# Noisy PM2800 Drill Press



## WGTucker (May 21, 2008)

I have had a Powermatic 2800 drill press for about 6 months now. All in all I'm satisfied with it, but the belt-pulley mechanism for the variable speed feature is a noisy irritation. Have any of you had this problem with a PM2800 and solved it? Solutions greatly appreciated. WGT


----------



## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

I read that a lot of people are very unhappy with 2800. It seems that there are belt & belt tension problems, also if the belt is too tight and sets in one place too long it get warped and needs replaced. If you had this problem from the start, it could be that a pulley is out of balance. 
I would start by replacing the belt and properly adjust the tension. If that doesn’t work then the pulleys need to be looked at.


----------



## BobbyfromHouston (Jul 4, 2008)

Sorry I can't help with fixes. I noticed this problem on a floor model and did not buy it for that reason.
Bobby


----------



## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

Do a Google search for “Powermatic 2800 drill press belt” and read other peoples stories.
One person said that they ran the drill press for 20 minutes to break-in the belt and it seemed to help.


----------



## BobbyfromHouston (Jul 4, 2008)

Sleeper,
That sounds like a good suggestion. I do that for all of my machines before use to reduce the memory but only for a minute or so. With that thought in mind. DO you guys think that a link belt would be useful?
Bobby


----------



## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

BobbyfromHouston said:


> Sleeper,
> That sounds like a good suggestion. I do that for all of my machines before use to reduce the memory but only for a minute or so. With that thought in mind. DO you guys think that a link belt would be useful?
> Bobby


I’ve only had one link belt and it was used on a damper door in a ventilation system and was more for positioning in slow speeds. I don’t know how well it would work in a variable high speed situation. 
I did see somewhere in another forum that someone was going to try that, but I don’t know what the results were. I’ll have to try to find it again, that is if I can remember what I was looking for at the time.


----------



## WGTucker (May 21, 2008)

Sleeper- thanks for the Google search clue. I found the note and read about the 20-minute breakin (which improved, but didn't greatly reduce, the noise). I agree with Bobby: Seems like a long running time to work out the memory in a belt. In any event, I use my machine quite frequently, and change speeds a lot, so I wouldn't think belt memory would be the problem.

Since the pulleys have movable halves, I also doubt that a link belt would work well...but then, I've never used one. Others might know better.

At some point I'll contact Powermatic and see if their tech folks have any suggestions (yeah, I see those smirks and hear the laughter). But I figured my best bet was to check the field of users through this site first. WGT


----------



## BobbyfromHouston (Jul 4, 2008)

I really hate that you are having these problems. I posted for months about drill press suggestions and no one really wanted to talk about them that much. I guess they aren't that exciting as compared to table saws. I debated back and forth between the Delta 20 inch and the PM 18 inch. I liked the table on the Delta with the dual tilt and insert and flat edge for easy clamping. I also liked the flat base that was easy to mount to the floor. BUt your question is on the vibration of the PM. I have heard numerous people talk about the vibration and would be willing to bet that PM has some thoughts on how to fix it. 

At what RPM is the vibration worse?
Bobby


----------



## WGTucker (May 21, 2008)

The noise and vibration is worst at low speeds...400-500 rpm. I'll wait a few more days on this post and then contact PM. WGT


----------



## late4dinner (May 5, 2009)

Your belt will probably break in. Based on the overall construction of the PM2800, I would guess that the belt is very low quality, so replacing it with one from someone besides Powermatic would probably help too.

You could try a VERY LIGHT application of belt dressing spray, but that stuff works by softening the rubber, which decreases the life of belt. The guy at the local power transmission shop says he likes selling belt dressing, because everybody who buys a can of belt dressing comes back before too long for more belts.

I bought a PM 2800 new almost a year ago. It took me one day of use to decide that it was basically unusable for anything except light duty low precision jobs. I stuck it in a corner and tried to sell it, and there it sits today.

Noisy, loose spindle, poorly ground taper making the chucks fall out under load, table too small and flimsy to put any real work on, etc.

The variable speed is nice, but that's the only good thing I can say about it.

I've been trying to sell it, still looking new, for $200 less than I paid for it, all I have been able to get are people that tell me I got suckered. And, the price has gone up a good bit since I bought mine.


----------



## Robocop (Dec 16, 2008)

Hi

I got a Sealey drill press at Christmas and it was very noisey, on advice i tightened the belt tensioner slightly and it reduced the noise a lot.:icon_smile: Cant speak for the PM though.

Gus


----------



## WGTucker (May 21, 2008)

*Update on Noisy PM2800 Drill Press*

I contacted the Powermatic (WMH Group) tech support folks about my problem with high noise at low speeds. They acknowledged that this was happening with some of their units and were working on the problem. Over a period of months they said they were getting some replacement pulleys for the motor shaft and would send me a replacement, and then ended up sending me an entire replacement head....motor and all. A neighbor and I lifted the original head off the post and put the new one on. After attaching the chuck, handles, etc. I tried it out and it works great. Not silently, but normal for a drill press.

So it took a long time, but I'm happy with it now. The variable speed feature is especially nice. [It would be nicer, though, if it went below 400 RPM...] WGT


----------



## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

*Congratulations*

Wow, glad to hear you got it fixed. :thumbsup: 
By the sounds of it I’ll bet it was combination of pulley and shaft. If the pulleys are out of whack and the shaft bushings are lose its going to make a lot of racket.


----------



## Woodwrkr (Nov 8, 2013)

*Fix for powermatic 18" VS DP 2800 noise*

I purchased the prior model 18" powermatic drill press with the slide variable speed instead of the new model crank and discovered they had a problem with extreme noise after purchasing and assembling mine. I reached out to powermatic tech help who has sent me several pulleys to try to no avail. After studying what I thought was the problem being all the noise coming from the motor side adjustable pulley, I tried lifting carefully with a then strip is wood while in slow speed (400 rpm) and all noise went away. The wood was leveraged between the bottom of the adjustable pulley and the bottom cover plate. This made the pulley slightly running downhill to the middle pulley but didn't seem to negatively impact anything. I then carefully made a jig to help me remove the tension string rear pulley and placed a 1 1/4" PVC bushing I made between the bottom collar and the bottom spring. I will send you a picture if you need it as I could not upload from my IPad.


----------



## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

Woodwrkr said:


> I then carefully made a jig to help me remove the tension string rear pulley and placed a 1 1/4" PVC bushing I made between the bottom collar and the bottom spring. I will send you a picture if you need it as I could not upload from my IPad.


An old thread. I have the same drill press with the slider speed mechanism. Good to know where to look if I begin to hear noise problems. :thumbsup:

FYI, you can only send Private Messages after you have made 25 posts.


----------



## WGTucker (May 21, 2008)

*Fix for Noisy PM2800*

Woodwrkr- thanks for the post. I would like to see the picture(s) you took, and maybe other owners of older model 2800's would, too. Maybe you could put them into your photo gallery (?). I still have my original, noisy one and would like to try your fix. WGT


----------

