Brought Powermatic 1150 drill press home

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A strong gentleman who was picking up his own stuff that he won in that auction, helped me load it into my pickup.

At home, I easily unloaded it myself. It weighed about 350 lbs, but nicely balanced on the tailgate as I lowered it, first on two pallets, then I pulled one, then I pulled another. No problem. And I am not even strong.

The good news is that it seems to work fine. Powers up, spins, and changes speed. Another good news is that it is NOT obnoxiously loud. Really quite acceptable for a strong machine.

There is a diagram of speeds next to the speed adjustment handle. The lowest speed depends on what is the motor RPM. For a 900 RPM motor, it is 235 RPM, for a 1750 RPM motor, it is 475 RPM or so (going by memory).

So, since the present motor is a 1750 RPM, this is a 475 RPM lowest speed drill press. The motor seems to be the usual 56 frame size, so, finding a replacement motor (say, 1 honest HP 900 RPM motor) should not be a problem. I am xposting this to a woodworking newsgroup in hopes that someone who wants a faster drill press, may want to swap my

1725 RPM 3/4HP motor, for a 900 RPM motor.

This is the hell of a "3/4HP motor", it is rated for 10 amps at 110V and easily blew a overload switch on my outlet bar at startup. The less honest people would rate it as a 1.5 HP motor.

The other bad news is that there are supposed to be three handles on the crank that lowers and raises the spindle. I have all threee, however, two holes are somewhat stripped. One hole is fine, so I can raise and lower the spindle.

Thread looks like 1/2"-20 NF, and I have a corresponding tap, though I doubt that I have a die for the handles. I will try to re-thread holes and see if that would help.

The mysterious pedal turned out to be for raising and lowering the spindle. It's great for quick hole making when I use two hands to hold work.

I think that I will upgrade my basement 120v circuit to 20 amps, though it is not necessary for the DP, but it is a good time to do it.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16069
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Igor, I strongly suggest you use this machine as is for awhile before you swap out the motor. You will drill many more small holes than large ones, and for small holes you will need the rpms from your current motor.

Time to buy the appropriate Helicoil kit, maybe.

Told ya.

Don't do it if the wiring is 16 gauge! That breaker protects the wiring, which protects your family from fire. Don't just put in a bigger breaker without analyzing the wiring.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

OK. I definitely respect your judgment and will not look for a slower motor, for now.

Never used them, will check out.

No, I wanted to actually pull the existing wire and put in 12 gauge wire.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16069

TMT... I still do not quite understand how they could rate a 10A motor as 3/4 HP... I think that it probably honestly puts out a 1 HP on a continuous basis...

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16069

A while back I downloaded the Square D Motor Calculator program. Looks like it is in Excel now, which I don't have. The program lists 3/4 110 as 13.8 FLA

9.8 Amps would be 1/2 hp.

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for nema motor calculator.

Wayne D.

Reply to
Wayne

This is very interesting. I guess that they must know something.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16069

I re-threaded the stripped thread in one of the holes and inserted a handle there. (quill control) The third one did not require any fixes. So now, the quill turning mechanism has all three requisite handles. Blew the wood dust out from everywhere except transmission. So, now I have a fully functioning DP with no known problems. Having spent its life at a small wood door company (2,000 square feet facility), it is unlikely to have seen much heavy use, and surely does not look like it did. Its belt also look nice and there is still original paint on the foot pedal surface.

The question now is how to get it to the basement.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16069

There are a number of XLS files there - heavy in programming on them.

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot"s Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.

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Wayne wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Might you concider a VFD? If I fall into one, I'd do my new DP.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

EEEK!!! Just to avoid wrong impressions by someone who may be following this thread, instead of 16 guage, I'm sure you meant to say

14 guage. 14 is extremely common and is generally fused at 15 amps. 20 amps requires 12 guage. In the unlikely chance something is, in fact, wired with 16 guage, it could only be fused at 10 amps.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Foster

pretty nice, is it reversing?

i am holding out for one with power feed. so nice!

Reply to
erik litchy

What i want to do with my basement shop breaker, is pull new 12 gauge wires through existing conduit, and add a lot of receptacles and change the breaker to 20A.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus12968

no, it is not reversing. It is purely a motor question.

Power feed is definitely a great thing. What I like about this DP, is that it has a foot pedal that I can use to lower the quill.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus12968

Tom, I do not know. It would be nice for a few reasons, like tapping and reversal. Electrically, it is a hassle due to having to redo my basement electrical wiring a lot.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus12968

I have an 1150 that I have used on and off for the past 17 years. It had a 3 phase motor 1725 rpm when I used it sometimes for 8 years. That place went out of business so I bought a bunch of their tools. I installed a single phase motor I had laying around. I am sure it is a

1725 rpm is on it. I have never had any issues drilling with that speed. It may be a waste to get a slower motor. Maybe not. But I drill wood usually. Maybe you need slower for big metal holes.

Helicoil for the handle problem.

Reply to
Jim Behning

Is it better to be standing on one leg when a drill (or other tool) grabs the piece that you're holding by hand?

IMO, you're always better off clamping workpieces.

The following statement leads me to believe that you think the foot control is going to be a great time-saver. Some folks that hurry can't count to 10 on their fingers.

Your shop practices may transfer to your son, so he would benefit from seeing safe practices examples while you work, as safe operating procedures aren't a waste of time.

WB metalworking projects

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Reply to
Wild Bill

I mostly drill metal, though wood as well. If I find a two speed motor, if such a thing exists, I might install it. For now I decided not to mess with the press too much.

Thanks. I simply re-threaded the hole, the handle went in deep enough and seems to be fixed in place quite well. i

Reply to
Ignoramus12968

Point taken. I would only use it for small stuff.

WB, that C face motor that you used for your 3-in-1 smithy machine, does it have beefy enough bearings for the side loads caused by belt?

igor

Reply to
Ignoramus12968

For those who own this drill press, I uploaded two manuals for it, the

1966 manual and the more modern manual. They are now on the above page. They are in PDF. i
Reply to
Ignoramus12968

For you folks wanting to tap in a drill press..might I suggest yall start scrounging for a Procunier/Tapmatic/etc etc tapping unit.

Gunner

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide"

- James Burnham

Reply to
Gunner

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