6.25.2007

I love my drill press


I've been searching for a good-old, heavy-duty, American-made drill press. I think I hit the mother load. For $100, I brought home this Delta 17" industrial drill press from a garage sale this weekend. It must weigh around 300 lbs.

It was probably made in 1939, the same year our house was built. It was from the Burlake Manufacturing Company, a WWII munitions factory, here in Burbank.

4 comments:

tjarrett said...

Very very cool. When I saw the photos in your Flickr stream, I thought you were doing research for a new animated character--it never occurred to me that you actually had bought the thing. I love drill presses--used to use the things in high school working back at the particle accelerator.

Out of curiosity, how does one "bring home" a presumably extraordinarily heavy piece of industrial machinery like that?

John Edgar Park said...

Tim, I love that you just used the phrase "... back at the particle accelerator."

Believe it or not, three of us tipped the beast into the back of Erin's minivan, strapped it down, and drove home real slow. The harder part was getting it out. We sort of slid it out down a plywood ramp and onto a dolly. I found the manual on Old Woodworking Machines owwm.org and the sucker is 400lbs.

Silvia said...

I think Eddie is jealous. :) One tool he has yet to acquire.

Anonymous said...

Hi. I found your blog on your drill press. Perhaps you could help me as I'm in a bind -- need to drill 5/16" holes about 1/2" deep into approximately 160 small squares of ceramic. It is for mounting an exterior sculpture piece going to Hawaii. If you're interested, please give me a call right away as we are on a tight s schedule - piece is due to ship on Friday and mounts need to be epoxied on reverse of artwork as well. Many thanks and congrats on your drill press. Wish I had been so lucky! Christy Beckwith 818-795-6067 xtbceramics@gmail.com