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Old Rockwell-Delta-Milwaukee Heavy Duty Wood Shaper 43-205, 1340

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One of our readers sent us these pictures of what turned out to be an older Rockwell-Delta-Milwaukee heavy duty wood shaper model 43-205 with serial number 78-2093. They were asking us to identify it so he could purchase the correct owner’s manual for it. This shaper is in good condition for it’s age. The serial number dates it to 1949. This was the biggest and heaviest wood shaper that Rockwell-Delta-Milwaukee ever made, and it was modeled after their popular unisaw design.

 

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This shaper model came out in the Delta catalog in 1940 as the model 1340. The wood shaper has a 27″ x 28″ table with the standard 3/4″ spindle. It accepts a total of six interchangeable spindles: 5/16″, 1/2″, 3/4″ and 1″ standard spindles, 1/2″ stub spindle and a 3/4″ extra long spindle. This shaper was advertised as having a wide range of shaper cutter sizes.
 
 
 

 
 
 

Delta-Milwaukee 1953 Catalog Pages on 43-205 & 1340 Wood Shaper

Below are some pages from the Delta-Milwaukee 1953 catalog about the 43-205 and 1340 wood shaper. We have the complete catalog and more on our FREE PDF Catalogs page. This shows more about how this shaper was marketed as well as the available accessories. In 1953, this wood shaper was sold new for $252.00, which is equivalent to $2,278.65 today. I’ve heard of guys picking these up for around $500 today, depending on the condition.

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ROCKWELL Older Heavy Duty Wood Shaper 43-205 & 1340 Operator’s & Parts Manual

We have the owner’s manual that came with this machine available below. It has a lot of nice pictures of the inner workings of the wood shaper, and with instructions on how to change the spindles. The manual has explosive diagrams of all the parts with parts numbers and descriptions, which helps when needing to restore this machine or find parts.

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Rockwell-Delta Older Heavy Duty Wood Shaper 43-205 & 1340 Operator’s & Parts Manual

 

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Machine ID’d: Rockwell-Delta 20″ Wood Band Saw 28-350

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 This gentleman emailed us about a Rockwell 20″ wood band saw that he wasn’t sure what model it was or much about it. This band saw was made around 1957 according to it serial number. Labeled with Rockwell Manufacturing Co.- Delta Power Tools Division. A lot of the machines that Rockwell-Delta made during this time didn’t have model or catalog numbers posted on them. This band saw is a catalog number 28-350, and the standard blade length was 144″.

Originally Sold:
This 28-350 band saw with the basic package was sold for $519.75 in 1957, which is equivalent to $4,413.95 today. Here is the original catalog page:

Instructions and Parts Manual:

We have a printed instructions and parts owner’s manual for the 28-350 and similar 20″ Rockwell-Delta band saws available at the link below. It covers a lot of the specifications of the band saw, and explains what kind of motors Rockwell recommends as well as how to properly install the motor and make adjustments. It also contains operating instructions, adjusting the table, blade tracking, and blade tension for this band saw with explosive view diagrams of all the parts.

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Machine ID’d: Rockwell-Delta 17″ Drill Press with DP-600 casting.

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Here is a old Rockwell-Delta 17″ floor model drill press that a reader sent us pictures of to find more information about. The owner said the Rockwell drill press was used in a production facility for some time. The gentleman he bought the drill press from was 67 and said he started operating it when he was 13. This Rockwell 17″ drill press has has serial number 79-794 which dates it to 1949. In 1950 this drill press sold for $180.50 to $196.00 depending on the options, which is equivalent to $1,745.60 to $1,895.50 today. In 1949, you couldn’t pick up a quality machine like this in a garage sale.

 

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It appears that this particular Rockwell-Delta 17″ drill press has a slow speed attachment, which is the pulley installed right above the column, but there is pulley on the motor with only one position. I’m not sure if the motor pulley broke at some time or not, but this is not a typical or Rockwell Manufacturing configuration. Information on the slow speed attachment is not included in the main owner’s manual, but it was used to provide more speed options for drilling. I’m guessing someone may have broken the original motor pulley, and either had or found a slow speed attachment to get at at least some speeds out of the drill press.

 

 

 

How to Identify this Rockwell Drill Press

We have operator, owner’s, and parts manuals for many different Rockwell-Delta-Milwaukee drill presses here. These older Delta machines from this vintage usually don’t have model numbers on them, and lots of people have asked us how to identify them.

 

The simplest way to identify many of these older Delta machines is by the casted part number on the main part of the machine. These Rockwell-Delta 17″ drill presses have “DP-600″ casted into the head on the arm that supports the front pulley. This is the part number for the head casting. Here is a picture showing its location on another 17” drill press.

 

Manuals for this Rockwell 17″ Drill Press

 

We have a couple manuals that would be useful with this Rockwell-Delta 17″ drill press model. We have the original operator’s and parts manual for this drill press model here:

 

DELTA-MILWAUKEE 17″ Drill Press DP-600 Instructions & Parts Manual with FOOT FEED

 

 

We also have another book that Delta published with additional information about drill press use and set ups. This book covers all the branches of drill press operation in the home workshop with over two hundred photographic illustrations and line drawings even for uses like sanding, shaping, mortising, etc…

 

It’s a really useful and interesting series of books that I recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about drill press use.

DELTA Getting the Most Out of Your Drill Press Manual

 

 

 Catalog Pages for the Rockwell 17″ Drill Press

 

Below are some pages from a 1950 Delta Milwaukee catalog about this 17″ drill press. The catalog displays the different options and accessories that were available for this model. The drill press owners manual above covers a lot of the different variations between the bench and floor models.

 

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Do you have one of these drills, or
do you have anything else you would like to add about it’s history or use?
Please add your comments below.

 

 

Submit Your Machine
Do you want to know more about your machine?

Email us your details with pictures, and we’ll put together the best information we can find. Plus, we can get other readers’ input to help you learn more.

Also, feel free to email us if you want us to share your machine on our site.

Email your information to: info@ozarkwoodworker.com