Drill Press Reduction Kit, lower RPM, more torque!

18 reviews for Drill Press Reduction Kit, lower RPM, more torque!

Brian Klatt
Rated 5 out of 5
02/28/2022
This works great on my Harbor Freight 20" drill press. The plate is a little bit of a pain to get in place while holding the motor, but other than that, i didn't have any issues. There is a small wobble in the provided pully, but it works great and it doesn't bother me. First drilling i did with the slower speed really highlighted the torque increase. Some combinations of pullies will require longer belts, but i was able to get an acceptable speed with the one provided and the 2 that came with the machine. The quality of the whole thing is very nice for such an affordable product.
Zac Beagan
Rated 5 out of 5
09/26/2020
Great customer service, and quick shipping, has this in under a week to Alberta, Canada. Was a easy install and performs flawlessly. Turned a ordinary drill press into an incredible machine. Thanks RogueFab!

Steve Tunder
Rated 5 out of 5
08/02/2020
The quality is great. Excellent design. I needed to lower the RPM of my drill press to allow for using a 3/4 inch annular cutter for making holes in half inch steel. I was going through 3/4 inch drill bits about once a month after drilling a couple of dozen holes. I did get good at sharpening my bits but it was a pain. The annular cutter is the way to go for making holes but the drill press needs to run at a much lower rate (240-3400 rpm on my Rigid drill press). I did replace the motor on the drill press....from a half horsepower to 1 horsepower. I did also have to use a link belt as the one supplied was too long. After installing, the drill press now runs at 48 RPM and the drill press now is a metal machine!!!!! I've cut over 100 holes without having to sharpen anything!!I love it!!!!
HBCraftworx
Rated 5 out of 5
06/17/2020
I've had the DPRK for a couple of years now and I consider it one of the best add on purchases to any tool I have in my shop. It was easy to install on my PC press. The ability to get my drill press down in to usable RPM for some of my heavier duty projects is exactly what I was hoping for.

Brian
Rated 5 out of 5
05/22/2020
The drill press reduction kit is working fantastic. I don’t know how you would drill into stainless steel in production without it. We were able to pull in the drilling we used to outsource (although we are a little slow). For instance, on a piece I was paying $50.00 for, we are doing the drilling in 1 hour with a jig internally, saving jobs and of course money!



+1
Henry
Rated 5 out of 5
05/22/2020
Even though I am modifying it (Drill Press Reduction Kit), what you sold me is exactly what I wanted, and is perfect. I like the setup you have for the jackshaft that makes everything nice and smooth. It’s a very nice product!







