Table and fence for Meddings radial arm drill

[Farmer Giles]

I bought this drill a while ago but have only just got it up into the workshop from the barn below as it's a bit of a lump and it needed the head off another drill. I need to wire it up to my 3 phase 415v inverter in the next week or so and eventually it will receive a renovation including paint but for now I have need of it so it will be pressed into service.

The plan is to build a table and fence to cover the existing table that can easily be removed if I want to use it for metalwork. I have another drill I use for metalwork so I will only need to do this if I need the larger throat depth of this one.

I have a large piece of buffalo board already laminated with blue formica and I bought the rails and fence from Woodpecker ages ago. So it will be a supersized version of this.

But with an elongated sacrificial insert as its a radial arm drill, the radial arm is unusual as the path is not in one axis, the head swings around and can reach any part of the table, however I will use it in a similar fashion to a conventional radial arm drill mostly, and if I don't occasionally, I will use a bit of scrap to cover the bit of table I'm using.

I also have a deeper fence for drilling taller stuff

More when I get around to it.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Ttrees]

Where's the waiting with crisps and beers smilies ?
Can't wait to see it farmer G
Such a beast of a thing :ho2
Good luck

 

[Farmer Giles]

I found time to get the various bits together at lunchtime so I could build the table this weekend but came up against a couple of minor issues.

First the gearbox and drill innards were moving around in the cast head. As half the top of the casting is smashed until I get chance to clean up the spare casting and transfer the bits, then a bit of flex was expected. Fortunately it is just a few bolts missing from the remaining bits of casting so I will dig some out of the endless jam jars of imperial fixing that my pa left me.

Next issue was the T-Track. It's a bit short for this monster. The kit that I bought was for a normal sized table for a standard bench/pillar drill. I could make it do but for the sake of a bit of Incra T-track and self adhesive labels I thought I would do it once and do it right so two lengths on order from Wood Workers Workshop. I would rather have the T-track the full depth of the table. The bits of Woodpecker track thrown spare will definitely come in handy for another project, I'm beginning to get some ideas already

Here's the buffalo board covered in Formica before trimming to size. Width wise I may leave it as it is not getting in the way, I can always trim it later and I can use it as an out/in-feed table for both mitre saw and bandsaw. Depth wise it is currently 930mm, it will be be trimmed to 820mm. This allows me to trim off a couple of dodgy bits where I got something under the laminate on glue up and 820mm is two lengths of Incra self adhesive tape measure. Also 820mm is reachable, 930mm is a bit far. Again, I can trim this later if need be, it's a bit harder to stick it back on

I also found a couple of Jacobs 2MT shank chucks in the workshop drawers. I was going to buy keyless but I'm in no hurry, these just need a bit of TLC before use.

I'll wait for the T-Track to arrive before cutting the top for the track, that way I can trim the board to size after routing the slots so it doesn't matter if I get a bit of tear out at the end of the slots, saves me from clamping scrap to the ends.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

The missing bolts in the old head turned out to be snapped bolts, I could drill and tap but I have the other head stripped down and nearly ready for paint so the contents of the head on the drill will be transferred to the new casting in about a week or so. Here' the new head being filled ready for paint. It is the original head off the drill with the blue paint removed, the paint sort of fell off while I was degreasing the head

Take out the gearbox, quill etc.

Degrease it and the new alloy cover. Hot water softened the crap blue paint and it came off in sheets.

Most of the blue paint has gone

Filling and sanding, almost ready for masking, degreasing and spraying.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I painted it early Monday morning in the utility room I'm refurbishing as its the only place warm enough

masked

painted and most of the masking removed, it is a brighter blue/green, the flash has washed the colour a bit.

It's now nestling in my warm office hardening off before I start swapping bits over, maybe this weekend, it's my youngest daughters Birthday and I also have the 2.5 T&E cable to put in her new bedroom before the plasterboard goes onto the walls so not sure when I will get an hour of two.

Cheers
Andy

 

[TFrench]

Looks great!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Farmer Giles]

Looks great!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Thanks TFrench I'm still waiting for Incra T-track so I can't start the table/fence yet, so I'm finishing off the new head. I sanded/filled/sprayed the top arm of the drill and all the ancillaries for the head at the weekend so should be able to assemble it this weekend and get it powered up early next week.

Fortunately, the first coat of paint that the drill received many years ago after the factory paint was directly on top of grease with no sanding so the paint came off easily and most bits just needed a light fill where there were major holes. I've ordered some new 4 core flex as the wiring was a bit brittle so the head should be as good as new once complete.

Once the head is done, depending when the T-track arrives, I'll crack on with the bottom half, may as well get it finished, one of my many new year's resolutions was to finish what I have started.

Cheers
Andy

 

[TFrench]

I'm on a similar sort of resolution - got a mitre guillotine to fix, a RJH pedestal grinder to swap the bearings in and get back together, my lathe has done a bearing and I've just bought a startrite bandsaw that needs an inverter and a few bits doing to it. No new projects till that lot is cleared!

 

[Farmer Giles]

I'm on a similar sort of resolution - got a mitre guillotine to fix, a RJH pedestal grinder to swap the bearings in and get back together, my lathe has done a bearing and I've just bought a startrite bandsaw that needs an inverter and a few bits doing to it. No new projects till that lot is cleared!

