Variable speed drill press - with Paul Brodie 

You can find a similar type Constant variable pulley on mopeds. Pretty cheap and easy to purchase.

So many cool comments! As a thirteen year old in '71, I was infatuated with all things mini-bike. Here in Australia I used to eagerly await for the latest glossy colour magazines to come out from the US. to come all the way to up to Woomera, in South Australia. I would pore over these mags cover to cover, numerous times, and dream of one day, owning my own mini-bike, powered by either a Tecumseh, or Kirby Stationary engine, but... not with your ordinary centrifugal clutch... oh no... I wanted the adjustable torque converter auto clutch, which was revolutionary at the time. Hell, the advertisements mentioned riding up a really steep mountain... Mt. Rushmore, or Everest, or somewhere in America, and it did the job! This was the future... All small boys who were getting sand kicked in their faces on the beach, and who were madly saving up for a Bull Worker, had suddenly changed tack, and were wanting to join the throngs of cool kids, who were sporting these adjustable belt drives on their mini-bikes! Then Yamaha and Honda came in with the Honda Mini Trail 50, and Yamaha DT 60, which now had gearboxes... It was hard being me back then... The angst... Never did get my pulleys...

I added a 3rd set of pulleys to a vintage Atlas drill press last year. The modification really slowed the spindle speed and made it much better for metal working.

An alternative to compound pulley speed control is a 240v to 3 phase delta, these give infinite duty cycle control and start at £150 (257 Canadian). Obviously you will need a three phase motor wired in Delta configuration. I have one on my drill and one on my lathe - you need to ensure the ramp down times are extended for the lathe as I learned the hard way - if your lathe stops dead the inertia of the chuck leads it to unscrew itself and drops onto your foot - Stay safe

Paul: Thank you for sharing another of your ingenious projects. I have a couple of Machines crying out for variable speed control. Unless a used set of pulleys fall into my hands I will most likely be converting to a DC tread mill motor or VFD 3 phase set up.

Same pulley system i found on my Logan 8 inch shaper i refurbished . Worked good after a good cleaning and lubrication .

Thanks ....great work guys..."quality exists before the subject and object"

Love your work Paul and Mitch.

Thanks Paul and Mitch! that's perfect!

This split pulley system with movable sheaves via a spring usually is used on many machines, lawn mowers, rotovators, my friend's 750 Massey Ferguson combined harvester and even the DAF motor car of the 1970's.

I have a 20 year old Craftsman Variable Speed Drill Press that operates the same way with the difference being that the middle pulley is fixed and it has a variable pulley that is spring loaded on both the motor shaft and spindle. You move a lever on the side of the drill press head that moves the middle pulley in or out to change speed. It was their top of the line at the time back when Craftsman still made decent tools. Still works great!

That's a really brilliant design, I've been after something like that for ages. Thanks for sharing Paul!

i'm into 3d printing and the filament have gotten amazing. filament is the raw form of plastic sting on a 2.2 lbs (1 kilo ) asa plastic is automotive grade. machinist have replacement gears for lathes with PLA. i will give it a try.

Your laugh about the company not knowing how many pulleys they made, made me laugh lol

Love your channel and your projects. You have such a smooth voice, and presentation. Kind of reminds me of how calm soothing listening to Mr Rogers was.

if not already suggested, to eliminate the potential of binding on the non driven side of the pulleys, just make it a pivot point. Granted, the screw side will now be traveling in an arc but that can be remedied with a floating drive nut and pivoting crank bearing. For me, I attached a 3/4 hp 3 phase motor and a VFD running off 120 single phase power. I can adjust the speed from 1 rpm (yes, ONE) to well over 1100 rpm. You might think too slow for small bits but it works perfectly fine. So far I have not stalled the motor, torque is incredible. VFD's are a remarkable piece of equipment, no longer do I shy away from three phase motors

Just finished watching your video,very informative. I have a treadmill the has a pulley like that. Not quite as heavy so might not be good enough. Got my gears rolling so thanks for the inspiration!

the reason Dave's drill press has sliding tube at a angle is to keep the belt on center as it changes ratio.

Thanks so much for sharing! I'm already designing my own set.

That is a wonderful setup Mr. Paul. I feel like I could 3D print my own pullies out of acetal (delrin) and achieve the same kind of interlocking variable setup that you have. Its a shame the company stopped production after 70 years though.

These pullies are available in commercial kitchen mixing machines, for those looking for them perhaps look at commercial equipment repair companies like Hobart.

