Drill press too fast

[Forestgnome]

add another pulley..did that to mine when i need to drill some 3/4 holes in one inch plate..i figure the low speed is now around 200 ropm..still a bit fast but will have to do till i can afford a mill..

I have an old Walker-Turner with a similar intermediate pulley setup. Mine is mounted in the upright tube with an offset pivot point on the mounting plate so it's easy to change belt positions.

[Wheels17]

I have an old Taiwanese cheapie drill press I bought in '85 that has that three pulley arrangement. The middle pulley is on a pivoted arm, and there are no springs or limits on the arm. With the three pulleys, the speeds range from 195 to 3630 RPM. With a spring on the motor mount, it's easy to roll the belts up over the pulleys to change speeds. It even came with a chart of speeds under the cover.

[gnm109]

My 1959 Craftsman Drill Press was also rather fast on the lowest speed. Craftaman made a third pulley kit to slow them down but after bidding on two of them and dropping out at more than $100 each time, I decided to make my own. I made a mount that drops into the main tube with a piece of aluminum round stock. The motor belt also tightens the added pulley and belt. It's got a 1,750 rpm 3/4 hp motor. The pulley arrangement give me a low speed of 190 rpm. I can drill a 1" hoole in aluminum with a Silver and Deming drill. It's been on there for more than a year now and it works great. I like the low speed best.

Your best bet is to add a pulley. I thought about changing to a 3 ph motor with a VFD but that would have cost much more than the extra pulley. Also, I have full torque and lots more speeds than before.

[Sic SemperTyrannis]

The parts are out there. I ran across the exact model you need a couple of weeks ago at a local tool salvage place.

I bought the reducer for $10 and then found it wouldn't fit my atlas DP.

I was going to cut it up make one, but before I did I found a guy nearby that had a similar DP as yours and an atlas style reducer and offered to swap.

He had a home made one that plugs into the top of my 2.5 inch tube and has an offset pulley mounted on it to adjust tension.

Win win for both of us...