Jeff, that's what I wanted to see. Mine has two separate handles for four head speeds instead of the T handle shifter. Where yours has that belt drive to the motor, mine has a massive cast gear drive transmission case and a cast adapter for the transmission and motor that bolts to the back of the base.
The arm elevation mechanism stumped me at first. I put it in gear, hit the motor and stalled it! Yikes! There's just too much startup torque to pull the arm and all from a cold start. I then tried easing it into gear with the motor running at lowest speed (that planetary reduction) and it bashed gears and made all kinds of nasty noises. Finally, I took a deep breath and smartly snapped it into gear... the arm eased right up. Same going down. It's just straight cut gears, so you can't be gentle with it. Don't ape it, but decisively and authoritatively snap it into gear with the motor at lowest speed.
This machine will indeed pull a 3" diam drill... remember, most very large drills are carbon steel, not HSS. Therefore, the speed should be half what you would run on HSS (30-35fpm). That 5hp motor at 40rpm is a torque monster. At .020 feed, it'll make a 3" hole at .8"/min. You'd need to pilot drill to the diameter of the drill web to keep thrust forces down a bit on a machine with a small column like this.
Another thing you will love is the ability to power tap big holes. That clutch lever for the spindle is amazingly sensitive (in fact, I think these are called "Sensitive Drills" by Fosdick because of that clutch). You can feather a 10-32 or cruise a 1"-8 just as easily. Ease down to the work with the hand feed, then tug on the clutch enough to get the tap to bite. Once started, the tap will self-feed, then push the clutch away to back out. Makes a grueling half hour of work with a big tap wrench a ten minute job with no sweat or aching involved. You can get Morse Taper tap drivers for a few bucks each on Ebay and such. Get some adapter sleeves, too... 4-3, 4-2 at least one of each.
Nice to have a big chuck and a little chuck. I have a Jacobs 20N , a 14N and an 11N (all ball bearing). That way I have 0-1" capacity as well as a shorter chuck, when needed. You can come out about as well with an 18N and an 11N. That gives you 0-3/4" capacity without the massive 20N, which is certainly a two hander to get in the spindle.
Make sure the column rotation lock is bound before starting the motor. The shafting will cause the column to slowly rotate if it's not locked. If you have to do floor drilling, sling your column mounted table to the other side as a counterweight for safety. As long as you keep the head within about 30-45 degrees of centerline, these little drills are not going to go over on you.
As for weight, mine with everything on it was over 6,000lbs. I probably have another 500lbs over yours with that transmission and motor mount plate, and the tilt table stuff. There were no lightweight radials coming out of Cincinnati.