Thanks, Paul! 😊 I'll totally be making one of those 😁. Cheers!

I managed to get a McMaster catalog last year. It's very cool and fun to look through. I had placed an order with them and unfortunately It's very hard to get them to ship to individuals in Canada. Much like your self, I placed my order 4 times and eventually they shipped what I wanted after I used my personal email through my domain, and included my website so It seemed like I was a company rather than a person.

Very Cool Drill Press! Nicely done

This reminds me of a Reeves drive on very old metal working lathes. I believe it may be old monarchs. You did an amazing job on your drill press Paul.

Hi Paul, the vari drive on early model grain harvesters ( International, John deere, massey etc) had the same concept for ground speed.

Thank you now I know what I’m doing to my drill press & it’s going on my mill when I finish it🤪🤪😘

Immediately started searching the internet trying to find a set of pulleys.

The angle on the other one stops the belts moving up and down. It would be the same angle as the pulley face.

Thank you for sharing. Very nice.

i own two drill presses, a Taiwanese 1hp 2mt hafco bd20 that's great for everyday use and the second one is a toolroom drill press, it's an Australian made 1.5hp 3mt Waldown 3m-2, it was made in the 60's and it's a beast, im looking for big 3mt drill bits atm.

I really like your foot switch idea.

Bridgeport & similar milling machines with variable speed use a Reeves Vari-Speed pulley system. There's one spring loaded conical pulley on the motor and the spindle pulley has the distance between cones controlled by a crank and a yoke on one piece. I think the range is only about 5:1 or 6:1 though.

Great video. Great comments.

Love that you showed off your rig. I have a Powermatic 1200VS (variable speed). If I didn't have that I would simply purchase a 3 phase motor (us AC power) with a Variable frequency drive for the variable speed. That being said I love the old school approach; reminds me of a reeves pulley drive on my wood lathe. Cheers and thanks for sharing!

They are running pulleys that run a V belt that is driven by a 2 piece pulley at one end where the 2 cones change the diameter. Millions of wheel sizes and v belts available.

Thanks Paul- this is great My late father a "Electrician" by trade converted his Multi pulley drill press is a similar yet different means through a VSD with foot peddle to control, yet one would still need to manually set the correct belt and pulley configuration on the the head gear It has 3 different belt and pulley length setups. Just discovered your Channel looking to get into some frame building of sorts... Would like to take the time to thank you for your supper informative Videos they absolutely rock ✌🏽

Thanks for this video Paul. As always, its inspiring. I'll try to make a system of my own. Hopefully some pulleys are out there or perhaps I can design some of my own.

Was hoping you would talk about that variable speed. Thank you!

Its a Daf O Drill .... very seasonal for spring .. Daff used a similar system on a small car the Daf 33 it was a cvt constantly variable transmission .. Daf called their version the Variomatic. But its very clever how they have it all on one hub . a very tidy set up indeed.

This is neat as hell. That said, a decent VFD is a fair bit cheaper.

I enjoyed it

Thank you soooo much , i wanted to learn variable distance system and you helped to much.

Thank you for the explanation! I was afraid the video was going to end without an explanation of the compound pulley system.

It's like a scooter variator you could probably use one to make these, by putting both pulleys of the cvt/variator in a single shaft!

There a set of variable speed pulleys in the ShopSmith power head. Plus many other parts you could use !!

Paul, that pulley system is a lot like the John Deere Variator used on the old John Deere lawn tractors. As long as they are clean and lubed occasionally they are much better then a VFD.

If you are on a budget a DC motor with speed controller from a salvaged threadmill is a decent solution. I converted my mill that way and it works quite well. The controller from the threadmill compensates for variation in load so that’s nice bonus feature.

Why not turn your own your pitched pulleys from nylon? Are there weighted blocks inside like a centrifugal pulley on avsnowmobile or ATV clutch?

im intrigued. I have a nice big drillpress where changing the pulleys is so annoying to me. I may start looking i to modding it this way. Thx for the research work you did too (:

That was most interesting. A very clever pulley set, and a very clever adaptation of it. Thank you. Les in UK

FYI. My go to place in Calgary for fasteners and hardware is Blackfoot Industrial Supply and they do stock some Acme threaded rod and matching nuts. Not sure about all sizes but they did have what I needed back when!

