Vintage drill press (Kerry's super 8)

[Ric Goodman]

Hello,

I'm a little late to the party, but I have a Mk1 Super 8, with a Hoover 1/3 HP motor and original MEM Co. Auto Memota starter.

I've just fully stripped, cleaned and rebuilt it, along with new bearings. I have over 100 photos of the rebuild and happy to help and share photos if useful.

View attachment 254315

Hallo Chris F -

Grateful for some help please. I'm taking my Kerry Supper 8 apart. Everything looks fine except the quill spring is broken, and the threads on the levers and hub are stripped.

1/ I cannot work out how to remove the horizontal splined rod - there seems to be a ring with a notch in one side but it does not rotate or pull out. Could you kindly send me photo of the part and even explain how to remove it?
2/ The bearings feel fine but now it is in pieces I am tempted to replace them. Do you know the dimensions of the all the bearings? Did you replace with sealed? Where did you buy replacements from?
3/ Any idea where to find a return spring? Is there a generic part that will fit?

Many thanks for the assistance - hoping the response on the board will help others to follow.

Ric

 

[Chris F]

Hi Ric,

I'll get some photos tomorrow for you. The horizontal spline was a pain to get out. There is a pin that holds the handle and hub on, took me ages to get it out.

The bearings are old imperial - odd though as one is 1inch inner diameter and the other is 25mm, (slightest of difference). I didn't get the bearings though, one of my friends helped so I'll see what I can find out.

Not sure about the return spring. Looks pretty specific in terms of fitting and design. I was super surprised to find that mine had probably never been removed as it looks brand new inside. It is just a metal coil type spring though.

I'll post photos tomorrow.

Chris

 

[Turbo]

Any idea where to find a return spring? Is there a generic part that will fit?

If the spring is broken near the end you can sometimes get away with annealing the end & bending it to the correct shape for the locating slot. There are also generic 'drill press springs' on ebay that might be suitable.

 

[Ric Goodman]

Hi Ric,

I'll get some photos tomorrow for you. The horizontal spline was a pain to get out. There is a pin that holds the handle and hub on, took me ages to get it out.

The bearings are old imperial - odd though as one is 1inch inner diameter and the other is 25mm, (slightest of difference). I didn't get the bearings though, one of my friends helped so I'll see what I can find out.

Not sure about the return spring. Looks pretty specific in terms of fitting and design. I was super surprised to find that mine had probably never been removed as it looks brand new inside. It is just a metal coil type spring though.

I'll post photos tomorrow.

Chris

Many thanks Chris in anticipation!

Here are pictures of the ends of the splined bar - a bit messed up but I think they can be rethreaded or reamed. You can see the hole in the outer ring on the threaded hub end - I cannot see if this ring is thread using a hook spanner (as with a ER collet ring, for example), or possibly has a radial pin. So any clarity on that would be great.

As you can see from by bench top drill parts "still life" shot I will be relying heavily on you to get it back together :-)

 

[Ric Goodman]

If the spring is broken near the end you can sometimes get away with annealing the end & bending it to the correct shape for the locating slot. There are also generic 'drill press springs' on ebay that might be suitable.

Very good point, Turbo. Not sure why I did not think of that as I seem to spend half my time on ebay.

The broken spring in the holder is 1.6"x0.5"x0.03" I've ordered a 40x10x0.8mm (I could not find the metric equiv to the slightly wider half inch wide approx. 40x12x0.7mm), but I think this will do. At gbp4.43 it's worth a punt.

Rgds.

 

[Ric Goodman]

The next area of confusion is - what is the threads on the splined spindle?

Mine is quite rounded off and measures 0.675", which I guess was originally 11/16s or even 3/4, but the pitch is 14TPI, and this does not match with any standard thread as far as I am aware.

The rods for turning the spindle, screwed in to the hub with retaining nuts on the inside, seem to be 7/16 x 18 which is BSF.

If I go the route of making a new hub, I could do both the blind hole in the new hub and re-thread the spindle to 5/8 x 14 BSF. But if I can get away with cleaning up the existing thread and a dollop of Locktite that would be a load easier. The original hub is 3.75 diameter and it would be better I think to use steel to replace whatever soft alloy the original is made from.

Any thoughts - or manuals - on this please?

 

[Chris F]

Didn't manage to get round to taking photos, but will do soon.

Tony at Lathes.co.uk is really good, sure he has manuals too - http://www.lathes.co.uk/kerrysuper8/

 

[Chris F]

I can't actually remember how the quill spline comes out, but I think looking back a photos, you have to knock it out from the spring side. I remember it being a pain, but the hardest part was getting the handle hub off.

Not sure if this photo helps..

 

[Ric Goodman]

Chris - Many thanks for this, very helpful.

It confirmed that what was holding it in was just a bushing / plain bearing. So I wacked it a lot harder (multiple times with a flat bottom copper punch) that I had the courage for previously and out it came! Yay!

BTW your part in your picture is different from mine - the bushing looks shorter (mine is 1 3/8 long), and is fitted on the threaded end. I think I will try and re-thread this to a smaller size (not just as I don't have a 11/16 WW LHT die!) but can turn this down on the lathe. Making a new spindle with all those splined teeth is beyond my ability.

The next conundrum is now to extract the quill stem from the housing. It is held in between two bearings. There might be a pin fitting the stem to the top of the Morse housing which would come out with a drift. Or it might be another leap of faith and a big thump down from the top. Errr...

Mind you, these bearings seem good with no lateral play, and only a slight vertical movement which I might take that movement in to account if drilling an accurate depth hole. Another ho-hum decision.

Best,
Ric

 

[Brad93]

Sorry to bump an old thread but does anyone know what size belts these take?

 

[MetalMonkey]

A42 I believe @Brad93 pretty sure that's what's on mine - somebody else might be able to confirm.

 

[Turbo]

A42 normally but can be A43