Harbor Freight Drill Press quick hack

[rebuilder1954]

One other option, if you are out of room for more adjustment, is to go one size smaller on one or both of the belts. From the video, the looseness seems far too great.

Good luck!

Bob R

[jimirwin]

Maybe a quick fix expedient, but really now, how much time does it take to increase tension at the motor mount?

[Tooler2]

Yes you should retension the motor with every speed change but the problem is simple physics. You can not transmit enough torque through a small belt at the lowest speed. This is why you need a gear drive final stage for speeds below around 500 rpm. For drilling wood at lowest speed you may be alright but not steel if the drill is sharp.

[Weekend Warrior Welding]

I tried adjusting those little wing nuts and it had zero effect on the problem. I will buy new belts and hope that fixes the problem.

I don't remember where I heard this piece of advice, but I have been following it and it works well. Harbor Freight is great if you a building a home garage and you are a professional mechanic. I work in finance so this is definitely a hobby and I have saved $1,000s by buying cheap stuff from Harbor Freight. If the tool breaks, then apparently you are using it more than just a weekend hobby, so go buy a high quality tool (or make one yourself) to replace the broken HF p.o.s. You will build up your garage much faster and a fair amount of the tools that you originally bought will last for a long time since you aren't using them everyday. Especially someone like me, who decided ti build a dune buggy from scratch and it seems like every time i start a new part of the project, I need a couple new tools to get the job done.

[Weekend Warrior Welding]

I tried to adjust the motor but apparently either I was doing it wrong or the problem is elsewhere. Personally I think the belts need replacing with better quality belts.