Well, color me inspired, Paul! Thanks for sharing this. I just did a little looking around on the web at various lawn mower and go kart variable speed pulley sets, then hit the jackpot on ebay. I found a used Cleveland Speed Selector for $100. Can't wait to get it and figure out how to mount it to the old drill press.

Hi Paul, my name is Alan, I'm a friend of Ross's. I think you'll know who I mean. Love the channel as I was building gas brazed bikes back in the 80's but without the success you achieved, sadly. When I was messin' with motorcycles back in the 60's we called those single cylinder Harley's "Benelli's". They're originally made in Italy. Made in Cheena now, big surprise!

Fantastic information and great history! Princess Auto has a complete floor standing drill press with 5/8 chuck and a Variable speed - very much like these ones - the belts look more like small snow mobile belts though. In your truck for ~$800.

Ebay is fairly awash in vs pulleys. I had a lathe with such a setup and have a bandsaw with it. Reeves drive is one of the names for it andBrowning dabbled in it as well I believe (in addition to bicycle 'transmissions').. variable speed transmissions in snowmobiles and newer cars have same idea. Time marches on ... VFD's are the new iteration.

Some years ago I saw a video on a car transmission that used a similar principle. Interestingly the belts on that transmission were rubber but had segmented steel rings around the belt so the belt pushed instead of pulled. I hope that makes sense. Search "infinitely variable car transmission" on Google... Thanks again Paul and Mitch.

I'm in the planning phase of a wood & metal cutting bandsaw, and that looks like just the ticket! Am I correct in understanding that the dynamic pulley is keyed to the hub? Thanks for sharing!

Nice modification😊. Mechanical variable speed is a great way to keep torque at all desired speeds that a VFD usually can’t. One could fabricate this same unit with two variable pitch v-belt sheaves mounted atop each other and modified to allow the moveable pieces to slide rather that thread together and on a common shaft or sleeve between both units. McMaster Carr carries these and they’re common in power transmission. Check out Burden’s Surplus in Nebraska for another possibility. I’ve been thinking of this same mod for an old press I have with a 4 step jack shaft.

Good I want one

Food for thought, where have I seen those. Spanish milling machine, snow mobiles and ride em lawnmowers.

That was such a great vid I bought a t-shirt.

This is the holy grail. My ideal Metalwork drill press speed range would be 50rpm to max 600rpm. If it also came with a 'soft' reverse function for tapping purposes I would be in heaven.

Fantastic videos! There's a little bit of a New Yankee Metalshop vibe happening here.

McMaster-Carr had flip-flopped back and forth on the whole Canadian shipping thing a number of times, but seem to have settled on shipping not being a problem finally. I can't remember how long ago that change was (finally!) made, but it was at least 3-5 years ago now. So go forth and order all the cool hard-to-find parts you need!

my understanding was that mcmaster now sells into Canada. Perhaps not with covid going on at the moment, but they were within the last few years (after a while of not)

I'd love to make this mod to mine, thanks for the in-depth video! Out of interest, what brand is that drill press?

Very interesting. Notice that the picture of Dave shows the spindle pully on the bottom. Paul's is on the top. Paul's control mechanism would benefit from raising the back. If you look at it as Paul cranks the speed up, the belts change alignment due to the belts shifting on the pulleys. The way the control is bolted to the top of the drill press, it should be pretty easy to do.

Hey Paul, love your videos! Do you reckon that these could be 3D printed in ABS and have bearings insert into them, or do you think that they need the special blend of plastic to stand up to the v belts?

I've found these CVT pullys on old treadmill exercise machines, now I know what I can use them for.

Ken brilliant.😊

Internally that's how the pre-DC speed controlled shopsmiths worked, so if people are looking for parts a pulley set from a broken shopsmith should be a good start.

Me: in the weeds on a big tube fabrication job Paul Brodie: here's a new video about a tool that I built Me: calls customer to apologize for the delay 😁😑

Hello Mr. Paul. Great Video. Very well demonstrated and explained. It will be equally great, if you also upload its animation

Power mastic pm2800b, made in China, has infinity speed adjustment. My problem is it has stopped working. Your channel is the only one I’ve found that explains how to take it apart or even likely trouble.

gut!!