+5
Greg72
Rated 5 out of 5
05/22/2020
It’s been a rough few weeks and I haven’t been making any efforts to get out into the garage to work on the truck project. A lack of motivation…. probably weather-related, time change….whatever. I just didn’t care about it at all. Fortunately, Joe over at RogueFab saw my previous thread posts and contacted me about my drillpress issues, and we talked for a while about his reduction kits and how they would be a low-cost way to give me better cutting capabilities, and finish up all of those 2″ speedholes in the monolith crossmember. He suggested a 4:1 reduction kit based on my particular drillpress (Delta, Model 17-965) and a few days ago the kit arrived via UPS…… it gave me some motivation to get back into the shop and start spinning a few wrenches. Here’s the holes I am trying to drill, and the kit that I received: (Diet Coke not included) It consists of a large offset pulley mounting plate, and a set of 4:1 ratio pulleys that will cut the speed of the motor down to a fraction of it’s previous setting (about 25% of original, I’d say!). Here is the original speed chart for my Delta. This is a woodworking drill press, so the spindle speeds are substantially higher than what you really want for metalworking…. as we all know, REAL metalworking drill presses are a LOT more money than the woodworking ones (I think I paid maybe $300 for this one brand new). The idea of being able to drop these speeds in a cost-effective way was very tempting. Here’s an example of how the setup will actually affect my spindle speeds using the slowest pulley combinations: 215 RPM -> 54 RPM 310 RPM -> 78 RPM 435 RPM -> 109 RPM 580 RPM -> 145 RPM Nice….. Step 1 is pulling the motor from the drillpress, though to be honest I probably could have installed the new plate without unwiring it completely. Live and learn. The next step is to install the pillowblock bearings and shaft onto the offset pulley plate…. This gives you a place to drop on the large 8″ speed reduction pulley…. there is a small 2″ new pulley that gets installed on the motor itself, and the pulley stack that used to live on the motor, is transferred on top of that large 8″ pulley wheel. (In the next photo, the pulley stack is not installed yet) You can also see that the sheetmetal pulley tray is interfering with the installation of the rear pulley and belt. This is not unexpected… you’ll see the fix later on. The only real tricky part is figuring out which way to install the large motor plate (pillowblocks facing forward vs. facing rearward) as this will affect the belt lengths and tension that you can apply to the forward belt that turns the drill spindle. I tried it both ways, and ended up with the pillowblocks facing forward as shown. The front belt has a little more slack than the rear belts but so far it seems like it’s going to be OK. Another thing I learned is that it’s MUCH easier to install this kit if you lay the drillpress down on it’s face so that you can work on the motor/plate installation horizontally. Trying to hold the all of those heavy parts up with one arm, while installing nuts and bolts with the other hand is nearly impossible…. you’ve been warned! The final shot (right): As you will notice, the kit doesn’t really take up too much extra space and tucks-in pretty nicely. You DO have to make some cuts in the original sheetmetal pan and top cover of your drillpress so that you’ll have adequate belt clearances…. a minor tradeoff, IMHO considering what you end up with as an end result. Speaking of which….. the kit really WORKS! I set the pulleys to the slowest speed (54 RPM) and turned on the press and it’s amazing how slowly the 2″ holesaw is spinning now. I can easily count the revolutions as they spin by, and there’s a chance that it might even be a bit TOO slow at it’s slowest setting. A nice problem to have….. The other benefit that I haven’t tested yet is the increase in useable torque. The frustration I was having at my old setting of 215 RPM was not only the excessive speed, but the fact that the cutter would drag and eventually stall-out halfway through the cut. With all of this additional gear reduction, I’ve got a LOT more torque available and I expect that my issues with stalling are over as well. Overall, the kit looks really good… I am actually looking forward to getting back out into the garage again to cut some holes now, so perhaps that is the best feature of all…..!!”
panumber1
Rated 5 out of 5
05/09/2020
Delivery time was quick and kit was easy to install. My Delta press has gone from a low speed of 250 RPMs to 62.5 RPMs. Drilling holes from 5/8" to 1" in metal used to be a chore, with bits grabbing and getting chipped. Now, bits cut like they are supposed to and holes are very clean.
Joe Kordzi
Rated 5 out of 5
02/22/2020
I purchased a 4:1 speed reduction kit for my old Delta 17-900 drill press. IMO, it is a basic necessity when drilling metal, which I do a lot of. The kit was very easy to install and all parts are heavy duty. I expect it to last the rest of my life. Very satisfied.
Jeff
Rated 3 out of 5
09/01/2019
Really awesome product, just doesn't work very well with the harbor freight 13" drill press due to the way the belts are tensioned. Also had to buy new belts to get everything to work.
David Roche
Rated 5 out of 5
07/24/2019
Had to fabricate a couple of pieces to get things mounted on a fifty year old craftsman. Just for grins I punched a 5/8 hole in a 1/2 inch plate without a pilot hole. Smooth! After all the aggravations I’ve dealt with through the years with the high speed low torque slowest setting of the machine I was blown away. Didn’t seem real.
Jim LaBorde
Rated 5 out of 5
07/22/2019
Great addition to the shop, allows much safer and more accurate drilling as well as longer intervals between resharpening. I will get another one soon.
Blaise Ferraraccio
Rated 5 out of 5
10/31/2018
