Boice Crane/ Wilton DP Rebuild

[BigSmoke]

So I picked up the Boice Crane DP for $75 on Craigs.

Has a single phase Baldor 3/4 HP motor and works.

Only noticable problem is the chuck has been welded to the lower in of the spindle. Hmmmmmm.

[BigSmoke]

I got the machine completely un-assembled and I find this. A broken spindle. The previous owner had simply did a backyard fix and welded the locking collar to a chuck and let er' rip.

This drill originally came with a Jacobs 33JT tapered chuck with a locking collar and they are easily found just about anywhere you go.

The spindle however, is gonna be a crap shoot. I thought about advertising a "Want to buy" as on sites like OWWM.org but I have abosolutely zero patience.

[BigSmoke]

I carefully cut off the locking collar and completely disasembled the spindle to see what kind of contraption that I could come up with.

[BigSmoke]

Took my pile of parts and headed west to my nearest machine shop.

Jacobs does offer a 33JT tapered chuck with or without the locking collar.
I wanted to keep the collar version Jacobs chuck but the shop talked me out of it.

The only regret I have now that I could have had any chuck taper that I wanted. Stupid me didn't even think about this since I was having a custom spindle made.

I found a Cushman 1" X 33JT straight shank adaptor and four new bearings for the spindle/quill and headed west once again to the machine shop.

He finished it the next day and reasembled the quill before I got there. I actually didn't get to see the new part :(

I desperately wanted to take it apart to see but I left it alone.

[BigSmoke]

I got the motor apart and found a wealth of wasp and mudd dopper nests.

I chipped em out and inspected the bearing etc for wear.

Bearing are a little sticky but it all looks good to me so I'm gonna use it.

This one however, will be left to the pro's since I don't have a clue about electric motors.

The local shop slapped on some new bearing and cleaned the armature etc for a mere $72.61.

[BigSmoke]

I got things torn this far apart so I might as well strip off the paint so I can strip of the rust below it.

Aircraft Stripper was used to remove the paint on the drill head parts and drill table.

Man, the base is looking terrible! Might have to find a sand blaster.

[BigSmoke]

Friend of mine down the road restores Mopar classics and has a really nice Eastwood cabinet blaster.

A quick phone call and I was on my way with parts to blast.

I don't have much patience and I get bored easily. You can see in this pic that I really didn't spend enough time at the blaster to completely strip the surface rust.

Nothing that a little wire wheel action can't fix.

[BigSmoke]

The colum has all sorts of junk on it. Dried grease, paint and more rust.

Picked a little area and threw the wire wheel at it.

Once the goo was gone, I put a red 3M 4.5" pad on the angle grinder and buffed, buffed, buffed my way to this.

Not too shabby!

I also worked on the top of the base a little. Needs a lot more work but will look just fine in the end.

[BigSmoke]

Wasn't sure what I wanted to do on the bottom of the base. I have access to a cabinet blaster but not an outside blaster I'm tired of running up and down the mountain for this and that.

So the last time I went to town, I picked a bottle of Rust Mort (Phosphoric acid) from an auto body supply store.

Pic #2 shows the area that's been treated with Rust Mort. Looking good!

[712edf]

Busy day, nice work!

Bucky

[BigSmoke]

I used a mini wire cup on a die grinder to remove all the excess gunk and rust. I was very pleased to find a nice solid metal base without any cancer holes poking through.

Pic#2 shows the aftermath of a Rust Mort treatment. I'm no chemist or metalurgist so I can't figure out why the steel turned white. It doesn't scrub off either. Must be some fancy chemical reaction.

I'll paint my rusty base in POR15 first before the final paint goes on. Hopefully this will keep it in good shape for years to come.

[BigSmoke]

Parts strung up and getting primer!

Base and colum are still a work in progress at this point and I need to re-disasemble the motor for paint as well.

[Gordon Maney]

Great find and a neat account of your work!

[BigSmoke]

Paint is done.

I used Rustoleum Hammered paint (Verde Green). It's not the original BLUE-ish Boice Crane color but I think it gave it the 1960's machine look.

The Column, base and motor still needs to be polished and painted though.

All I need now is a new Jacobs chuck and some SO Cord and I'm ready to roll.

[JStinson]

Great thread!