Totally Chucked Out

Not as in chucked out of work, more of an annoying day in the work house trying to set up an old pillar drill. Although it was connected to the power supply over the summer, many tweeks were needed to get it in decent working order.
I had to repair the retraction spring (the bit that brings the chuck back up to it's starting position), which consisted of brazing a very small but critical part back on to the spring itself.
Many BSF threads needed cutting (thats non-metric if you were born after 1980) as a lot of threads were stripped or nuts/bolts missing.
But much time was spent trying out different chuck sizes so that the chuck key matched the bench drill already in the workshop (this makes life easier than having two chuck keys of different sizes - if one goes missing then you'll get what I mean).
Also if you are aware of Morse Tapers & chuck tapers and their various sizes you'll sympathise with me on this.
Seems as though I made a meal out of what shouldve been a straight forward job......

BUT

......The pillar drill was picked up for nowt a few months ago from local school which is now being demolished. And what a solid bit of kit it is too! They certainly don't make em like they used to.

You may recognise the tools & tapers in the picture.
Shot in negative of course.

Glad Im home now!