Cheaper/better just to buy an old Rockwell DP with variable speed. They use the same system and it works fairly well. I think Powermatic used the same system as well. Google Reeves drives, I think they still make all sorts of variable speed pulleys and drives.

wonder if you can make those pulley halves youreself , just cast a few chuncks of aluminium in some paintcans and work from there making the grooves the pulley pulls intoo itself can be a little tricky but if you have a mill and a rotator thingy (to make sprockets on a mill) and work out from the middle you should be able to make it

If you need a new variable speed pulley, Speed Selector makes pulleys that replace the Reeves, Hi-Lo, TB Woods and Lovejoy pulleys that went out of business or got bought. Most are in stock or Speed Selector will custom make if needed. They have an actual engineering department; very helpful.

14:29 Re spindle extension - did you not look at mounting the motor higher so the top variable belt goes to the motor and the bottom one to the spindle ?The slope on Dave's is to keep the belts aligned.

Love your working Dad, i like the way you sharing a second witching for safe. I always wonder like that. Now i learned more trick. Thank you 👍👌✌😃. Srr if i think you re my Dad hihi because i miss my father like you. He passed to the heaven. 😂

I purchased a part from a lawn tractor that is very similar. The main difference is it uses a wider belt.

Comet makes a system that uses a pulley very similar. Used on gocarts and mini bikes everywhere, readily available and cheap!

what a great video...beautiful builld as usual... if you ever need anything from mcmaster...ill snag it for you and ship it up to you.

Riding mower variante speed pully like a husky was thinking of using one to do this when I found this video

MTD lawn tractors (sold by Montgomery Wards for 50+ years and still available today) - had the SAME variable speed stacked double pulley and I bet you can get them cheaply BRAND NEW -the center is needle bearings and not plastic- check it out for yourself (I was an In-Home repair Tech on Lawn and Garden, repairing Monkey-Wards mowers for over a decade) you could make the exact thing with a double stacked variable speed drive pulley from one of those mowers-

hi-lo is still around i just found my feed and speed solution to my homemade lathe think to you bubby been mulling that over for years when I get my shed ship-shape and that will be soon/ no more excuses. and the "gear" box just got a lot more compact and I need all the space I can use / my shed is not very big. time to get to work making.

Really like your channel Paul and editing style or maybe Mitches editing style? (the content is great too haha) I wanted to ask you if you film in 4k your videos and lighting are always really good wondering if 4k is worth it for my channel thanks

Huge apologies Paul, will need to watch the whole video again because I couldn’t concentrate due to being distracted by the finer scenes of the concluding episode of Tipping The Velvet on the Tell Lie Vision...!😎😜 Anyway, it occurs to me that those automatic scooters have variable belt driven ‘gearboxes’. I wonder how they work, and could they be adapted for a drill press? How easy would it be to rig up a spindle speed indicator? Thank you for sharing this innovative conversion. You know we all want one. As always we leave your shop inspired.

Maybe a set of pulleys from a CVT scooter transmission will work.

I wonder if the Commit converter pully parts for go-karts or mini bikes could be adapted?

Great video love the old technology, I'm sure they went out of business because you can buy a cheap VFD for any drill press for like $100 usd.

Hey Paul, i just want to let you know that McMaster-carr is now SElling in Canada, if that can help !

you should be able to machine up a spindle tube to take some needle roller bearings and 3D print those pulleys. If the pulley's don't hold up as a print, you should be able to print some molds and then cast the pulley's out using an engineering urethane (try Reynolds or SmoothOn [same company] ) Brilliantly simple design. Should be easy to duplicate.

I've seen where some lawnmowers use a variable speed pulley that's very similar, wondering if anyone has tried using one of those?

the pulleys seem to work the same way as Hubnuts Invacar...................an 70's 3 wheeler for people who used wheel chairs .. the could drive on the UK roads in them

That's really cool. This system was used by DAF in their variomatic car with infinite gearing. Most mopeds used this system too so they could be a source of parts. I should adapt my ancient Elliott drill, it has a very rattly back gear for slow speeds. Your design is much better 👍

Did you by chance replace the feed wheel knobs with the aluminum items pictured?

Is this the same mechanism inside a variable speed knee mill (Bridgeport) head? Words to live by: "You don't have to make it fancy to make it work." Make it work, then make it fancy.

Hadn't watched vid previously, thought it was just another VFD and DC motor conversion. Very interesting, basically 4 sheaves with manual adjustment instead of bob-weights and springs as in a CVT. With a bit of research and ingenuity, I think few old ATV parts could be converted particularly as it seems somewhat similar to 1900's motorcycle technology (completely forget name of variable adjuster at present but belt drive era). Still won't be cheap but probably substantially less then commercial set. ($500 is so far out of my price range it isn't even funny)