PING Grant Erwin

Sorry I got your name wrong in the header previously...I may have a touch of dislexia.

Your expression "chafing" runout means very little to me. Further, you > seem to assume that your spindle bearings are the source of your runout. > Many little drill presses have low quality chucks which themselves can > easily have 1/32" of runout. If your chuck can be removed from the spindle, > then try directly indicating the spindle with a dial test indicator. If its > runout is below .002 TIR then the problem is the chuck. > You can buy multi-step pulleys at McMaster-Carr but those are die-cast > zinc pulleys and they have a lot of runout. I have given up on buying step > pulleys and now turn my own on a lathe. There is a HUGE difference in the > vibration of a machine if you have a good belt and pulleys that run true. > Anyway, most small DPs vibrate like crazy anyway so if you don't care just > order from
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and be done with it. The pulleys should > be aligned so their axes are parallel and they are at the same height. It > isn't that uncommon to add a jackshaft to a DP. I suggest you go look at > a new one on a showroom floor to see how they do it.

It is a cheapy Chinese mini DP, $40 at the Homier traveling tool show. Something like

4 1/2" center-to-column and with a 4 speed set of pulleys on top. Very standard and low- end, can't lock the quill in place. The motor is 1700 rpm (not 1725). Works well but the lowest speed has this tacky chafing sound first time I ran it, so, must be some runout.

I imagine one could place a larger single gulley wheel on the front spindle, or something like that...? I know a variable speed DC motor and control board would be really expensive, after all the searching I've done. Doing a jack shaft is too much for me.

Slow for a spinning wheel strop with leather on top of the disc. Used for honing wood- working chisels and handplane blades. Don't want the steel to turn blue because it's too fast.

I have had the arbor made with threading, and the wooden discs are glued up but it's not finished quite yet. All that should make more sense.

Alex

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Check whether you hear the same with the belt guard up. Often, these things come with really cheap belts, and your belt may be thicker at some points of its circumference than others.

If a pulley (lowest speed suggest the spindle pulley on the front) is too close to the belt guard, the belt will rub on the guard when the thicker part passes buy. You can probably locate where, then loosen some screws under the guard which hold the lower half of it to the casting, and shift it sideways so to clears through the full turn of the belt.

It is unlikely to be the pulley itself, or the bearings. Even a chap Chinese one is unlikely to be *that* bad. But find a spare belt for when this one dies. I had both belts from my floor-standing Taiwanese one (16 speed) die within a week of each other -- but after several years of service. At that time, I had to relocate the belt guard to avoid rubbing at speeds which had the top of the idler pulley in use -- either from the motor pulley or from the spindle pulley.

A slight relocation of the belt guard eliminated this problem.

Good Luck, DoN.