On Feb 26, 5:45 pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:
On 2011-02-26, Searcher7 wrote:

On Feb 23, 10:37 pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

[ ... ]

Horizontally -- both side-to-side and fore-and-aft. That will
be your worst case play. If the chuck isn't particularly bad on
centering, you won't have the drill bit tip moving in circles.

Well in that case it's as solid as a rock. There is no movement at all
on the horizontal plain.

Great! This alone makes it worth fixing up. (Granted, the
Taiwanese and Chinese castings are a bit shy on metal, so things like
the table will flex with a heavy drilling force, causing the hole to be
at an angle -- so you want to start with a smaller drill (about the
diameter of the chisel point on the next drill size up) and then work up
in steps so you don't have to lean on the feed lever to get through the
workpiece.

The table seems pretty rock solid. (But I have had access to many
drill presses). I wouldn't be able to lean hard enough to make the
table flex.

Once I finish fixing them, I'd like to be able to run eight of my
arcade games at the same time, but I don't know if that is plausible
the front room.(They are rated to pull about 3 amps each).

No way -- Jos ! Not on one breaker. I said before that I can't
read the current rating of the breakers, and your lastest jpeg did not
help. *But* -- normal breaker for outlets is rated at 15A, some (which
require heavier duty outlets) is 20A. I don't know what gauge wiring is
going up to the apartment, but I sincerely doubt that it is enough to
handle even 20A. And your eight arcade games add up to 24A between
them. And this is counting without the ceiling lights run from the same
breaker. :-) Mount Compact Fluorescent lamps and you will reduce the
total current draw -- but still not all eight machines at once.

Ok. I did some checking and two or three of my games can pull 3amps
max. and the other five vary between 1 and 1.5. Considering one should
stay around 2/3rds and definitely not exceed 80% of the breakers
capacity all eight would still be too much. (I'd have to runa a long
extention cord to stay within parameters).

Even as I type this I notice a quick/temporary dimming/brightening of
the light in the room I'm in. It happens occasionally, but after a
while it's relegated to the sub-conscious and you don't notice it, but
this subject of conversation has made me notice it again. (I'm the
only one in the apartment and I have no idea what causes this).

Heavy loads being turned on and off -- likely in the same
building, or in another building nearby. It could be an electric water
heater switching on and off, or a fan motor in a heating system (if you
have forced air heating and cooling (if any)), or a disposal in another
apartment, or a washing machine or dryer, or even your own refrigerator
cycling.

I forgot about the refridgerator. :-)

Right now (sort of spring-like weather) our feed to our house is
at 119 VAC. Mid summer, when the air conditioning is working -- not
just here but at other houses fed from the same transformer -- it runs
closer to 116 VAC, and sometimes as low as 114 VAC. Peak that I've seen
is about 121 VAC. (I've got an expanded-scale AC voltmeter sitting on
top of my computer within easy view. It's scale goes from 100 to 140
VAC, with the center being 120 VAC in red as the nominal standard.

Oh yeah. AC would be a must with eight games running in the summer
months. But that's an extreme case scenario anyway. I probably will
only need 4 games on at a time. (Unless I have an arcade party with a
few people over). :-)

On a single circuit breaker there are 5 outlets and four light
fixtures between the bathroom, kitchen, dining room and rear hallway.
One kitchen outlet is iffy and the bathroom outlet(which was actually
replaced several years ago) doesn't work.

Calculating from the wattage of the microwave and convection ovens I
get 19.5 amps together. But I cannot have them on at the same time.

Even subtracting the overhead lamps, that says that the breaker
is likely 15A not 20A -- supporting other deductions and suppositions
above.

Hmmm. In that case the breaker doesn't trip as fast as it should. The
last couple of times I forgot and had bothte microwave and the
convection oven on at the same time it was probably as much as 5
minutes before everything went out.

So I *believe* that this means that you *do* have both sides
brought up to the apartment, so if you *really* needed 240 VAC, you
could run long cords to two outlets to make the adaptor.

And the breakers, at least, are designed to accept either copper
or aluminum wires. *Hope* that they don't have aluminum wiring in that
place. If it is the original wiring, it should be copper. Only if it
was re-wired during a fairly short period would it be likely to have
aluminum wiring.

And I can't make out the current rating of each breaker.
Normally it is on the end of the handle, but that is sufficiently out of
focus so I can't tell.

Well, without going back down there here is one more of the dozen or
so pics I took:http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l.../Tools/IMG_023...

And cropping that to the left-hand breaker, and rotating it and
enlarging it I read:

Bryant
BR 115 (I think)
Type ?R
CU 10-14
AL 8-12
(the last two cover the gauge ranges for either copper or aluminum wire
which can fit it and be "safely" used with it.)

The handle has a stylized 'B' (for Bryant) on the end, and the
"ON" visible to show it is switched on.

I'm glad it's not Federal Pacific. :-)

From what a bit of web searching shows, Bryant breakers are
available with color coded handles to show what current rating each is,
but I can't find the actual chart of color vs current rating on the
web. The Bryant page shows me things like central air conditioning
systems, not breakers. :-(

It *might* have the rating printed on the side -- or you could
go to an electrical supply store (or likely Home Depot's electrical
department) to find out what current a blue or turquoise handle means.
I *did* discover that they were also available with the standard black
handles -- and those might have the trip current listed on the end of
the handle.

Outside of the 100 imprinted on the main, the blue breaker switches
have 15 on each one.

O.K. The main breakers do have their rating on the ends of the
handles -- 100A -- so you should be able to get more power up there if
there is an easy way to run the cables needed. (Even if each outlet
individually had wires down to the breaker box -- you could install more
breakers to split the load between breakers.) However -- if all the
wires are joined at the apartment, and run down to the breaker box, this
might be a very expensive fix, involving tearing out wallboard to
gain access to the wiring.

This is interesting. But since it is not plausible for me to upgrade
to anything else that would be 3 phase(ie: Bigger, heavier, noisier)
while living in this apartment would it really be worth it to
seriously discuss this with the landlord?

How likely is the landlord to object to the tools which you
already have there? What kind of floors? If carpet or hardwood, he
will likely object to the metal chips which can get ground into the
floor.

My landlord has seen all the machines I have. Tools as well as games.
But I'm definitely pushing it.

And the "tool room" has a beat up brown linoleum floor. :-)

(When my landlord first saw this drill press three years ago he
conveyed his surprise at how "heavy duty" it was).

Hmm ... is it possible to set up some of the tools in the
basement -- and run them from new breakers in the box? That would be
easier to do -- if you could trust things to not disappear, or to be
used without your presence.

Not really. The basement is more of a storage room. There is a closet
with stairs that lead from my apartment all the way down to the
basement. This is where I have to run the work light before I go down
there.

Anyway I just brought up my little Black & Decker 7-1/2" band saw.
Since it is obsolete it looks like this may also be a project. :-)

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.