It happened again... another drill press followed me home.

[MikeInOr]

You're definitely sucking now!!!

Thank you.

 

[BWSmith]

Yes Mike,that's the heavy,or closed base. The other style is 4 open,cast legs.

I got mine off craigslist. In absolutely, near mint condition. Story I got; it was used for awhile at a G.E. factory. Had a big honkin plywood table on it,etc,etc. Didn't get it stupid cheap,about the price of a new chicom DP. I use it right much.

 

[Nogoingback]

My name is Michael, and I have a problem! Last weekend was the sliding table saw for $500. This weekend is a variable speed drill press for $200.



View attachment 370204



I found this on Craigslist an hour and a half after it was posted. I spent a good half hour trying to talk myself out of it... with no success... it was still posted. When I called the seller and asked if there was anything wrong with it he said: "It's old". I drove by the ATM and when I got there he told me it was about 18 years old and I probably wouldn't be able to get parts for it. I cranked through the low and high speeds and the spindle was nice and smooth. I could detect no play in the spindle when grabbing it and trying to jostle it. I has spent all of its 18 years in his wood shop and only has a single mark of shame on the table. It does look as nice in person as it does in the photos, if not better.

I have 2 vertical mills and this will be my 4th drill press. I have a 25 year old HF 16" drill press from back when they were mail order only. I have a 14" Chinese drill press given to me by my brother in law. And I have a 13" Walker turner I spent $50 on which is just like the WT my father had when I was growing up. The WT is a bench model that someone put a long column on to make it floor standing. I think I can most likely get $200 out of the 14" Chinese drill press. I will put the new Delta in the metal working side of my shop and move the 16" HF to the woodworking side of my shop. I don't think I will be able to part with the 13" WT... it is by far the smoothest running of the bunch. I will probably chop the column down to to a bench height colum and stick it in my reloading room under the pretense I might use it there some day.

Yes! I have a sickness... but really how can anyone pass up a 16.5" variable speed Delta drill press for $200?????

Around here, that is an exceptional deal. Nice drill presses usually go for much more than that. Congrats!

 

[C-Bag]

My name is Michael, and I have a problem! Last weekend was the sliding table saw for $500. This weekend is a variable speed drill press for $200.

View attachment 370203

View attachment 370204

View attachment 370205

I found this on Craigslist an hour and a half after it was posted. I spent a good half hour trying to talk myself out of it... with no success... it was still posted. When I called the seller and asked if there was anything wrong with it he said: "It's old". I drove by the ATM and when I got there he told me it was about 18 years old and I probably wouldn't be able to get parts for it. I cranked through the low and high speeds and the spindle was nice and smooth. I could detect no play in the spindle when grabbing it and trying to jostle it. I has spent all of its 18 years in his wood shop and only has a single mark of shame on the table. It does look as nice in person as it does in the photos, if not better.

I have 2 vertical mills and this will be my 4th drill press. I have a 25 year old HF 16" drill press from back when they were mail order only. I have a 14" Chinese drill press given to me by my brother in law. And I have a 13" Walker turner I spent $50 on which is just like the WT my father had when I was growing up. The WT is a bench model that someone put a long column on to make it floor standing. I think I can most likely get $200 out of the 14" Chinese drill press. I will put the new Delta in the metal working side of my shop and move the 16" HF to the woodworking side of my shop. I don't think I will be able to part with the 13" WT... it is by far the smoothest running of the bunch. I will probably chop the column down to to a bench height colum and stick it in my reloading room under the pretense I might use it there some day.

Yes! I have a sickness... but really how can anyone pass up a 16.5" variable speed Delta drill press for $200?????

Mike, how does the hi low range work? I wish my big ol Rockwell Delta reeve drive had that low speed.

 

[MikeInOr]

Mike, how does the hi low range work? I wish my big ol Rockwell Delta reeve drive had that low speed.

I pick it up on Monday so I don't know for sure. There is a lever in the back of the belt housing near the motor that can be engaged "while the motor is running". I am not really sure but it is like there is a reeves drive between the motor and the main reeves drive pulley? I will add pictures of the belt configuration when I pick it up.

From what I am reading this drill press was designed more as a wood working drill press? [Correction: The woodworking sub-models of this drill press were differentiated from the metal fabrication sub-models of this drill press based solely on the the table it comes with. The metal fabrication sub-models had a table designed to contain coolant and a return hole in the bottom of the table to return the coolant to a reservoir. Other than the tables the rest of the drill press appears to be identical.]

