Looking for RPM chart for 12 speed pillar drill

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Ttrees

Iroko loco!
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Hello folks
Been giving my pillar drill the once over, since I bought some nice drills last week.
After looking at quite a few youtubes, I thought a chart would be nice to have.
So got out the pen and paper and made a chart, copying the label from a paused video
of a similar pillar drill where it was stuck under the lid.
I thought I'd easily find 50hz UK spec figures for this easily,
Trouble is I cannot find a chart with the same configuration/layout of the chart I drew,
and trying to match them up is giving much different figures.
Many new models of drill have a fifth groove on the quill pulley, so added to the issue.

Do I really need some sort of calculator and also measure the pulleys, to write in the speeds on my chart?

I'm not looking for speeds relevant to a specific drill size in question, just presumably what the chuck is spinning at in regards to belt orientation.
If it is indeed the chuck that is used to calculate this, or is it the quill that this measurement is taken from?


Thanks folks
Tom
 
Last edited:
Thanks Inspector
Admittedly, I haven't came across that website calculator, which might come in useful,
but I was trying to get away with finding a chart, in which I could copy from, as I would reckon I'd stand a good chance of getting wrong.
Might have a go if need be though, and come back with some numerical errors ;)
Thanks
Tom
 
My cheap import has the intermediate pulley and I could photograph the chart but the pulley measurements and number of steps on the pulleys may not be the same as yours. There are lots of cheap non contact laser tachometers and if you get one you could measure the exact rpm off the spindle with each belt combination. Then you could make your own chart, suitably large enough to read without climbing on top to see and nail it to the wall behind the machine. The tach may come in handy for other stuff down the road or you could just flog it and recover some of what you paid.

Pete
 
I have much the same deal Far Eastern 3 pulley machine with four belt locations on each pulley.
Like this one, although I can't say for sure if the pulleys are the exact same size.
I might have copied this configuration, as it looked good on paper.
Probably have to do this a few times anyway, as I will be looking into drill speeds afterwards, and might decide to draw another rough chart.
Just wanting to familiarise myself with changing belts now that I am wanting to up my game a bit in using the machine.


Would this be a common occurrence to have different size pulleys in North America
compared to the 10% difference of motor speed in the UK .

Haven't got the ruler out to check the pulley diameters on my machine, if anything they wouldn't be 10% larger than the video shot above.
I thought this would be an easy thing to come across, just jot a figure down, but
seems most youtubers must have a ladder next to their pillar drill.

At least the chart is simple as in slow to fast, but seems a waste of time to cellotape up a bit of cardboard without knowing the speeds of them.
Tom
 
£10 will buy a chinese digital rpm counter. Will run off a 9v battery. Magnet on the spindle and just hold the sensor nearbye in each belt setting to measure the actual rpms and complete your table ...
 
Not looking into buying anything yet, enough on that list already, just wanting some rough
figures.
I really didn't think it would be a troublesome thing to find out.
Thanks for suggestions folks
 
You are thinking too hard. 🤔 Except for exotic materials getting close is enough and slow generally better. My drill press has 5 step pulleys and the chart has both the speeds for 50 and 60 cycle. Motors are the same for both of us. Oh and the speed difference between the two power frequencies is more like 20%.;)
Go back to the calculator I linked and go down the page a touch and you'll see a multi-pulley calculator and put in your motor RPM, pulley diameters and the distance between the shafts and it tells you the total rpm for that combination. So go measure the size of the pulleys, and plug the combinations in you want to use, don't worry about the distance just put in a rough number because it doesn't make any difference to the speed. You would have your info by now and it costs nothing. Hard to beat that. :)

IMG_4899.jpg


Pete
 
I've got one of these no-contact RPM meters with a 5-digit readout and a memory button. You just put a white mark on the shaft, (chuck, fan-blade, whatever), point the meter at it from say 15 - 30cms away and read off the RPM. (They come with three strips of white reflective stick-on strips which you can snip bits off as needed). They measure from 2.5RPM right up to 99,999RPM. You can use it on lathes, fans, bench grinders - anything that rotates.

LCD Digital Tachometer Laser Photo Non Contact RPM Tach Meter Motor Speed Gauge | eBay

There are lots of similar ones on Amazon and eBay.

I've got a nine-speed pillar drill with three pulleys. They're a classic example of 'more is less'.

When I had a five-speed drill with two pulleys, the speed range was more than adequate and the single belt could be changed in a jiffy. Now, -with three pulleys - it's just too much of a faff, so most of the time I have it on 780RPM which suits most of the tasks I undertake in wood or metal. If needs be, I'll change it, but only if the task really demands it. In essence, it's not really a nine-speed drill at all - it spends most of its life as a one speed drill, which is more than a tad ironic.

Some pics attached, and a useful and informative drill-press speed chart showing the optimum speed range for a wide range of drill types and materials, for those who might want to bother.

Hope that might be of interest.
 

Attachments

  • Drill label.jpg
    Drill label.jpg
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  • Pulley diagram lable.jpg
    Pulley diagram lable.jpg
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  • Pulleys and belts.jpg
    Pulleys and belts.jpg
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  • drill-press-speed-chart.pdf
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Thanks guys, turns out under the crud that there's already a badge confirming speeds, albeit a bit difficult to read, and seemingly a different sequence of belt arrangement for speeds, and with figures for both 50 and 60hz.
I was more concerned about pulley alignment and cleaning from the top down, as it were,
and doing a bit of panel beating out bumps, and twisting /pulling to make the machine quieter.
Luckily not needing to do any bearing work, and not bought a 30 quid dial caliper on mag base on the bay, to see how bad the run out is.
I may have to do a little work to the drill bench bar slab first and get it flat and level before even trying.

I might post my findings later to see what ye think about the speeds.
Thanks
Tom
 

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