I have had the DPRK installed for a few years now and it has been a great addition! Next to good bits and a good chuck, the DPRK is about one of the best things you can do for a little drill press like this. I've used it for hole saws, a Procunier No 3 tapping head, and drilling thousands of holes and it hasn't skipped a beat!
Matt Rasmussen
Rated 5 out of 5
09/13/2018
I've had my DPRK for about 3 years now. It works awesome. Was able to take an under $200 drill press from Lowes and make it into a decent metal cutting machine. I've even been able to use the DPRK to set up the speed good enough to mill some aluminum. Highly recommended if you have a wood cutting speed press and want to be able to cut metal too without having two machines.
Ethan Zimmer
Rated 5 out of 5
09/02/2018
I'm very pleased with my 4:1 kit. I received it rather quickly, from a very nice and helpful sales rep (Skyler). The kit included everything I needed and so far it's perfect. I put it on a Jet 14" bench drill press that had a slow speed of 450rpm. I'm now down to a cool 112rpm, and ready to start doing a bit of custom fabrication of my own. I build lightsabers, and I have always hated being at the mercy of shapeways and other suppliers for the little parts that I need. Now hopefully I can make them myself. Thanks very much for the quality kit! I'll report back later after i've had a chance to use it for a few months. But so far so good. The only thing that I'd say to be aware of is that this kit is not a 30 minute simple bolt-on job. It requires a fair amount of consideration and time spent figuring out how to apply the parts to your specific drill press. It's a generic kit, so it isnt going to fit on every press the same way. Each installation will be different. It's up to the buyer to decide where to put each pulley, and at what height. You may have to flip some pulleys over, or mount them at different locations. But you have all the pieces you'll need, it's just a matter of installing them in a manner that will work on your drill press. I'd attach some pictures if I could, but I don't see a spot to do so. Thanks guys!
gary
Rated 5 out of 5
12/01/2017
Excellent reduction kit for just about any drill press. would be a massive upgrade that takes under an hour MAX to install. One word of advice i would suggest, i bought a harbor freight 12'' drill press brand new to use this reduction kit on, because it uses metric belts that are slightly smaller than 3/8 i would highly recommend starting off with a drill press with 1/2'' belts as they said on the "tech" portion of the website. Because of my tiny 3/8 belts ive been having some annoying slippage issues because although the drill press can now put out 4x the torque than before, the belts slip instead of transmitting that torque to the spindle. All in all, none of the issues listed above are rogue fabrications fault, they supplied a kit that does exactly as it says, and does it with a very easy and adaptable installation. one small thing i would like to see is possibly the allen head adjustment screws changed out for thumb screws, but that is a minor nit-pick and something i can do myself. i made a youtube review, might give you a little heads up to what this kit does. https://youtu.be/buIkQn4W9VI
Montgomery Scott
Rated 5 out of 5
03/10/2016
5 stars for the Drill Press Reduction kit! I used the kit materials and the instructions as a guideline and created what, for my purposes, is a great machine. I had a $59 Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) 5 speed 8 inch drill press which I decided to soup up. I bought the RogueFab kit and, separately, bought a 6 foot 1 13/16 inch (about 46mm) steel tube and one other 2" pulley. The motor came off pretty easily and I put the plate on so that the added pulleys were to the left of the machine as you look at it. To tighten everything up I clamped together the headstock frame and the plate then installed a hook and eye to replace the clamp. Put the pulley I bought separately on the motor axle (I believe it was 13mm so I had to bore out my 1/2 inch pulley) which went over to the 8 inch RF pulley which turned the small supplied pulley. From there it went to my "quill" axle (if I'm using the proper terminology) where I had bored out a 4 inch pulley I bought from RF to fit the roughly 7/8 inch (22 mm) axle. A good thing to remember if you're doing something like this is to be sure to get the zinc pulleys as they are very easy to bore out. The only other type I found were cast iron and I didn't want to try to alter those. The end result is I have a standing drill press (with ceiling attachments so it won't fall over) that runs in the 300 rpm neighborhood (don't quote me on that, may be lower) that's got great torque. One other thing, just forget about trying to put the top cover back on. It would be cut up like crazy and have trouble staying on, I would imagine. To sum it all up, this is a great kit! Buy it and have fun with your project.
Baron wheeler
Rated 5 out of 5
02/01/2016
First I would like to thank rogue fab for their amazing customer service. I placed my order Friday for next day delivery, after the mailing cutoff via Internet. I received a phone call a few minutes later telling me I had missed the cutoff. They told me it wouldn't get to me until Tuesday and asked if that was ok or if I wanted a refund. Monday morning I get a delivery with my drill kit!!! On top of the fast shipping it also ended up costing more than I paid. So I called rogue fab and they told me don't worry about the difference. Absolutely amazing customer service!!! On to the reduction kit. I have a project of drilling around 300 1 1/16" holes into 1.5" schedule 80 316ss pipe. Building handrails for my boss. I was only getting 2 or 3 holes per bit before this kit, now I'm getting around 20 holes per bit. This kit is well thought out and came with every thing, including great instructions.