Day 71, My First Drilling Machine
Today's installment in garage gems is my First Drilling Machine. Perhaps fittingly, it is also my first drilling machine. Confused? It is my first "drilling machine", or drill press, and it was made in 1976 in Taiwan under the badge First Drilling Machine, Model LCN-14, with serial #15940.
I was trying to do some cleaning and organizing in the shop, and this machine has been pushed against a while for a while, and I decided it needed a bit of love. I dusted it off, and then scrubbed down the cast iron beds with some WD-40 and a green brillo pad to remove some of the light surface rust, and then applied some of my (increasingly precious, at least to some) Johnson's paste wax to it. While I had it away from the wall I thought it might be good to take some pictures of it.
This drill press was part of the old Chabot Telescope Makers's equipment prior to their move from the old observatory site to the new Chabot Space and Science center. It's not especially glamorous, but it works well and I'm glad to have it. The "First" labeling is a rebadge. The manufacturer of the drill press was Long Chang, and apparently was distributed under a number of different labels. You can adjust the speed by adjusting a belt at the top. Nothing fancy, but it works pretty well.
The biggest problem with it is that it weights a ton. Well, perhaps not literally, but it weights enough that moving it onto a stand took considerable effort, and I don't look to repeat the effort. The existing stand is something that I cobbled together, and is probably not completely inadequate. At the very least I think I should make a strap to hold to the wall so that in the unlikely event of an earthquake, I am not injured by having it fall on me. In all seriousness, a smaller drill press would probably be more practical for me, but having a 14" model is nice.
Happy Saturday all.