It had to be done, I have bits of unfinished projects everywhere. Once the drill and table are finished, I'm back on the Viceroy lathe, just needs a bit of reassembly, then it will be benches. First the 8 x 4 holey table for cutting the bits of kitchen up, then the Roubo bench. I also need to drop the Fordson Dexta I'm working on down into the barn below for painting. Once I have that complete the plastering in the utility should be finished so I will have to start building carcasses.

Here's a bit more progress, no sign of the Incra T-track yet so I have assembled the head and started on the lower half.

Head assembled

table off

'orrible dark blue paint mostly removed.

Probably painting it next weekend, 3 phase supply being extended to it on Friday.

We will get to the table top and fence at some point

Cheers
Andy

 

[Turbo]

There's a bloke on another forum and he his doing a very similar refurb but he's a bit further ahead than you! So come on, get a move on! :wink: :mrgreen:

 

[thick_mike]

Looks so solid. Hope you have reinforced the earth’s core to take the weight!

 

[Farmer Giles]

There's a bloke on another forum and he his doing a very similar refurb but he's a bit further ahead than you! So come on, get a move on! :wink: :mrgreen:

I know the other bloke, he's faster but not as thorough, debonair, handsome or intelligent A bit more modest maybe

I started this thread in addition to the more detailed refurb thread in on the other site mainly to talk about the fence for woodworking but I'm still waiting for the Incra T-Track from WWW. They should be coming soon. In the mean time, here's some pics of the refurb so far.

Table painted on the sides and underneath

Very holey table ready to go back on the drill

Back on the drill, a bucket of JB Weld needed, some of the holes go all the way through as shown by the screwdriver

Filled with JB Weld, you can see some on the right hand panel that I have sanded, it will need a few coats on the bigger chips. In this weather the JB Weld takes quite a few days before it stops being rubbery.

As it stands today, a layer of JB Weld is curing and by the time that is completed I'm hoping my T-Track has been delivered and I can crack on with the fence.

Cheers
Andy

 

[MattRoberts]

That's a beast, but shaping up really nicely! Not heard of that JB weld - does it dry a similar colour to the iron?

Looking forward to seeing the end result

 

[Farmer Giles]

That's a beast, but shaping up really nicely! Not heard of that JB weld - does it dry a similar colour to the iron?

Looking forward to seeing the end result

Thanks Matt.

The original JB Weld is a two part epoxy, it supposed to set dark grey but when you sand it, it turns light grey but I suspect it will darken up if you polish it up a bit and it gets a bit of grease on it.

The top is always going to look like the surface of the moon but at least it will be flat and easier to clean.

 

[Bm101]

Thanks for the update Andy. Great stuff. Finished my 'little' one bought about the same time apart from the final wire up. Loft Extension to finish before that. She's just sitting there...
Regards
Chris

 

[Farmer Giles]

Finally the courier was able to deliver the T-Track so I can get on with the table and fence.

After laying the parts out a couple of time and going through various scenarios with various bits of sawn timber and sheet material, my first thought is a combined table able to do both. Also this allows me to hide a large lump of something that I accidentally allowed in between the buffalo board and the Formica when I glued it up, probably a splinter off a stick I was using to align the Formica and top.

Here's the initial plan. The offending lump will be gone when I route out the left hand centre T-Track.

Here's what it looks like laid out on top of the table. The table will be trimmed about 3" in depth and 6" in width and the sacrificial strip is not on there as I'm still deliberating on its length and width.

The drill chuck has a pencil in it as I was exploring the furthest and closest the chuck gets from/to the drill column so I can place the smaller fence accordingly and make sure the sacrificial MDF or ply strip is deep enough. This furthest/closest happens to be 610mm and 350mm respectively so 260mm of travel so I'm thinking of making it about 400 long and 75mm wide. I will probably end up doing 99% of drilling at 610mm i.e. the furthest extension as you have to twist the drill head sideways to get closer to the column which makes is awkward to operate the quill.

I'm not doing anything more today, or probably tomorrow, I like to ponder for a couple of days before getting the router out

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

Well I did do a bit more today as I ran out of some bits I needed for the other job I had planned.

I got the two long outside tracks fitted and the table trimmed to size. First time I have used the Mafell plunge saw in anger, I used the laminate scoring facility before cutting through and it worked lovely.

I've marked out the other T-track for cutting out if I get chance tomorrow.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I finished off the table and fence a while ago and forgot to post it so here it is.

Fence for tall stuff etc.

fence for sheets etc.

I have a bit of run out on the quill so I'm swapping it out for the old one and changing the bearing. Should be as good as new then

Cheers
Andy

 

[LancsRick]

Looks great! What paint did you use please as the finish looks superb?

 

[Farmer Giles]

Looks great! What paint did you use please as the finish looks superb?

It's light blue Rust-Oleum CombiColor Hammertone aerosol, I used it mainly because you can use it down to 5c which helps in winter and it was the closest I could get to the original with a standard paint. I usually spray with a gun and compressor but as it was all relatively small components and I was doing it piecemeal it saved a lot on cleaning up time.