Push me, pull me Shopsmith double drill press

[robinson46176]

My #$%& knee is feeling better than it has since last August.
I am feeling better in general than I have in some time.
Our winter weather is beginning to moderate a little now and will get better yet if I can draw a good bead on that #$%& groundhog.
All of that has me convinced to schedule an afternoon this week to build the "Push me, Pull me SS drill press I have been wanting to build for maybe 3 years. You remember the Push me, Pull me Llama from Dr. Doolittle?
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It will be a pretty simple project, I just haven't gotten around to making it yet. It's time to quit dragging my feet on it.
It is just two SS Mark V pivot ends and leg, each with a headstock, carriage etc. connected back to back with a very short set of bench tubes. Of course neither will ever pivot and could be made up ridged but it will just be easier to leave the pivots intact. I will connect them at the top with a wide bracket between the two tie bars just to make it all stronger and I will build in a lower shelf to tie the lower legs together better. It will also add some storage there. I may want to add some weight there as well. I want it unquestionably stable. It will have a caster set and the intention is that it can sit with which ever side I am using at the time facing me and if I want to use the other half I can just grab the tables and rotate that side to the front. Like much of my shop I want it to be so that I can set up something and and leave that set up intact and still do a second setup for the same job or another job. I think that this unit will save me a lot of floor space. I have a lot of other ideas in mind for it but this is the basics. One of those other ideas is maybe being able to set both tables at the same height and using bars, tubes or the like to add the support of the back table to the front table. Another thought is a simple (I like simple) setup to raise and lower the headstocks and carriages all independently with at least a set of cranks.
It should be a fun project...
I'll take some pictures.

[robinson46176]

I was in the shop looking at the one SS that may become one head of the push me, pull me drill press and doing some measuring and figuring. It could conceivably be quite short but I think I am going to cut the bench tubes at about 18" total length. There are two reasons I want them that long. One is simple stability. The other is that I want some room between the units so that the shelf down between the legs and the second shelf which will be attached across the bench tubes will be big enough for a reasonable amount of bit and accessory storage.
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I will be busy much of tomorrow but I may get back to it a little tomorrow evening.
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I also got a couple of ideas for a fast way to add some fast adjusting table stability during tough drilling but I need to check them out farther.
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I'm thinking of maybe using a couple of Gilmer heads on this just because I have them and I'm not using them on anything else. ¾ HP should be plenty for drill presses.

[robinson46176]

I said that I was going to work on this project tonight but much of the day was spent at the Indianapolis Home Show and by the time I got home my butt was dragging along about 10 feet behind me. I must be getting old...
That show is over twice the size that it was about 8 years ago. I still subconsciously keep looking for Shopsmith there...
I had drooled over Shopsmiths there since about 1963.
Back to the project... I have decided to stick with the "KISS" system (keep it simple stupid) as far as easing the raising and lowering the headstock and tables. It will be done with 4 counter balance weights and 4 pulleys. Just a very simple setup with single pulleys much the same as the old window weight systems. The pulleys will be mounted to the plate that will tie the way tubes together at the top. The weights will all weigh a little less than their load.
I have one pair of legs already painted and one pivot end. I'll grab another pivot end out of the shed tomorrow and clean and paint it and cut a bench tube down to two 18" tubes and sand them down. I'm not going to polish them, just paint them. They will be mostly hidden under a shelf attached to the top of them.
I am planning to attach the bottom shelf using the pre-drilled holes in the legs but I will drop it down a few inches to where it is just far enough above the caster lift pedals for room for my foot for more room on the shelf.
More later.

[a1gutterman]

Keep us posted, Francis! I am looking forward to the final result and seeing the path that you take to get there!

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I really like the idea! Having multiple machines myself, I really like that I can leave a set-up after I am done doing an operation. Just in case I need to do one more part. I get up early in the morning and find myself getting the set-ups done on a couple different processes, then when the neighborhood is awake, I am ready to make sawdust.

[robinson46176]

I thought I would mention that while I am using Mark V's for this project that the real natural for it would be two 10-ER's. You wouldn't need to do anything destructive to them, just store the unused headrests back somewhere. You would just make up one of the benches shorter in length, fasten them together at the top and use them. They are much stouter than the Mark V and the table is less prone to flexing. The extra weight of the cast iron would make the notion of a counter balance system for the headstocks and carriages more desirable for sliding them up and down.
It would also be possible to do the same thing with a 10-ER and a Mark V together using the 10-ER bench and attaching the Mark V pivot end to the bench.
I have a bunch of Mark V's and only the one 10-ER which I did not want to tie up in just the one mode.
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Stretching this a little farther... If you didn't mind the extra length you could also do this with a couple of mark VII upper sections and one base. You could cut the base down in length but not as easy. Since the upper section of a Mark VII pivots in locks that will fully open so it can pivot both directions you could lock one upper section in drill press mode and just latch another Mark VII upper section upright in the other set of locks at the left end. Either end or both ends could be fully removed (a little heavy to handle) and reversed so that the headstock can come up from underneath for stuff like shaper use if you wanted. Made up into a permanent double drill press on a full sized base the space between could be made into a large storage unit or perhaps into a place to mount another tool altogether. Lots of possibilities.
It's an illness...

[robinson46176]

I ended up going down the road and helping a neighbor with a corn drying problem and then we got to working on the worlds problems and...
A few hours later I didn't have my home-work done.
I did dig out a pivot end of the right size and a matching a bench tube. I'm using the ones that use the bigger size bench tubes. No real reason. The tube is fairly clean so it will not require much sanding at all before painting. Not a lot of prep required for the second pivot end either. I'll just cut the tube with the chop-saw in the metal shop. I also need to clean up a caster set and then clean up a set of 4 way tubes and 2 tie-bars.
I haven't picked out the 2 headstocks yet.
Does anyone have any opinions on whether there are any differences between the ¾ HP Gilmer and the 1 1/8 HP Poly Vee that matter at all in drill press use?

[a1gutterman]

...Does anyone have any opinions on whether there are any differences between the ¾ HP Gilmer and the 1 1/8 HP Poly Vee that matter at all in drill press use?

I realize that, according to your earlier posts, you are going to use the Push-Me-Pull-Me for general use, so there is no use asking "what are you going to drill?", so I will just state my opinion (as asked for); for general use, I see no difference, but if you use hole saws on it for large diameter holes or deep holes, it might make a difference???

[robinson46176]

No progress today...
I had a really poopy day (I cleaned that up) The commode in a rental house vapor locked. Had to find someone to pump the tank... Had to be today for two reasons. One is that the people that live there have 5 kids. The other is that it may all be covered with a lot of snow and ice by morning. $250... just like his big green truck, it sucks.
Fun fact:
Around here they can't haul it across county lines to a dump site.
I really did actually handle a few SS parts sorting stuff out.

[JPG]

I ended up going down the road and helping a neighbor with a corn drying problem and then we got to working on the worlds problems and...
A few hours later I didn't have my home-work done.
I did dig out a pivot end of the right size and a matching a bench tube. I'm using the ones that use the bigger size bench tubes. No real reason. The tube is fairly clean so it will not require much sanding at all before painting. Not a lot of prep required for the second pivot end either. I'll just cut the tube with the chop-saw in the metal shop. I also need to clean up a caster set and then clean up a set of 4 way tubes and 2 tie-bars.
I haven't picked out the 2 headstocks yet.
Does anyone have any opinions on whether there are any differences between the ¾ HP Gilmer and the 1 1/8 HP Poly Vee that matter at all in drill press use?

Since you ask the question, you must have them both. Put one of each on opposite ends and perform a comparison.

We await the results!:D