I've had a Craftsman drill press that was given to me in nearly complete but rough condition 20+ years ago. It had belonged to my friend's uncle who used it in a starter/alternator repair shop for decades. The uncle had retired and was going to pitch it but my friend knew I like old stuff, so it went to me. It needed a bunch of things but REALLY needed new bearings to get it operational, so I did that and used it in that condition until I decided recently to put everything right. Among Craftsman drill press folks this model is known as a Mohawk because of the belt guard. (which always reminds me of the Cylon's helmets in the original Battlestar Galactica TV series) It was only made for about 18 months or so in 1942 and 43 at which time (I'm guessing) war needs put an end to production, which makes parts scarcer and more expensive than other Craftsman drill presses.
The first order of business was replacing the quill return spring and knob, which is frequently broken on this model drill press and costs about $100 used on eBay
IF you can find one. I couldn't find the correct width spring but did find springs half as wide on Amazon so used two of them and made a knob from aluminum round stock on the lathe.
Hurray! No more using the quill lock to keep the running bit from slamming into the workpiece.
The other major thing I didn't like about the press was it only had two speeds, too fast and too slow...OK it actually had four speeds but you get the idea. The biggest problem was the slowest speed being 600 rpm which was way too fast for big bits or big holes using a hole saw. Other Craftsman presses had a multi-speed(MS) accessory that could be added to provide twelve speeds, but they never made one for this press and they cost around $300 when you can find one. The biggest challenge would be fitting everything under the very narrow and low belt guard which barely had enough clearance for the existing pulleys. I made an intermediate pulley mount which fit into the tubular column and allows a four-step pulley to be added between the existing pulleys but there isn't enough room to allow any adjustment like the MS accessory. The motor has adjustment built into the tilting base so I made a spring-loaded idle roller to tension the quill belt. The idler can spin over 10,000 rpm at the highest quill speed so it needed good ball bearings in the idler. Here's everything completed and there is just BARELY enough room for everything to fit under the guard.
Now it has twelve speeds and most important the lowest speed is now a touch over 200 rpm.
The other major annoyance was not having a convenient comfortable place to use it so I made a rolling stand with folding side tables and plenty of storage underneath.
I also disassembled the old reluctor motor and cleaned out 80 years of crud and regreased the bearings so it now runs SMOOOTH and quiet and also added an on/off switch up by the return spring. (sorry, no pictures)
The quill handle had one missing and one broken ball end so I replaced those and discovered there was supposed to be a spring-loaded shoe behind the handle to keep it in place so I dug the old spring out from behind the handle (nice that it was still there) and made a new "shoe" from nylon on the lathe to provide the drag to keep it in place.
I checked total runout using a 1/4" piece of ground rod in the chuck and it was 0.003" which I found amazing for an 80 year old drill press!