Not necessarily new, but definitely "modified"! For a lot of years, I've been getting by with an old drill press I rescued from the graveyard, better known as ""School Surplus" where worn out, or obsolete equipment goes to die. It was retired from one of the many woodworking shops in the city school system that got closed down when the school board bean counters and legal beagles got afraid that Little Johnny might get a splinter in his finger, causing some sleazeball ambulance chaser to file suit for "pain and suffering"! It's a good-quality machine, but it only had four speeds, all too fast for metal working. A couple of months ago, the motor finally bit the dust. I wonder if drilling all those 3/4" holes in a piece of steel with a machine with a 1/2" capacity chuck had anything to do with that?
Anyhoo, I'd been threatening to add a jackshaft and another set of speed-change pulleys for several years, and this situation simply got me off my butt and put me to work. I ordered another pulley and some ball bearings from Ebay, and made several items necessary to put an intermediate spindle in the center post of the press. With two short belts replacing the long one, plus a belt-tensioner idler, I now have a 12-speed drill press. But- - - -like Paul Harvey used to say- - - -"Here's the rest of the story". The replacement motor I bought has a shaft coming out of both ends. By modifying the motor mount plate, I can add another motor and a set of 3:1 speed change pulleys to slow things WAAAAYY down. The main motor becomes an idler when the low-speed motor is running. I need to fabricate a drive pulley with a one-way Sprag clutch in it so the low-speed motor doesn't get driven at 3 times the speed of the main motor, but that's a fairly simple modification on a 6" pulley hub. Once that one arrives and I do a little more machining, I'll have a 24-speed drill press! (Better known as a light-duty milling machine!)
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/100_5372.JPGhttp://www.hunt101.com/data/500/100_5373.JPGhttp://www.hunt101.com/data/500/100_5374.JPGhttp://www.hunt101.com/data/500/100_5375.JPGFun and games- - - -I love taking somebody else's junk and making it work better than new!
Jerry
