Slowing Drill Press RPM's

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This is just "mocked" up, the pulley on the motor is just sitting on the shaft, not all the way down
 
You do not need a VFD… if you have the belts then you have all that you need to slow that down!!
 
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stuck a treadmill motor with speed controller on mine.
Ok so very slow speeds have limited torque but it does everything I want it to.
I use 2" -3" dia hole saws at very slow speed on aluminium and steel, sometimes they grab a stall but generally keep going with enough lube.
 
I highly recommend a sewing machine motor:


This guy has an eBay store. Search for "The Custom Crafter". He has several motor sizes available.
 
A much better representation of the problem. It looks very much like my Craftsman 17" machine from ~25 years ago. First off, I will withdraw my ramblings from last night. You have basicly two options for using the existing belts: First is a DC motor and controller. The other is to use the gear reduction I posted earlier. I don't like VFDs, they don't work all that well at low speeds. They are good drives, but not as much as they are touted. I used them in industrial applications, they may do better in small shops.

There are some calculations you can do that will get you close for speeds. You state the motor is 1800 RPM. I take that to mean it is less "slip" which will place it at 1740ish. Basicly a 4 pole induction motor. The pulley ratios are measured by the "pitch diameters", roughly half way from the OD and the ID. Calculating from OD will get you coursely near. Figure each belt position, I would bet the lowest speed is around 200 RPM. Up or down a little, but close to it.

A "sewing machine" motor would be a good choice. In the size needed it will basicly be an AC/DC notor. Like a treadmill motor but "stouter". They are "series universal" motors and will run on AC or DC, simply by varying voltage. Most associations to a sewing machine are for the smaller home machines. A commercial machine has a motor the size of an entire home machine. Be sure the controller comes with it. A small treadle can't handle the current involved.

Purely my perspective here: Going much slower will be in the range of a milling machine. That's what I bought the HF MiniMill for. But I do small work, you would want something a little bigger. At very slow speeds and high torque there may be belt slippage. That's where the final reduction gear set comes into play. A DP has quill bearings that do well for direct pressure but are weak for side play. If you are ever tempted to do side cutting, remember that! A drill press is not a milling machine.

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I’m visually estimating 20:1 reduction in those pulleys. You should be able to get RPMs below a hundred with that. Even if it’s only 10:1, it’s below 200 RPMs. How slow is your target?

It takes a powerful and strong drill press to drill a 1” hole in steel.

Rick “4:1 motor to jackshaft and 5:1 to jackshaft to spindle” Denney
 
Yes, I would also estimate the current lowest RPM to be around 225-240. I would like to see at least 150 RPM at the lowest setting. 100 RPM would be icing on the cake. I'm not sure what I could see if I only changed the intermediate step pulley. I will look into that but not expecting to get what I'd like to see
I would definitely like to put 1" holes in steel but I always start with smaller drills first. Not just starting with a 1" drill. I do have a handful of 3MT/2MT drills as well that would be nice to use them as well.
 
It’s pretty simple to do the math but you will need to measure some sheaves first, otherwise it will stay at guesswork. There are also a number of on-line calculators available that take all the effort out of the calculations, just input the numbers. This one is from Engineering Toolbox. I’ve just plugged in what look like may be close to the sheave sizes based on the photo.

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