The drill press is making a weird noise and the belts feel loose. I looked up the manual but the knob that is supposed to tighten the belts doesn’t seem to be doing anything. I’m hoping to finish a project today and need the drill press. Does anyone know what I can do?
I was shown how to use the knob to unlock it, and then you have to push the motor out (a crowbar works well) then retightening the knob. I forget who exactly showed me that. Let me know if that makes any sense
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That does make sense, I’m just not sure how to do that in real life lol
Much easier shown than said for sure. Simplest way i can think of is see if the motor will slide back away from the housing to tention the belts. Seems like its not fixed in place like i would have initially guessed. Maybe someone can chime in with a better explanation
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We got it! Thanks y’all!!
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If you have a more practical explanation of what you did id love to hear it in case someone happens to ask me in the future!
There is a knob on the left side and the right side. They lock the motor in position (or free it to slide back like 1"), but do not provide the tension. Unlock both side knobs, push the motor away from the cast iron body of the press head to tension, and tighten knobs while holding tension. One knob should hold so you can do the other without 3 hands.
To change belt positions, loosen both knobs. The motor slides freely and the pulleys will be loose. The center pulley is an idler on an arm, nothing locks it. It is self-tensioned only by the belts on either side when you push the motor away to tension it as described above.
Yes we need a new drill press. Craftsman is a great model but this one’s been well loved a bit much.
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A new Craftsman drill press is on our fundraiser wish list if we can meet fundraiser goals! If you haven’t shared the fundraiser yet, please do so to help us upgrade tools like this! https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/growing-austins-creative-maker-community
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@keeganb haha, the part we got stuck on was moving the motor. When I explain it to someone I’ll probably tell them that the motor looks like it can’t move but it does, put both your hands on the motor and push it toward the back wall.
@valerie it would be cool to film little maintenance videos on stuff like this and put QR codes on the machines!
That’s the plan! We haven’t had time to setup a shop steward meeting, so I think we’ll just talk about it in the community meeting next week.
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