The hollow part is square.

as a machinist, in my opinion, your options are not favorable.
fixing what you have by welding the broken piece will be a tricky proposition, especially if you or the person you get to weld it up, lacks experience welding chinesium. that stuff is full of who knows what alloy, and many times when welded, will fracture on each side of the weld no matter what precautions are taken during the repair.
if you can find a machine like what you have that has other issues but the part you need is good, buy it cheap, or find the part you need by following the ideas already presented.
if it were me, i would look on the page of fake faces or craig's list for a better machine. lots of them there for very good prices.
remove the motor, the chuck, pulleys, and any other usable parts from your press, then junk the rest.
just my machinist in me talking. your mileage will vary.

Craigslist in Frederick has a nice Delta 3/4 hp 120/240
If you're in the position to budget, or finagle a better deal.
I bought a 1940's delta many years ago and don't regret it a bit.

Very good point about the chinesium

What about taking 4 slabs of flat 1/4" ( or thicker) plate steel and welding them together like a box along the edges. This would make the square hollow without special tools.

Trim the excess and chuck it in a lathe to turn the outside round. Not terrible labor but cost to pay someone else to do it?

Edit I just found this.
This guy has a away that may be easier and cheaper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnJMDtZelms

that looks just like my craftsman drill press . Maybe same parts.

Whats your modle and serial # ? it may help him

Or as the others have suggested, hit the local CL and FBMP

I've been searching around the last few days. I found a Ryobi drill press that the part looks the same, problem is that part has been discontinued. Worse part is that part cost $3 when it was available. Seems like this style or design is a little older and the newer ones have changed. Maybe they figured out it's a problem point or found a cheaper way to make them. I did find one for a Craftsman on eBay but it isn't square in the center. I'll keep browsing around, but more than likely I'll just end up asking for a new drill press for my birthday or christmas. It's not something I use a ton, but it's definitely nice to have one in the shop.

You might ask around as to what technical high schools or community colleges still teach “machine shop” classes.
Students in those classes need “projects” and your part matches what the student needs.
Offer to pay for 5 or ten such parts then sell them on eBay/Craigslist for a profit.

I “feel your pain” because when I was much younger I worked at and visited mining operations where there was an “emergency machine shop” that had equipment to create a part at higher cost than what you could buy a new part for, but at much lower cost than was “burned up” waiting on a new part while the “fixed cost” of having a mining operation shut down due to a critical part. It was not unusual to suffer $2000 per hour cost of waiting to resume production.

Your brain is never quite the same after you have seen a grey haired machinist straighten a long shaft with only the heat of a flame,
or mount a faceplate of a mill to create a lathe to create large diameter parts,
or cut gears with an multi-hole index plate.

I later learned from Navy veterans that Nuclear Submarines had extremely compact machine shops to make parts when waits are not just costly, but life or death.

When we launch a space ship on a voyage to a planet several light years away,
what should the on board machine shop contain?

that would be a really interesting topic !
when that becomes a reality, i'm sure there will be a super version of 3D printing, as well as ways to make whatever parts the computers needed for that flight would require.
the material needed for such repair parts, which i'm sure would include some exotic materials not yet thought of yet, would require some thought as to the variety and amount to carry as well.
as the machining industry is constantly evolving with new, more powerful machines able to do amazing things with a single setup, weight is drastically increasing as a byproduct.
old manually operated machines that are very precise are very heavy as well, because the weight is used to keep the machine extremely ridged, which absorbs vibrations and any shock loads that may be imparted during the process, thus allowing repeated, precisely made items to be produced.
although spacecraft are not lightweight vehicles, component weight is still a huge concern.
as an old [not much hair left on the top of my head] machinist with lots of experience with the CNC machines of my time, it is pretty neat what a person can do with just a basic drill press, small lathe, a bridgeport mill, and a few measuring tools.

https://www.ereplacementparts.com/drill-press-parts-c-18715_18731_18747.html


All I got. This place has helped me out.