My wife won a Delta drill press as a door prise. It is a 121 inch table top model with a mehanical speed variable knob to vary the RPM from about 400 to 3100 RPM. When I first used it it came apart. A retaining ring didn't. I put it back and it ame apart again. I reamed a washer to a precise fit for the motor shaft and put it next to the retaining rim. It came apart somewhere else. A pulley half with a steel insert with Woodruff keyway came apart. The insert was supposed to staf fixed in the pullley half but didn't. I went through some more gyrations and pinned the insert to the pulley. I drilled the motor shaft and threaded it 1/4-28 to use a bolt and washer in place of the (now lost) retaining ring. It seems to work fine now.

Delta will partially recover from their merge with Porter-Cable and begin to ship parts after May the 5th. I told them of my difficulty and they are sending me the "STANDARD FIXIT KIT" for this model. A new pulley with more secure insert, new belt, and other bits and pieces like the key etc.

This is a good news - bad news story. THE BAD NEWS They had so many failures due to a flawed design that their phone ladies are very familiar, take your serial number and address, and ship you a kit. The good news is they are sending the parts and not weasling out of it nor sending me on two 130 mile round trips to drop it and pick it up at an authorized repair center.

Once I re-engineered it sufficiently it seems to work really well and the twist knob speed control via a CVT made up of two variable diameter pulleys seems to be an OK design.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]