Some of the similar older models Delta 16.5" Delta variable speed drill presses show dials going up to 4700rpm where as this one shows 3100rpm max speed.

There are 3 spots in the drive system that the manual says needs frequent oiling (Daily according to the manual):


From what I have read online not keeping these oiled can lead to problems with the drive. Specifically the pulleys will start to vibrate... it sounds like the aluminum pulley cones get wallowed out when not lubricated properly and new pulley cones are not available. One gentleman on the "other" machinist board bought a used one with a bad vibration and then turned new pulley cones out of steel.

Back in the 1980's thru the turn of the century this was about a ~$800 to ~$1000 drill press opposed to the multi thousand dollar industrial quality Powermatic, Clausing, Rockwell etc. reeves drive variable speed drill presses. As such it really isn't designed to be used in a production metal fabrication setting but are often found in production wood shops and home environments. When I ran this one it was very smooth with no signs of vibration so I am comfortable it will last the rest of my life time if I lubricate it as advised.

I purchased my harbor freight 16" drill press 20+ years ago and have always wanted a variable speed drill press, but it has never made sense to spend the kind of money a variable speed DP goes for when the old HF functions perfectly well. This one hit the price point that made a VS DP a reality for me.

P.S. This appears to be a Delta Model 17-900 VS drill press... for anyone that might stumble across this in a future web search.

 

[C-Bag]

More than likely it will not be anything I can adapt to mine. I figured that one handle was for the hi lo. Mine only has the high speed.

 

[C-Bag]

The 15" head on my UniDrill has what I think was the earlier reeve drive where it doesn't have the springs like yours and there is no intermediate like yours. The motor has a reeve pulley and the spindle has the other and there is this mechanical lift and lower mechanism that raises and lowers opposite pulleys. Mine the arms on the motor reeve pulley were bent from dodo's messing with it while it was not running I think. I don't work wood, so even at it's slowest 450rpm and 4700rpm tops that's faster than I like for steel. Just about everything else I love about the UniDrill, especially the huge cast iron table with T-slots. Even though they seem to be an odd size.

 

[MikeInOr]

The 15" head on my UniDrill has what I think was the earlier reeve drive where it doesn't have the springs like yours and there is no intermediate like yours. The motor has a reeve pulley and the spindle has the other and there is this mechanical lift and lower mechanism that raises and lowers opposite pulleys. Mine the arms on the motor reeve pulley were bent from dodo's messing with it while it was not running I think. I don't work wood, so even at it's slowest 450rpm and 4700rpm tops that's faster than I like for steel. Just about everything else I love about the UniDrill, especially the huge cast iron table with T-slots. Even though they seem to be an odd size.

That is a VERY sweet drill press! From what I have read I concur it is probably a stronger more industrial design. I can tell from your picture that it is from the era of higher quality Delta/Rockwell tools.

In reading up on variable speed drill presses big 3-phase drill presses are in demand for use with VFD's to achieve variable speeds. It sounds like some folk are converting old drill presses from 1/2hp - 3/4hp single phase motors to 1hp - 2hp 3-phase motors to use VFD's while still maintaining high torque via the bigger motors when run under their natural speed.

Interesting: it appears a lot of the industrial dual speed range variable speed drill presses use 2 speed (split phase) motors to achieve the high/low range speeds.

 

[C-Bag]

Thanks, the reeve drive is the machine's Achilles heel IMHO. And it probably wouldn't have been a big deal but I decided to change the original belt. I think the machine is from the 60's. That was such a stupid pain and was a LOT of messing for probably no good reason. I would LOVE to go with a 3ph VFR setup, but if you look close the motor is very specific in size. It can't be any bigger/longer or the head won't swing or tilt. Then the whole cluster of doing the pulley's etc. It works good except for the rpm's right now and it's so freaking handy with that arm and huge table so it will be left alone until I have something fall into my lap I would suspect.

 

[MikeInOr]

I am REALLY starting to hate my new drill press! There is a spring in the chuck that ejects the chuck key if you don't push it in while turning the key. Has anyone ground off the extra little tit on the key that pushes in the spring on the chuck? Or should I just replace the whole chuck and leave the key be?

I understand the safety purpose of the self ejecting chuck but it is really annoying!

Or, maybe the spring is in the key itself? That would make more sense now that I think about it. I will have to go out and check.