Help with old Craftsman drill press

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

So I got the nut off the spindle (front) pulley but I can't get the pulley up. I think I need to use a puller - is this the kind of device I need? https://www.amazon.com/ABN-Inch-2-Ja.../dp/B077K6KYM5

I'm trying to cheap out on this as much as possible, of course.

3 jaw puller would be better and prevent breaking the pulley.
I could not find a replacement pulley for mine, so I had to replace the whole press.

[musigenesis]

Ay yi yi, finally got the two belts off my pulleys, but after swapping the belts (26" in front and 24" in the back) now it's impossible to create adequate tension in either of them, even with the motor all the way to the back. This led me to eventually notice that the rear (motor) pulley is installed upside-down - it's supposed to be basically pyramidal with the smallest ring at the top and the largest ring at the bottom, but it's the other way around.

I assume somebody in the distant past did this when they replaced the original belts, but this is even more janky than something I would do. With the pulley flipped there's only one possible combo of pully rings that can even possible fit in the machine, and that's what it was stuck at. With my luck I'll finally fix all this and find out the bearings are hosed from having been set up like this.

[HazMatt]

Yup,

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Ay yi yi, finally got the two belts off my pulleys, but after swapping the belts (26" in front and 24" in the back) now it's impossible to create adequate tension in either of them, even with the motor all the way to the back. This led me to eventually notice that the rear (motor) pulley is installed upside-down - it's supposed to be basically pyramidal with the smallest ring at the top and the largest ring at the bottom, but it's the other way around.

I assume somebody in the distant past did this when they replaced the original belts, but this is even more janky than something I would do. With the pulley flipped there's only one possible combo of pully rings that can even possible fit in the machine, and that's what it was stuck at. With my luck I'll finally fix all this and find out the bearings are hosed from having been set up like this.

That's been my main concern about this evolution

[DawgBüs]

Spin thre pulleys one at a time and listen for any grinding noise. With a press that old, if you're only using it for this project, run 'er as is til she dies! Sounds like they were trying to get higher or lower gearing out of it than it was setup for. They're pretty tough, simple machines though. I had one just like it that was previously my dad's. He pulled it out of some junk pile outside where it had sat for 10-11yrs. Plugged it in. It worked! Never serviced it in any way. Then gave it to me when I was about 18 and had no tool-care mindset. I ran it another five before I gave it away. I think this will be an easy fix and run well enough for your purposes. Unless you intend to use it for many years...

[o1marc]

If everything is still too tight, get the next size belt to accommodate, they come in 1" increments. I would move the motor to it's shortest location and then measure around the pulley for the correct length. Measure the motor all the way in and all the way out to get min/max on belt length. The orientation of the pulleys is such that the middle one is upside down compared to the out ones.

[musigenesis]

Finally got the damn thing working properly. I used a puller to get the motor pulley off, although after I got it off I realized that the set screw for it had actually been in place and I had scraped a little groove up the shaft with it when pulling it off. No matter, I filed it down and put the motor pulley back on the correct way and now the belts go off and on easily in concert with the tensioning bar and the press works as intended.

I can see now that whoever replaced the original belts didn't have a manual and botched putting the whole thing back together by reinstalling the motor pulley upside-down. Because that pulley and the spindle pulley had their largest rings on top, only the 26" belt could be manhandled around both of them and only the 24" belt could then manage to get around the spindle pulley and the idler pulley. I'm amazed this thing worked at all without blowing itself up given how much tension the motor shaft was under, but it's a tough old bugger.

A sad testament to what Craftsman *used* to be.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I know this is skoolie.net and not drillpress.net, but you're my only hope, Obi-Wan. I'm trying to get my brother's Craftsman 15" 1 HP 12-speed drill press working again (model 113 213150). I found a universal key for its 5/8" chuck that works, but now I'm trying to find replacement spindle belts for it (there are three spindles so I need two belts) and Sears does not carry replacements for them any more. The two belts that are on there now are themselves off-brand replacements and I don't think they're exactly the right ones because they're too tight to get off and the engine is right up against the casing (so no way to reduce tension any further).

The drill does run with these two belts on, but the drill press is currently set to the lowest possible RPM (I need higher) and I can't even get the current belts on to different rungs at all.

I found the manual for this drill online, and it says the front belt is Belt-"V" 3/8 x 26 and the back belt is Belt-"V" 3/8 x 24. I assume this is an enormous clue but I can't seem to find any belts exactly like that.

Edit: would this work for a drill press? https://www.amazon.com/PowerDrive-3L.../dp/B00EIRBSMA
https://www.amazon.com/PowerDrive-3V.../dp/B00EIREFCA

A possible solution - link belts

A good you tube intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_n3vphjogs

Some starter links

https://www.harborfreight.com/vibration-free-link-belt-43771.html?cid=paid_bing|*PLA+-+All+Products+-+Lower+Sales+Items|New+Products+-+%282%29+Price+%2410-30|43771&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&mkwid=Ks2B dYAw|pcrid|{creative}|pkw||pmt|be|pdv|c|slid||prod uct|43771|pgrid||ptaid||&pgrid=1163283597023496&pt aid=pla-4576304837642559&pcid=368003295&msclkid=ea904b913d 1a15bb5bca1694d7e70f50



https://www.gamut.com/c/power-transm...tm_content=All

[musigenesis]

Fortunately I got everything working. The real problem wasn't the belts - it was the fact that the previous owner had put the motor pulley on upside-down. Once I flipped that, the belts could be set up properly and the tensioner worked normally.