Powermatic 1150 finally up and running

[Tai Fu]

After a lot of blood and sweat, I finally have a working Powermatic 1150 for a fraction of its worth...

Money spent:

Powermatic 1150: $120
delivery: $50
quick trip to a machine shop to enlarge the bore of the drive pulley: $10

So basically once I got the reeve drive free I cleaned it and oiled it up. The bore for the other pulley is too small (only by a hair, but enough to not fit), so I had to take a really quick trip to a machine shop to get it enlarged. You might wonder why enlarge the bore: The original motor is 3 phase, and I don't really want to go out and buy a VFD (it costs more than the motor). Also the wiring from the motor and in the machine is in a poor condition, with insulation peeling off in places so I decided to remove the motor from my original drill press and use it in this one. The spindle of the motor was metric or something so it did not really fit the reeve drive on the drill press, so I had a machine shop enlarge it.

When I mounted the motor and installed the belt, I tried to power it up. However for some reason the motor was stalling (it turned the quill very slowly and the motor got very hot). I have no idea why it did that so I removed the belt again to make sure the motor is good. Well it turned at its normal speed so I reinstalled the belt, then turned the belt by hand while turning the speed control dial and slowly working the belt into the reeve drive. Well after I did that the drill press worked normally and did not stall the motor. I have no idea why it did that.

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[Bob Falk]

Is the HP and speed of the replacement motor the same as the old one? I also replaced the motor on mine, but had no problem. Perhaps there was some gunk in the parts that stalled the motor until you broke it free manually.

[Tai Fu]

I don't know what rpm was the speed on the dial set for, but I wonder if it has to do with the fact that the motor just can't turn the quill past 5000RPM? The drill press it came off of does 3600 rpm at the most. I installed the belt by looping one end around the reeve drive at the quill end (remove the top part, it is not spring loaded) and then forcing it around the motor end. The speed is therefore maximum and maybe the motor just can't turn it that fast...

Any idea how I can calibrate the reeve drive so the rpm on the dial is correct?

HP ratings for both motor is the same, 3/4 HP.

[John McClanahan]

If the new motor runs at the same speed as the old one, the speed dial should be correct.

When the speed is set at either the slowest or the fastest, the belt should be near the center of one pulley and near the outer edge of the other pulley. If not, you will not get full speed range.


John

[Jeff Duncan]

Congratulations! I think you made out with a great press! I do have to poke fun of you just a bit for your "after a lot of blood and sweat" description of a one day turnaround on a machine:rolleyes: Many of us who bring in basket case machines have more than a couple days, (actually often it can be a couple weeks or more), of effort to get them cleaned up, lubed, and running right! But I'm just teasing a bit…..you did OK with that machine and you'll get a lot of use out of her:D

As for the speeds, swapping the motor is fine but you ideally want one that matches on of the original speeds. Many of the 1150's came with the option for 3 speed ranges provided by installing motors of certain rpm's. If you throw a 3400 rpm motor on there it may to be too fast for the machine? I'm not sure if it will damage it, but you certainly won't have access to slower speeds that you would want. I'll have to check later but I think the fastest stock motor was 1700 rpm's. If your motor does not match up to one of the rpm's listed on the dial then your not going to be able to use it to calculate the speed, nor are you going to be able to slow it down:o

good luck,
JeffD

[Tai Fu]

I used a 1700 RPM motor. I don't think I can find any 6 pole motors in Taiwan without paying a huge sum of money, and in that case it would have been cheaper to get a 3 phase motor and a VFD (or use the existing motor) to change speed. I guess if I ever have this machine shipped to Europe in the far future, it would slow itself down already...

As to how I managed to reassemble the spring loaded reeve drive, it was hard, and I don't have a helper. What I ended up doing is drill a single 2mm hole just right below the slot where the snap ring sits. So what happens is I compress the spring, and then stick an allen key right into that hole locking the spring in place. It will come in handy in the future if I need to remove the snap ring too, the allen wrench prevents the cap from flying at a high speed. Once the snap ring is in place I remove the allen key from the hole. The hole is on a non-bearing surface so it does not affect the reeve drive's operation.

[Jeff Duncan]

With that motor your speeds should be about the same as my press…..475-4000 rpm's. Pretty good range for most woodworking needs!

JeffD

[Cary Falk]

I am glad to see you get it running.

On anther note, does anyone see the humor in both of these DP threads? A man living in Taiwan is skeptical about buying a USA made drill press that is cheap because nobody there knows anything about it and concerned about finding parts. It is interesting to see the other side from the other side of the world.

[Tai Fu]

I read the manual and one of the troubleshooting steps for "stalling motor" is "belt riding on inner cone". How does that cause stalling? I noticed when it was initially stalling the belt was riding on the innermost part of the quill side of the pulley, and it was only until I moved the belt out of that zone that the motor started running normally. Does that area of the drive not run properly?

[John McClanahan]

When the belt is in the inner part of the quill pulley the drill press is at maximum speed and lowest torque. I suspect the belt is getting pinched on the sides at the top (widest part) and the motor doesn't have enough power to overcome it.


