The Drill Press is Done
Since I needed to raise the head to install the Vari-Slo mechanism, I added the bolt to the light assembly to clamp it in place. One thing that scares me is if the head clamping lever is inadvertently loosened, the head will come down and all that force will damage the Vari-Slo system. The worm gear clamp at the top of the column will prevent the head from dropping as a result of a lapse in judgement.
I mentioned in a past post that I could not understand why the Vari-Slo pulleys were packed with grease. On an install guide, the document mentions the pulleys are packed with grease so you do not have to lubricate them. Well, I took another look and lo and behold, a tiny hole in the bore I missed.
So... I packed them with grease...
... and extruded a nice void-free hunk of grease when I installed the pulley.
Amazon came with the new belts today and just my luck, instead of a 17" belt, they sent me a 36" belt. I had to reuse the intermediate belt, but a new one will be here Thursday. Belt changes now only take a minute or two ;-)
Finally... here's a video of the drill press running before and after. (hope this works)
I'll post the "After" photos and video in the original post so people don't have to go through the entire thread to see the results.
This was a fun project. I didn't know what I was in for, but the drill press was much less complicated than I expected. The Vari-Slo... maybe not so much, though it wasn't so bad thanks to the great videos on YouTube.
Thanks to all for following along and your comments. Much appreciated!