No more drill mods: Adding a VFD means no more belt changes
A decent drill press is an essential machine tool for almost any type of workshop, and marks a significant step up in precision over a hand drill. The ability to drill true square holes is one thing, but the extra power over what's possible with a handheld tool is the real game changer. If only you didn't have to change belts to change gears.
Not so, of course, if you go to the effort of adding a variable frequency drive to your drill press like [Midwest Cyberpunk] did, along with other cool mods. The donor tool for these mods came from - where else? — Port freight. Some will quibble with that choice, but the tool was pretty cheap, and really all [Midwest] was interested in here was decent castings and a feather with acceptable runout, since the whole powertrain of the tool had to be replaced. The original motor has been replaced by a powerful 3-phase/240 volt Baldor motor controlled by a VFD mounted on a bracket to the left of the drill press head, which greatly simplifies the belt and stepped pulley drive .
[Midwest] also added a digital pin tachometer and RGB LEDs for zazzle. The LEDs don't really bother us, but the lack of a safety cover on the belt drive gives us the jitters. But that's a personal choice, of course. As far as performance goes, the mods seem to work pretty well; the advantage of a VFD is constant torque even at low spindle speeds, and that certainly seems to be the case here. Not having to fiddle with the belts to change gears is another big plus, of course.
Overall, we love these mods and should keep them in mind for our own drill press. We've seen a few drill press mods recently, including this extreme drill press makeover. We can only hope this is the start of a trend.
A decent drill press is an essential machine tool for almost any type of workshop, and marks a significant step up in precision over a hand drill. The ability to drill true square holes is one thing, but the extra power over what's possible with a handheld tool is the real game changer. If only you didn't have to change belts to change gears.
Not so, of course, if you go to the effort of adding a variable frequency drive to your drill press like [Midwest Cyberpunk] did, along with other cool mods. The donor tool for these mods came from - where else? — Port freight. Some will quibble with that choice, but the tool was pretty cheap, and really all [Midwest] was interested in here was decent castings and a feather with acceptable runout, since the whole powertrain of the tool had to be replaced. The original motor has been replaced by a powerful 3-phase/240 volt Baldor motor controlled by a VFD mounted on a bracket to the left of the drill press head, which greatly simplifies the belt and stepped pulley drive .
[Midwest] also added a digital pin tachometer and RGB LEDs for zazzle. The LEDs don't really bother us, but the lack of a safety cover on the belt drive gives us the jitters. But that's a personal choice, of course. As far as performance goes, the mods seem to work pretty well; the advantage of a VFD is constant torque even at low spindle speeds, and that certainly seems to be the case here. Not having to fiddle with the belts to change gears is another big plus, of course.
Overall, we love these mods and should keep them in mind for our own drill press. We've seen a few drill press mods recently, including this extreme drill press makeover. We can only hope this is the start of a trend.
What's Your Reaction?
