Hope you all had a happy new year. Thanks for the discussion. Ultimately, based on some of your comments, it still seems that a VFD solution would work well, but in terms of cost/benefit, I'm not so sure anymore. If I did a VFD conversion, I'd likely go the full nine, that seemingly could get very expensive very quickly. I paid $150 for the drill press, and I could easily dump $500 into it with a VFD conversion. Hmm.
After re-examining the W-T belt swap procedure, it's actually way less "risky" (in terms of damaging a pulley) than I was thinking. The only other drill press I've ever had the pleasure(?) to change belts on was my dad's small 1980's 1/4HP drill press which used a spring tensioner. To swap the pulley, you had to physically pull on the motor while grappling with the belt. (At least, that was the only way I could figure how to do it.) For the W-T press, once the set screw (bolt) is loose, tension is 100% relieved, and there's no need to do any heavy-handed grappling.
Thanks for the video links. I had in fact already watched two of those. In assessing the amount of effort it would be to fabricate my own slow-speed attachment (replica of the OEM W-T attachment), I figured a VFD conversion would be just as much work, but with more flexibility. Then, down the VFD rabbit hole I went.
But, as I look into it more, seems like the non W-T solutions (the ones which sit into column) are much easier to fabricate, at least for a beginner with relatively few tools.
And Jim, I live in Northern NJ, and my workplace is about a mile south of the NY state line in Bergen county.
Thanks!