restoring old drill press

[brian dulisse]

i've inherited an old (1946) delta drill press. the motor on it is a dunlop 1/3 hp model 6960 - a google search turns up nothing of interest; the plate indicates it was sold by sears, but i can't tell when.

in any event, the plug to the unit is a 2 prong (non-polarized) plug, so i want to replace it with a proper plug with a ground. when i open the housing up (not the motor housing; there's a separate housing that holds the switch and serves as a mounting point onto the dp itself), only 2 wires come from the motor to the switch, and then from the switch to the cord. the thing is, the fiber(?) insulators on the wires are colored white and green. i'm operating at the edge of my knowledge of wiring here - is it safe to assume that the green is hot, and the white is neutral? and given only 2 wires are coming out of the motor, how do i ground the unit (i.e., what do i attach the green wire in the cord to)?

[Myk Rian]

If you are switching only one wire, then the black of the new wire will be switched. The white will pass through to the motor, and the new green will go to a ground connection.

[Justin Freund]

Colors mean nothing when it comes to motor leads. Well not nothing, but they don't correlate with household wiring colors. I couldn't tell you which one is which because there were many many different motors for drill presses, especially that size. The motor tag might have a diagram, if there is still a tag. Other than that, the folks on owwm.org could probably tell you.

As an aside, if its original to the drill press, its probably due for new bearings and leads. Again the folks at owwm can help with that too.

[Bill White]

I have a '52 (I think) Dunlop, and I just replaced the entire cord with a 3 wire. Grounded the green to the chassis/frame.
That DP is a tank.
Bill

[Carroll Courtney]

Do you have a volt/ohm meter?If you do,set the meter to check ohms. Ground one lead of the meter to the motor or housing and take the other and check the wire that you think is the ground.Once you have the leads of the meter connected,your meter should buzz.Be sure to check your meter first by touching the leads togeather and you should hear a buzz or the meter reading should change to zero's.
Motor Leads:Wires coming from the motor, only one wire should be broken by the switch and the other wire from the cord should go to the switch.The other wire from the motor and the other wire from the cord should make a joint.All this is providing that the DP is 110v.If you can provide pics that would help---Carroll