Changing the speed on an old drill press

January 7, 2008 10:17 AM

How do you change the speed on an old belt driven drill press?

I bought a really cool old Black and Decker Drill Press at a flea market. The only problem is, I can't figure out how to move the belt from setting to setting.

The press reveals no obvious way to loosen the tension, so I'm guessing there's some secret trick they taught people in shop class. Any ideas?

posted by drezdn to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

If the model number is necessary, I can post it later tonight.
posted by drezdn at 10:18 AM on January 7

I don't know anything about your drill press, but on mine you can loosen the motor and rotate it towards you to decrease the distance between the two spindles and thus loosen the belt. Does yours have any way to loosen the motor?
posted by ssg at 10:24 AM on January 7

It does have a way to loosen the motor, it looked to me like it would only end up tightening the belt if I did that, but I'll give it a shot.
posted by drezdn at 10:26 AM on January 7

Yeah, usually there is a screw that you undo that allows the motor to pivot (often spring loaded in the tension direction) and you push it in to loosen the belts enough to move them, then do it back up after changing it.
posted by Brockles at 10:38 AM on January 7

Tough to tell without a photo but I concur with others that usually the trick involves removing some screw, allowing the motor to pivot a little and remove some of the tension from the belt. I've seen some where it's multiple screws involved.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:40 AM on January 7

On my drill press there is a lever that allows you to do it without tools, so you may find something other than a screw.
posted by TedW at 10:48 AM on January 7

Seconding what TedW said - on mine there's a small metal lever in back, just above the power cord that you pivot to loosen the motor mount.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:36 AM on January 7

You shouldn't have to loosen anything.

Just roll the edge of the belt onto the smaller diameter pulley, turn the belt by hand until it rolls onto the smaller pulley, and then roll the other end up onto the larger diameter.
posted by davey_darling at 12:48 PM on January 7

Here, I shot a quick video showing you how to do it. Unfortunately my hand obscures the belt going onto the back pulley, but you should get the idea.

The belt shouldn't be super tight, by the way - you want to allow for some slippage if your bit gets bound up in something.

Of course, this is all moot if your drill press doesn't have the same sort of pulley arrangement.
posted by davey_darling at 1:19 PM on January 7

It turns out that I wasn't thinking the problem through enough and that davey_darling's video helped me get another perspective on the problem. By tugging the belt on the left side for the pulley in the front, the pulley pulls the belt up on its own.
posted by drezdn at 6:20 PM on January 7