Old Drill Press, refurb and slow down

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CruisinGA

CruisinGA

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Big Old Drill Press, refurb and slow down

Scored this guy, and "Craftsman 150" for free out of what is pretty much a trash heep.

Been outside at least a couple months in what has been the wettest fall the south has seen in a LONG time, so nearly everything was siezed.
Drill.webp
 
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Spent a few hours and a can of PB blaster on it last night, and got nearly everything freed up.

Motor runs smooth and quiet, and I happened to have the right belt in my pile-o-belts.

Even though the motor was quiet and smooth, with the belt on it was loud as all get out, so I dropped the spindle out once I had it freed up.

Took the spindle apart and the two double shielded bearings were still spinning, but very rough.

The bearings are Hoover 77202-10, Made it USA.
A quick search didn't yield any direct replacements, so I measured them and bought some replacements from Mcmaster Carr.

Part No# 2780T41 OD 1-3/8, ID 5/8, Width 7/16. High load double shielded ball bearing.

Ought to last a long time.
Spindle2.webp
 
I believe this drill press was originally intended for woodworking, and at first glance, it looks like low gear won't be low enough to keep my drill bits larger than 3/8" or so alive for long.

I started brainstorming of ways to slow it down. The first and easiest would be a slower motor, but it seems like 1750 is a pretty standard RPM for 120v 60hz AC motors of this size. A frequency drive would be sweet, but way to expensive, as would be converting to a DC motor.

The next idea I had is to buy another stepped pulley matching the ones on there now, and install it as an idler pulley. If the drill press now has about a 3:1 gear ratio, installing another idler ought to get me a total reduction of about 9:1. All that translates into a slow speed of 1750/9 = ~200. Perfect for big bits and holesaws.

A friend pointed me to this thread. The OP has another method which would work as I have another motor, but might just be too rigged for me. Post #9 mentions my idea.

Little homebrew project: making my drill press run slower. - Pirate4x4.Com Bulletin Board

I'll probably just get it working well as is, and then figure out a good way to get an idler in there.
 
:cool: I always wanted a drill press. Makes a lot of things a whole lot easier.
 
Weedhopper said:
:cool: I always wanted a drill press. Makes a lot of things a whole lot easier.
Click to expand...

For sure.

Been needing one a long time, but couldn't see spending $200 for a made in china piece of crap, and the right opportunity didn't present itself until now. I'm afraid I would have worn out my Dewalt 18v drill/driver if I didn't get one of these or a 1/2" corded drill.

Really looking forward to using it.

Let the chuck sit overnight in PB Blaster and it is freeing up nicely. Screws in very well, but is still sticky when opening. It's usable as is, and should only loosen up with time and use.
 
Got the chuck completely freed up, works like new.

Did a little more searching and came across this picture - Photos - Used Craftsman Floor Drill Press

Looks like the same model someone put a frequency drive variable speed motor on. Unfortunately too much money for me. Still forging ahead with the idler pulley idea to slow this one down.
 
Doing some more thinking on the slow down part of this project.

Seeing lots of really nice frequency drives for sale cheap on Ebay, but all require 220v input power and a 3 phase motor. I have the 220v input, but no 3 phase motor.

Then I found this page- Ceiling fan remote controls, remote kits, speed controls, dimmer switches and more - at Ceiling Fans 'N More

Which got me thinking. Found part # 2042K58 at mcmaster.com, 3 amp variable speed fan control. Enough to handle the 1/2 hp motor on my winch. All the home depot fan controls I found were 1.5 amp, not enough. Got the spec sheet on the way from mcmaster. Hopefully it can control a 4-pole motor like the one on my drill and not just an 18 pole fan motor.

I'm going to hash this out and see where I end up. Sure would be a lot easier to wire in a $20 gizmo than finagle another stepped pulley in there.
 
No one really seems to care very much about my little drill press project :flipoff2:, nonetheless I'm going to forge ahead, if for nothing else my own record.

Slow down update-

Fan speed control didn't work. Even though I found several very nice variable frequency drive controllers on Ebay cheap, I wasn't sure this motor would work with a variable frequency drive and I didn't want to chance it, so I switched to plan B - more pulleys.

In a spurt of Macgyver-like "I had better slow this drill press down tonight or the train will crash" type of frenzy, I started rummaging through the pileoparts and came up with a hodgepodge that just seems like it might go together.

One hacked up Ford alternator, 2 random pulleys, 2 homemade v-belts and some washers and fabbin later, I ended up with something sorta workable.
DSC02870 (Medium).webp
DSC02873 (Medium).webp
 
It didn't slow down the drill as much as I would like. Workable for a 1/2" bit with no pilot (requires a lot of lube), but better with a pilot hole. Note the smoke in the picture. Had to quit squirting lube to take the pic, and hence got some smoke.

Found a pulley that seems to be a near match for the two originals on Grainger. Going to order it and install it instead so that I will have a a wider range of speeds and to further reduce the low speed.
 
I have one i would like to slow down also, 200 would be great 100 even better,

been a while since I have worked with electric motors but isint an AC motor RPM controlled by frequency?
 
Couldn't you use a variac?
 
RavenTai said:
I have one i would like to slow down also, 200 would be great 100 even better,

been a while since I have worked with electric motors but isint an AC motor RPM controlled by frequency?
Click to expand...

Depending on the type of motor, it is. What I found after looking into it was that not all single phase AC motors can be controlled by varying the frequency, and while three-phase variable frequency controls were available cheap, I couldn't find any second hand controls meant for a single phase motor. There were a lot that could take single phase input 220v and output a variable frequency 3 phase 220v.
If I was to go the frequency modulation route, I would buy a 1/2 HP 3ph motor and a single to 3 phase frequency drive.

Apparently virtually all 3 phase motors can be controlled via variable frequency, but because 1-phase motors require a starting mechanism (usually involving capacitors), they all are not all compatible.

Something worth taking away from this- the single phase input
, 3 phase output variable frequency controls are very useful to the home shop guy for running old industrial 3phase equipment in places where 3phase power is not available. Nice to know in case I stumble on a good deal on a knee endmill or small gear head engine lathe.

Disclaimer:This is what I garnered from a few hours of internet reading.

When I realized how much I would have to buy, I decided to go the free route and use what I already had around. Even if I buy a matching stepped pulley for the middle pulley, I'll have a total of $40 invested in the press, incl the new bearings in the quill.
 
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Hah, don't worry, I have another crappy old ford alternator to set up as an onboard welder so I can fix your s*** on the trail. :flipoff2:

That super special lube is pretty good. Just hard to justify spending money on it when I have gallons of oil waiting to use.
 
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