it.

[Johannes Becker]

I usually tried to avoid moving the table since it was so hard to do. The trailer jack idea look really neat, especially if you want to crank larger distances. I normally need only a few inch up and down so I mounted a veneer press screw to the column under the table. I just loosen the column and then can move the table up and down with a few turns while looking at the drill tip distance to the table.

IMG_1990_2.jpgIMG_1991_2.jpg

[Ronald Blue]

Just food for thought here. Two things, flip the jack over to put the crank in a more ergonomic position and modify the shaft by cutting it off and welding a nut on it and using a cordless drill with a socket in it. Power raise and lower the table.

[Matt Day]

I've got the HF jack like shown above on my 1150. Cheap, easy install, functional.

[John T Barker]

Over on the vintage machinery web site there is a thread where he took a Harbor Freight trailer jack and mounted it upside down to the column .drill press.JPG Makes you have to bend over to far for me but maybe it could be modified?

I like that except for the part where I bend down. I appreciate the input folks...I was hoping someone would tell me about a business selling old ww machines and parts.

[Walter Plummer]

Try these guys. http://www.ereplacementparts.com/

[Sam Puhalovich]

Those trailer jacks come in different lengths.
My son-in-law has the same Craftsman drill press.
I mounted a shorter version of the trailer jack.
It worked so well that I bought one to replace the hand crank on mine.

[Al Launier]

I also have an older Craftsman drill press - 1970 vintage and to lower elevate the table I simply use a Pittsburg 3-Ton Long Ram Flat bottom hydraulic jack (http://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-h...ack-60393.html). It's slow, but works well. Beats having to struggle to raise it.

[Larry Frank]

I leave mine in the same position also. I have a couple of very sturdy little tables that I use on the drill press table to raise the work piece.

A future project is to add a electrical linear actuator to raise or lower the table. Same thing as the Jack but a push button.

[Jon Endres]

I was hoping someone would tell me about a business selling old ww machines and parts.

Here's one I've used: Plaza Machinery in Bethel, Vermont. www.plazamachinery.com

I was able to find a head-raising mechanism for my old Walker-Turner DP, which I adapted to the table instead. It does not give me a large range of movement but it works.

[Matt Day]

There was a company that made a lift mechanism but I think they went belly up. It's very hard to find the oem mechanism.
The other option is a counterweight system and you wouldn't have to bend down for that.