Thread: Tough Drill Press (gloat)

Picked up some odds & ends today.



I've been wanting a tapping head too:



Coupla nice vises:



Oh and this old thing:







The price? Well I tried to give him some money, honest...

nice score

wow that's really nice, i love old machinery they always look better than new machinery.
Good score

Hi Bryan,

You drive a "tough" deal, did you try and "barter" for the vise..

Nice drill, and especially nice tapping head, is it one of the auto reversing types?

Regards
Ray

F and R Tough made a selection of machine tools in Belmont, a spit across the river from where I live. The old rusted tin roofed building that housed their enterprise is still there but they're long gone.

My drill is a bit older than yours and it has a less covetable, direct mount chuck. Still, it is accurate and wonderfully quite in operation. It will be interesting to here how you reckon the Tough compares with your Waldown. The table on your drill is in reasonable nick.

The trove of other goodies looks impressive. I've never seen a little Carter drill vise before. They made some neat stuff.

BT

All that stuff looks pretty rusted and worthless. "If you need a hand carting it all to the tip, sing out".

Good restoration project, well done. I notice you carefully guarded where you snaffled the booty from.

No doubt some 90 year ex engineer's widow?

Ken

Bob I know you have a Tough drill. Google could only find yours: http://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/de...3/#post1248113 and an old Gray's listing: Drill press, Tough, type S52-4P | GraysOnline Australia. Both would appear to be earlier than mine, based on the belt guard. Now I know one more thing - they were from WA. Don't suppose you have anything about them in your literature collection?

Ray, yes it's a reversing tapping head. More details as they come to hand. And the vise is a Carter, but you still get points for being punny.

The drill has one major advantage over my old Waldown - a MT2 spindle, which I have drills to fit up to 25mm.

Edit: Bob you edited while I was typing. Thanks.

Ken, no widows were harmed in the making of this post.

Very nice score on the drill press.

I can't see it on your's but a worthwhile accessory is this column clamping ring. Makes table adjustment easy and would not be a difficult thing to make.

p.s. I just read your reply Bryan. My McPhersons catalogues only feature my drill with the abbreviated belt guard. There is a sizable gap in my collection. It jumps from 1966 to, I imagine, the early 80's when McPhersons released their plain brown covered catalogue. The later catalogue does not feature an abundance of machine tool photos.

BT

So I guess that makes mine later than '66.
I can see that column stop being handy.

Nice pick up Bryan, there shell be no more complaining "all the good stuff is in Melbourne"
Stuart

So mine appears to be a combination of both styles, mine has the front mounted depth stop, cast in name plate and the extended MT arbor same as Bryan's but the abbreviated belt cover of Anorak Bob's.

Mine is a bench style model with no marks on the table. I use an old scissor style car jack to raise and lower the table.

Attachment 179771Attachment 179772

I should point out that the Tough was always the drill I yearned for. When I was younger, I worked for an architect who specialized in furniture design. I would often visit the workshops of long established cabinetmaking firms and encounter Tough drills. More Toughs than Waldowns. That was at the beginning of the Taiwanese avalanche. The Australian drills retained the curvaceous forms of the American and English machines that inspired their design. The only Australian Waldown, the 2M, still retains that form, albeit with the boxlike belt guard. This country produced some neat gear, war shortages surely gave birth to many home grown machine tools that have come and gone. I feel priviledged to own the machines I have. I often think about the blokes that "designed" them and how often they got it right. That right that they are a joy to behold.


Sorry Boys, I'm getting carried away. I love this stuff!

Originally Posted by Gavin Newman

So mine appears to be a combination of both styles, mine has the front mounted depth stop, cast in name plate and the extended MT arbor same as Bryan's but the abbreviated belt cover of Anorak Bob's.

Mine is a bench style model with no marks on the table. I use an old scissor style car jack to raise and lower the table.

Attachment 179771Attachment 179772

Must be the transitional model then Gavin. Unbelievable that it's come this far with a pristine table. Mine was that bad that I had to replace it with a Taiwanese transplant. The nice thing about my drill is the ability to take up quill wear in the headstock casting. There is an additional pinch bolt incorporated into the design of the casting. Was this feature retained on your model?

BT

Gavin yours looks exactly like mine, down to the grey knobs. The only difference is the guard. It's pretty clear that is an afterthought, designed to fit an existing machine.

Bob I don't have memories like yours. I confess I'd never heard of Tough until the other day. I guess I've led a sheltered life. But I'm very happy to be using and caring for Aussie machinery from the era when this country made things and made them well.

Pretty sure there's only the one pinch bolt on my quill. I suppose if you used the clamp with care you could retain the wear adjustment aspect.