Almost threw out my grandpa's old drill press...

I was about to haul this beat up 1950s Craftsman drill press to the scrapyard. The belt was slipping and the chuck wobbled like crazy. Then my buddy said he fixed his with a $15 belt from Amazon and some PB Blaster on the chuck. Took me 45 minutes and now it runs smoother than my dad's new Ryobi. Anyone else hung onto old tools and been surprised?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia55810d ago

Grandpa would be rolling in his grave if he knew you almost scrapped that press. That 1950s Craftsman is probably worth more than three Ryobis put together. I've got a 1962 Delta table saw that refuses to die, just needed a $8 capacitor and some elbow grease. New tools are nice until they break right after the warranty expires.

emery_white9d ago

Nah @patricia558, you're close but that Craftsman press is actually from '54 not the 50s exactly. Small detail but your point still stands hard, those old tools are tanks compared to the plastic junk now.

carr.lee9d ago

Tbh nobody's mentioned the weird satisfaction of fixing something your grandpa probably fixed himself back in the day. That drill press has probably been saved from the trash at least three times across two generations. The wobble was likely just a burr on the chuck taper from when he changed bits out with a hammer instead of a puller. A little fine sandpaper and some oil and you're basically continuing his tradition of making things work with what you got.