hmmm... You wrote "I unloosened THE BOLT". If your Delta is like mine there are TWO screws to loosen--one on each side of the unit.
dave
Thomas Mitchell wrote:
> Anyone have tricks for changing the belts on a drill press? I have a
> delta floor model. I unloosened the bolt holding the motor in place and
> have it up against the housing. Still no slack in the belts to change
> their location on the pulleys. Manual says to loosen that bolt and
> change belts to appropriate location. Haven't worked with belts and
> pulleys much on a car I'd use some sort of screwdriver/lever to get the
> belt off and on if necessary but I don't have the room in the press housing. > > Thomas
Yep I found that when I went back out, but it was ALREADY loose. After a little effort I was able to take the belt from the pulley to the motor off which must have been the key because the middle pulley was then free to flop about and the second belt came right off. I was trying to get the first belt off and a little frustrated after trying for about 20 minutes. When I get like that I get out of the shop for my own safety and usually come in and read/reply to posts.
I have the press set at 3000rpm and the top vibrates merciouslessly. I tried putting a little duct tape on the housing to make a better fit for the top which dampened the noise some, but not nearly enough. Do you see the same behavior with your Delta?
Yep, I had the lever all the way forward. Maybe it was because I had the RPM set up for the lowest setting that made the belts so tight. Maybe I just need to take off the back belt first. Dunno. When I went back out, the rear belt came off after a few minutes of fiddling.
Mike > AND, there is a lever that you have to move towards the front of the drill
I just slide the belt from the large pulley by rotating and putting some side pressure on the belt. Once off the large one, you can relocate the opposite end to where you want it. Now guide the belt to the proper slot in the first end.
No tools needed, takes about 45 seconds. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
Just run the drill press over the weekend. When you come into the shop Sunday evening, stop the drill press and remove the belts. By this time the belts should have the consistency of warm, gooey licorice and can EASILY be manipulated or moved to a new groove in the pulley.
A number of these plastic-topped drill pressess have this problem. I found when I first got my drill home it made an awful racket that would stop if I put my hand on the top. If that's your situation, the two suggestions I've seen are to replace the belts with link belts, which soak up vibration, or to line the plastic case's seams with weather stripping.
Another thing to look at is a lot of the low-end drill presses ship with *awful* chucks. The one that came with mine (Detla 17-965) wasn't well balanced and caused a lot of vibration. As soon as I replaced it with a nice Jacobs chuck the whole experience improved imeasurably. If memory serves I paid about $100 for the new chuck, but thanks to reading RW I was prepared to do it when I bought the drill press, so my expectation was to spend $350 for the press plus $100 for the chuck; I wasn't dissapointed to discover I was spending $350 for a drill press that came with a paperweight shaped like a chuck.
Dunno why you're having so much trouble with the belt tension. My proceedure is to losen the set screw on each side, and pull the handle on the right side forward. That moves the motor (and the rear spindle) forward. Then, slip one end of the rear belt to a slacker position. Once there is just a little bit of slack in the system, the middle spindle can be moved about a bit to provide slack for the other belt.
Sounds like you have the same problem I had when I brought mine home 8 years ago. The belts weren't correct. Mine was assembled at the store and they had one belt the correct size and the other and inch or so smaller than it was supposed to be. Once I replaced it with the right size, there was plently of slack to move the belts when the motor was loose.
As for the vibration, I had some, but it was always when the dp had been unused for a while. Which meant the belts where taking a set. Once the dp ran for a while, the belts would heat up and relax and it would run smoother. So a couple of years ago I finally replaced the v-belts with link belts and now it runs smoothly all the time.
Yep that's it. Good idea about the weather stripping. I use the same idea on the back of toilet tank lids so that they don't clank into the wall. I'll give it a try.
I'll add a new chuck to the list. I've seen the link belts and think they are neat but a better chuck is likely the better investment. I did notice that when I set the RPM to 3000 last night that everything was bouncing off the table.
I made sure the motor was loose but then tried removing the front belt. Didn't think about the rear belt. Doh. I went out last night and after fighting for another few minutes thought of trying the rear belt. It slipped off fairly easy. I think part of the issue was that the belts were both on the largest position so there wasn't any slack to speak of. The motor didn't really move forward in that position. I could use the push the handle and add tension to the belt, but the motor was tight up against the housing when the handle was released. So I think the biggest issue is that I was trying to remove the front belt first. First time I played around with the belts on the delta. Who writes these manuals anyway?
Bother... I hate to ask, but how do you check for run out on the drill press. I used my engineer square to make sure that the bit was at 90 degrees to the table, but there's something else? Google Drill Press here I come.
Well with that being the second recommendation for link belts so far, I'll have to check them out, which I did, and have to laugh at Lee Valley as they call the product Link Belt for Contactor Saws and picture it with a drill press, but I digress. I'll have to get a few for the drill press and see how much vibration it gets rid of.
Things are going well. Did you see my posts here and in ABPW of my finished baby furniture? That's kept me busy for awhile. I still have things to do.
I ended up going for the Leigh jig, which is awesome. I'm totally happy I did it, although the price tag with bits and everything is pretty high. I'm sure it will last me many years and I'll use it a ton. I'm still trying to learn handcut dovetails, but I need a lot more time before I'll feel too comfortable with that. I made 4 dovetailed storage boxes the other day with the Leigh (so 16 ends each of pin and tail boards). All the parts were interchangeable and it only took me maybe 1.5 hours to do, which is pretty good for me.
Anyway, hope things are good with you. Any more pics of the shop projects? Once the baby is here (due date was yesterday but still waiting) and things die down (if ever!), I'm going to get some time to work on those things.
See the other quite lengthy article I wrote on all the machinists' tools you need. :) This is where the dial indicator and magentic base comes in. You use the magnetic base to lock the dial caliper to the table and measure the runout.
I understand straight-cut router bits are made to higher tolerances (and bend less easily) than drill bits for what you measure.
again, guess I was lucky. My same DP has NO runout OR vibration, and the chuck works smoothly and holds all size drills tightly. (now don't get me started on the POS Delta BS that I ended up returning to the dealer due to unsolvable vibration...)
also, you can just install a bit that you know is straight, turn the thing on a low speed and check visually for runout. If you can't see ANY lateral movement, you are good to go. Don't worry about some infinitesmal deviation. It isn't gonna matter when drilling...
Also, pull on the chuck from various sides, to see if it has any play. There's an adjustment for the quill, but I forget if it is on the left or right... (The quill holds the chuck.)
I've done more stuff, but I haven't taken any pics. Guess I should take a couple pics of the drawer cabinet I made for under the Unisaw. It's SO handy for little stuff that should stay right with the saw. I just made a monitor stand from melamine and had a devil of a time gluing up the mitered box portion. There's got to be a better way than what I did.
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