Harbor Freight drill press mod- lowered rpms to 200 to improve results drilling metal

[downsizingnow48]

Yes it is a solid little machine. Very little play in the quill and original chuck works fine. Probably just sat in a corner somewhere for decades. Only thing I did was clean rust off the tube and table so it can be easily adjusted. Oh and also the pot metal wedges that tighten against the tube had frozen solid so punched them out and made new ones from steel.

 

[fidowanttobe]

"That thing needed more power. So I REWIRED IT !!"

 

[KYErik]

Update- I cleaned the chuck and spindle off really well with solvent and tapped the chuck on with a cushioned hammer. The chuck held tight- no more slipping. I drilled a couple of 7/8' holes through 1/2" steel and it did great on the first hole. For the second hole I purposely pushed down really hard on the feed lever and eventually the belt did begin to slip. It was doing fine with normal pressure.