Drill Press Repair #2: Drill Press Repair Part 2

Let’s see where were we. Oh yeah I called Shop Fox and I found out that shop fox does not handle their parts they gave me the info on the company that does. I gave them a call and they were pleasant to deal with. They helped me with ordering the part. They only had three left in stock, so I ordered two. If I didn’t order the second part the 1st part would fail, and I would not be able to order a replacement part. That’s just how my luck rolls.

The part got to my house in 5 days shipped UPS Ground. I opened up the box and pulled out the bag. I took out the two spindles and compared them with the original. Everything matched so I proceeded with the repair.

I took one of the two new spindles and set it aside. The other I put back in the bag and put a little motor oil in the bag and made sure the spindle was covered. I then sealed the bag. I think that this would do a good job of preventing the part from rusting. I had already taken the small spindle out of the spindle holder I lubed up the new spindle. I placed the spindle holder in my face vice and hammered the spindle into the bearing. When I did this, the top bearing (located on the bottom the spindle is upside down in the vise). I was not able to get the bearing in easily. I had to devise a way to reseat the bearing. My solution was to drill a hole in an MDF block for the shaft to slip through. I used my face vice like a hydraulic press squeezing and tapping the bearing into place. This worked. Once the spindle and bearing were back in place, I could reinsert the clip ring; the clip went on with no problem now that I had the right spindle. Inserting the spindle assembly back in the press was pretty straightforward. I attached the spring and gave the handle a try. I did not have enough tension on the spring to lift the assembly back up after lowering it. I tightened up the spring and all good. I powered up the drill press and hooray a working drill press. I did without a drill press for quite some time before I bought this press. Now that I own a drill press it was really difficult to do with out…

-- -Shawn