John

[Steve Rozmiarek]

We have many, much bigger reeves drives on harvesting equipment, and I've seen that happen after assembly or belt changes. What happens is the spring tension squeezes the belt as it is installed, but not it the concentric circular way that it is intended. The belt ends up getting jammed up because of it. The fix is simply to turn it, which will force the belt to follow the path it should, causing it to work properly. You won't have the problem again.

As an aside, reeves are not an easily calibrated system. The indications of speeds on the machine, are never going to be completely accurate. As the belt and pulleys wear, it changes everything about the relationship of the drives to each other. Reeves belts also break in unique ways. Yours is probably not a heavy enough duty situation to cause it, but on the bigger machines like the combines we use, if a belt gets wore out, it starts to slip. That builds heat, which causes a rapid deterioration of the belt, which results in RAPID disintegration of the belt. Imagine a 300 hp machine destroying drive belt in a second. It's a bit dramatic.

The only way to accurately measure speed on a reeves drive is to actually measure the output speed on a continual basis. Loads will affect it, as the belt slips further into the pulleys, as will the things I already mentioned. A tachometer could be retrofitted if it is important to you. For machines where the speed is critical, the system automatically adjusts the drive to make the output speed match the target speed. There are better technologies out there to do all this, but they cost more.

Like I said, it won't happen on your machine, but keep an eye on the belts. They are the weak link in a reeves drive, and a wore out one will mess they system up.

[Tai Fu]

Problem is reeves drive belt isn't easy to find... in fact nobody sells a variable speed drill press in Taiwan (this powermatic is the only one I have seen). The previous owner said he had to look high and low to find it and he paid a lot for the belt because it was special. Are there better belts for the reeves drive, like chains or whatever?

I just wonder if its expensive to retrofit the drill press with a tachometer with a digital readout? Sometimes it could be critical because I mount large 12" buffing wheels to the drill press sometimes, and a too high RPM can cause problems such as machine shaking.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

The better belts are made by Gates, here anyhow. In your application, the belt will last a long time, I wouldn't worry too much about it, maybe just be opportunistic if a spare belt turns up.

There are a lot of tachometer options, from digital that runs off a magnet sensor on the shaft, to a old school Starrett type that simply counts the revolutions over a stopwatch, and you calculate the rpm. The digital type will get you speed under load, the manual type won't.

I know most tooling has a range that it is optimal in, i bet as you use it a little, you'll be able to tell if you are in the range. Familiarity with the machine helps. It is a nice machine, I didn't mean to discourage you. Just wanted to mention a few things that may help long term.

I have an Oliver lathe with a reeves drive as well, it works fine, however the range starts too fast. I think it's a design flaw in that lathe, I'm going to put a VFD on it with the reeves at some point.

[Tai Fu]

I never had a belt go bad, so I guess it's a wait and see kind of thing.

I'm wondering how do I mount a piece of wood to the production table? There is no T slot or any mounting points. I just don't want to drill into the cast iron top...

Finally has anyone shipped machines in a container ship before? I might be going to the UK in fall of this year and I want to explore the option. I simply couldn't let the possibility of going away to make me pass up on this machine, because I think it was truly a once in a lifetime find. I am just wondering whats the cost... People around here says they pay close to 10,000 USD to ship their belonging back to the US but I do not know what kind of service it entails or how much they are shipping. That much money too ship a couple of machines seems to be a stretch when you could ship a car for a lot less than that.

The drill press vibrates quite a bit at high speed. At around 2500 RPM and over things on the table move around due to vibration. What can I do to eliminate that?

[Keith Weber]

I was going to say, "How did you get a machine shop to do a job for only $10?", but then I noticed that you're from Taiwan. In the US, machine shops usually want to charge you a minimum charge, which usually borderlines on ridiculous. It's a little different in Asia. I brought my mountain bike wheels into a bike shop in Hong Kong (where I live about 2/3 of the year) to buy a couple of new tires and tubes. I asked if they could mount them on the rims. He said that he'd have to charge me extra. I asked how much. He said 20HKD (about $2.50). Yeah, labor is cheap in Asia!

[Jeff Duncan]

I don't think you'll have much luck getting advice on the shipping from here as it's likely to be a bit different process than over there? I would talk to a local importer about what you want to do. You probably don't need your own container, which I'm assuming the $10k was for. But instead could possibly buy space in another container that's not full.

good luck,
JeffD

[Mikail Khan]

Talk to a shipping company dealing with LCL (less than a container load). Most of them do this. I pay about $250 US freight per pallet (5 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet) to ship from Miami. A 900lb jointer cost about $300 to ship. Local handling charges are about $50 US. Freight forwarders will consolidate items for you to make one shipment. You will have to pay a broker to clear the items for you and you may have to pay import duties.


MK

[Tai Fu]

I don't even know who to ask because every freight forwarder I have seen just has an email form and when I email them for a quote they do not answer.

How is it that you have to pay import duties for items you already own? Can't you mark it as gift?