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WTB: Craftsman Vari-Slo Speed Control & Table Lift

jeagan

Cast Iron
Joined
May 28, 2008
Location
NC, USA
Hi all,

I am fortunate enough to have an old Craftsman drill press made my King-Seeley Corporation in the '60s. It is a great DP but will not go slow enough for general purpose use in the metal shop. I learned that Sears offered an accessory called the "Craftsman Vari-Slo Speed Control Attachment" which is a set of pulleys, belts and a linkage that fits to the top of the DP to provide much slower speeds:

CraftsmanVar-SloSpeedReducer.jpg


I also would like to find an original table lift mechanism as shown below:

CraftsmanTableLift.jpg


If anybody has a new Vari-Slo system or all the parts to one, or a table lift mechanism, I would like to buy it. Please take a look around.

Many thanks, John.
 
Those King Seeley drill presses are pretty nice. One of the one's I owned did have the Craftsman Vari-Slo Speed Control Attachment. It looks nice it concept but I found it to be a bit of a hack in actual practice. If memory serves it is made out of pot metal and set-screws in place. I would recommend either putting a variable speed motor + drive on it (DC or 3 phase). This is what I did (DC in my case) and it goes nicely from 120-1200 rpm without a belt change. The other "factory stock" alternative for low speed operation would be the Craftsman multi-speed attachment as shown below.
 

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  • multi-speed.jpg
    multi-speed.jpg
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Thank you crrmeyer,

The "other factory stock alternative" that you show is awesome! It is just like the one that Paula found for her South Bend DP. It does look like it would be more robust than the Vari-Slo setup. Both are beautiful examples of solutions for slowing down this wonderful old DP for working with metal.

I could build the simpler version from scratch if I can't find a factory one.

If anybody can come up with the attachment shown in crrmeyer's post, I would like the opportunity to buy it.

Thanks again, John.
 








 
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