Powermatic 1200 with a lima 4 speed gear drive?

Try to find information on a Powermatic 1200 drill press that has a four speed lima gear drive. Does anyone know if it was a factory option or was done by someone, it appears to be factory. No odd brackets, welds, etc. any info would be much appreciated. I will post a pic when I figure out how lol, new to all this, thanks.

Hello: I had an old Monarch lathe with a Lima four speed gearbox on it...I think those gearboxes were used to replace line shaft drives when electricity became more available and line shafts were abandoned...

Try here for Powermatic:

Powermatic Machine Co. - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

Good luck.. Ramsay 1

Here are some pictures, i could only post 2 for some reason, I will try and post more

here is the motor information plate, thanks

Thanks Ramsay1, I called powermatic, they put me on with a guy who knew old machines but he couldn't tell me much. My buddy has a 1200, it's a 1969, great press, that's why I bought this one, no gear box on his, guess I will just have to figure it out, thanks again.

Lima, Century, and Master multi-speed and single-speed "integral gearbox" motors of that sort were fly-poop-common on small mills far more than on DP for mebbe fifty years. Or more, even. They were not conversion add-ons - they were designed-in by the machine-tool builder from the outset.

Burke/U.S. Machine Tool/US Burke were one of the major adherents to their use. That aggregation of companies was acquired by Powermatic in the Houdaille days, so they probably had stocks of these motors under-roof at the time of the acquisition. Most Powermatic DP used a belted Reeves VariDrive or close cousin rather than geared motors, so you have a rare one that MAY have been ginned-up to make use of slow-moving milling-machine inventory.

AFAIK, two, if not all three of Lima, Century, Master merged. (At least) Master still exists as part of ABB's Baldor/Reliance division, still makes geared-head motors. AFAIK none of the current ones are multi-speed, nor shiftable.

The geared-head motor may actually be of greater value to Nichols, Diamond, Burke, et al milling machine restorers than it is on a drillpress, as even the "mighty" Alzmetall seems to have gone-over to belted drives, only, as good-enough, and done so long-since.

2CW

Avlis said:

Thanks Ramsay1, I called powermatic, they put me on with a guy who knew old machines but he couldn't tell me much. My buddy has a 1200, it's a 1969, great press, that's why I bought this one, no gear box on his, guess I will just have to figure it out, thanks again.

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I had almost forgotten about this link: Lima Electric Motor Co. - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

Ramsay 1

ramsay1 said:

I had almost forgotten about this link: Lima Electric Motor Co. - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

Ramsay 1

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"Somewhere" I have old poop-sheets on the Century & Master product lines as well. Not much help, though. Castings were proprietary. "Some" but probably not ALL of the gears standard items only if one is lucky. No new production that I am aware of. Restoration has been done, some of it right here on PM.

There are Dee Cee motors and controllers set aside for my Burke #4, which had already lost its geared-head motor before it arrived here. Others have gone-over to VFD.

These are HEAVY buggers, physically, but the "Master" line especially, paid-back in being extremely durable and abuse/neglect resistant.

A good cleaning up, new bearings, and re-lube, the gears just might still have another decade or three of service left in them. Well worth a go.

The "growl" of a(ny) geared-head DP is easier on the brain than the whine and howl of Vari-Drive belts (Alzmetall's belted variables use their own approach, are not as noisy as Powermatic's way).

Thanks for all the info, the 1200 is belt driven, the vari drive mounts to the end of the shaft coming out of the gearmotor. Speed range is from 75rmp's to 2000rpn's, Morris taper #3, like others I have been around, press is on pretty good shape, I am in the process off cleaning, painting etc. The lima motor is not a good motor? I am not familiar with them, from what I read above it doesn't sound like they are not that great. How much HP can a press like the 1200 take, I have a couple 3hp three phase motors but was hotto use the original lima, bad idea?

Avlis said:

Thanks for all the info, the 1200 is belt driven, the vari drive mounts to the end of the shaft coming out of the gearmotor. Speed range is from 75rmp's to 2000rpn's, Morris taper #3, like others I have been around, press is on pretty good shape, I am in the process off cleaning, painting etc. The lima motor is not a good motor? I am not familiar with them, from what I read above it doesn't sound like they are not that great. How much HP can a press like the 1200 take, I have a couple 3hp three phase motors but was hotto use the original lima, bad idea?

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Lima's were fine. Just gone "unobtanium" as to most parts. As said, clean it up, replace bearings & lube, it should do yah just fine if not already damaged.

Conventional, manual, column DP don't need uber-HP..UNLESS.. their powertrain wastes it such that the extra is needed for "edge case", typically very high RPM or very low RPM AND/or they were built to "push", and I DO mean "push", largish spade drills. Otherwise one to two HP should do yah fine.

Even the Alzmetall AB5/S with 5 MT only has 7.5 HP. Many otherwise rather massive radials as little as 5 HP (for the spindle).

Thanks for all the information, I will let you know how it all turns out, thanks again.

I have an old Lima four speed box upstairs that is belt driven...I saved it from the old Monarch lathe I had years ago... This thread is making me interested in taking it down and tinkering with it for what reason I have no clue.. LOL Ramsay 1

So yours has belt turning the gearbox? That's pretty neat, I will post pics of the insides of this one once I get it tore down.

Avlis said:

So yours has belt turning the gearbox? That's pretty neat, I will post pics of the insides of this one once I get it tore down.

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Hello: Yes mine is belt driven with a double "B" pulley... I suspect that at one time it had a large three phase motor driving it via belt but when I got it, it had a new Dayton single phase motor as the previous user was using the machine in his home shop.. This box was on the first lathe I got around 1974, an old Monarch cone head.. I later scrapped the lathe but kept the motor and gearbox...Ramsay 1

ramsay1 said:

Hello: Yes mine is belt driven with a double "B" pulley... I suspect that at one time it had a large three phase motor driving it via belt

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My 12” Sheldon had a Lima gear box driven by a pulley to the motor also. Unfortunately when I got it the shift indexing was poor and resulted in improper gear mesh that caused severe tooth wear. I pulled it out and now run the lathe direct to the motor with a VFD.