Delta 17-900 drill press pulley slippage

[Bruce Mack]

I discovered that the front pulley, i.e. the spindle pulley, rotates under the nut securing it when I use a 3" hole saw. Evidently the force required to turn the hole saw is too much as the attachment stops turning while the pulley continues to spin under the nut. There is no belt slippage. As the photo shows, there is a sleeve onto which the nut is threaded. The spindle moves up and down freely, as it should. There are no set screws visible on the 4-tier pulley. Attempts to turn the nut either counter-clockwise or clockwise while securing the hole saw do not cause the nut to rotate. My last attempt simply detached the chuck at the morse taper. I've looked at lots of old postings and YouTube videos but I'm stymied. I can't figure out how to tighten the pulley. I'm sorry if my description is murky; it reflects my confusion.

[Bill Dufour]

It may be a taper fit with or without a key. I would remove the pulley and clean the taper also looking for a sheared key in there.
Bil lD.

[Charles Lent]

When looking at the exploded parts diagram https://www.ereplacementparts.com/de...3279_9488.html the pulley appears to be a taper fit with no key shown in the drawing. Probably the only way that you will figure it out and what's happening, is to remove the nut and pulley and inspect the pulley and it's mounting point. Be careful not to break anything, as most replacement parts for this drill press aren't readily available any more. A good clean and dry taper fit held tight together should not slip. If you don't find any damage, I would just clean the mating tapered surfaces well with DNA and re-assemble it, tightening the nut as tight as I could get it.

Charley

[Bruce Mack]

When looking at the exploded parts diagram https://www.ereplacementparts.com/de...3279_9488.html the pulley appears to be a taper fit with no key shown in the drawing. Probably the only way that you will figure it out and what's happening, is to remove the nut and pulley and inspect the pulley and it's mounting point. Be careful not to break anything, as most replacement parts for this drill press aren't readily available any more. A good clean and dry taper fit held tight together should not slip. If you don't find any damage, I would just clean the mating tapered surfaces well with DNA and re-assemble it, tightening the nut as tight as I could get it.

Charley

Thank you Charley and Bill. I looked at the parts diagram and decided again to try to tighten the pulley nut. I cleaned the Morse taper on the chuck and tapped it into the press. Clamping a 5/8" hex key in the chuck I set it against a block of wood on the press table hoping everything would hold. This time I used a plastic-faced hammer to tap the handle of my ratchet and 1 1/4" socket counter-clockwise on the pulley nut. In effect, I became a manual impact wrench. Expecting disaster, I was delighted to observe incremental rotation of the nut, eventually an estimated 90-180°. I could no longer turn the pulley against resistance by hand. The new 3" Milwaukee hole saw was not happy, but it made 2 acceptable holes in a 1 5/8" patagonian rosewood glue-up. There was a lot of smoke, reflecting my inexperience in backing off the cut to clear sawdust and, I guess, the hardness and density of the wood. This dumb effort was the result of agreeing to make a wooden model of a Hasselblad camera for a friend who owns one. The lens is ~2 1/2" deep and I need 6 to 8 thin slices to form a cylinder with diameter ranging from 3" to 2 3/4". I'll take several slices and reduce their diameter slightly by rotating them against a disk sander. No, I don't have a lathe

[Charles Lent]

Glad you solved the problem, without breaking anything. Life is good again.

Charley