notbob wrote in :

On 2016-11-30, John McCoy wrote:

Not sure I really see it as being useful on
a drill press - even for metal working, close is good
enough..........

Fer carbon steel, the avg drill speed fer a 1/2" twist bit is about
600 RPM. Avg drill speed fer a 1/16" twist drill, in the same
material, is about 3000 RPM.

Somehow, I don't think 3000 RPM is hardly "close" fer a 1/2" twist
drill.

No, it wouldn't be. But what I meant was the speeds you
get with stepped pulleys are close enough...you may figure
600 is "right", but 550 or 625 will get the job done. And
if you get 2750 instead of 3000 with the belt on the other
set of pulleys, that's probably good enough too.

But really the point I was getting at is the electronic
control will ramp the power up & down to keep the speed
constant. I can see that being useful on a lathe. But
I don't see it being that useful on a drill press, and
as I said if a drill press bogs it's probably telling
you there's a problem with what you're doing.

John