Rickenbackerman
Well-known member
So I picked this DP up a month or so ago and did a clean up/resto on it (left the original paint), but I knew in my mind that I really wanted to slow it down since most of my work is with metal. I went through a couple of different variations in my head on how to do it before I ordered the parts. I wanted it to be 100% bolt on with no mods required to the press, and wanted it to be as "plug and play" as possible with no welding or cutting required.
There are two ways you can go - put the bearings in the bore of the pulley or put them in the column. I chose to put them in the column. Problem is finding a slug with the proper ID and OD... then it hit me - jaw couplings! They come in various sizes with tons of bore ID's, and they have setscrews that you can turn around to lock it into the column. I got an L100 with a 1-3/8" bore. The L100 is supposed to be 2.53" OD, and when I measured the ID of my column i got 2.56", so it should have slid right in there, but for some reason, it didn't. I had to do quite a bit of grinding on it to get it to slide down in there...
Anyway, here are the parts. There's the pulley, the coupling, a 6" long 5/8" D-profile shaft, two flanged bearings and two setscrewed shaft collars. Grand total for all of this was $72.00 from Mcmaster.
Assembly with the coupling ground down, I had to grind more on the three jaws since there is step inside the column that you want it to fit down into:
In the column. I superglued the outer race of the bottom bearing in the slug and put some fine line tape on top of the shaft to keep it from dropping down into the column whilst I tighten the setscrew (after I turned it around of course).
Then you grab the shaft with a magnet and pull it up through, install the top bearing and shaft collar. Mounted!
The original craftsman low-speed attachment had an eccentric built into it so you could tension the belt. This doesn't. No worries, that's why we have link belts! And there you have it!
Only problem is since the new pulley is a different diameter than the other two, I have to re-tension the belt every time I change speeds. I need to find a pulley like the other two and I'll be set, but at least it works for now. Oh, the bearings aren't the greatest quality, either - the upper one was spinning in the column so I superglued the outer race of that one, too.
Not to toot my own horn, but I spent a lot of time thinking about the easiest way to do this and I think my solution is a pretty dang good one. Not only that, but since the jaw couplings come in so many different sizes, I think anybody could do this regardless of their column ID.
There are two ways you can go - put the bearings in the bore of the pulley or put them in the column. I chose to put them in the column. Problem is finding a slug with the proper ID and OD... then it hit me - jaw couplings! They come in various sizes with tons of bore ID's, and they have setscrews that you can turn around to lock it into the column. I got an L100 with a 1-3/8" bore. The L100 is supposed to be 2.53" OD, and when I measured the ID of my column i got 2.56", so it should have slid right in there, but for some reason, it didn't. I had to do quite a bit of grinding on it to get it to slide down in there...
Anyway, here are the parts. There's the pulley, the coupling, a 6" long 5/8" D-profile shaft, two flanged bearings and two setscrewed shaft collars. Grand total for all of this was $72.00 from Mcmaster.
Assembly with the coupling ground down, I had to grind more on the three jaws since there is step inside the column that you want it to fit down into:
In the column. I superglued the outer race of the bottom bearing in the slug and put some fine line tape on top of the shaft to keep it from dropping down into the column whilst I tighten the setscrew (after I turned it around of course).
Then you grab the shaft with a magnet and pull it up through, install the top bearing and shaft collar. Mounted!
The original craftsman low-speed attachment had an eccentric built into it so you could tension the belt. This doesn't. No worries, that's why we have link belts! And there you have it!
Only problem is since the new pulley is a different diameter than the other two, I have to re-tension the belt every time I change speeds. I need to find a pulley like the other two and I'll be set, but at least it works for now. Oh, the bearings aren't the greatest quality, either - the upper one was spinning in the column so I superglued the outer race of that one, too.
Not to toot my own horn, but I spent a lot of time thinking about the easiest way to do this and I think my solution is a pretty dang good one. Not only that, but since the jaw couplings come in so many different sizes, I think anybody could do this regardless of their column ID.
In addition, both your DP and grinder look to be vintage Craftsman! 2 thumbs up!! 
I'm too busy working on **** that I never find the time to bust out the "real" camera, the damn phone is just so handy... snap a few, upload to photobucket and off we go. I will take some decent pics if anybody is interested, but I think the crummy ones still get the point across...
