Radial drill: rebuild or replace?

Question

I have an OLD Cincinatti Bickford 2E-4 radial drill. The manual is dated

1931. Its functional but definately has a lot of miles on it. Is it possible/worth it to try and rebuild drive clutches, spindle bearings, etc or is it time for a replacement. We use the drill on a daily basis but have to run it at 1/2 recommended speeds/feed to keep the clutches from slipping (no more adjustment) or "popping" the spindle gear. Thanks in advance.

ATP · Accepted Answer

Giddings and Lewis has parts and manuals. They might be able to advise you. Another option would be to buy another old drill in good running shape, big old drill presses are not bringing much money these days.

Robin S. · Answer

How much is it costing the company to run a machine at half the speed it'ssupposed to run? At the shop I work, it could cost thousands per day on arush job (very large radials).Regards,Robin

williamhenry · Answer

if you have the inclination a rebuild is definitely possible unless you can longer get / make parts reasonably cheap

we just bought a used 24 inch column eight foot arm drill , we will rebuild it completely and only spend about a quarter of new or near new

tim · Answer

24 x 8, not THATS a radial drill! Ours is an 11" x 4'. I've done the mathand it definately makes $ense to get the (a) drill that is can run at ratedspeeds/feeds. I know what I have now. What I don't want to do is throw goodmoney (which we don't have) away on something not worth it. I will check tosee what repair/rebuild parts are available. Thanks for all the input!

Radial drill: rebuild or replace?

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