Using my Drill Press.
The first thing I did was strip it and replace the bearings,this smartened up the accuracy immediately.I fitted a one HP 240 volt single phase totally enclosed motor,then fitted a new chuck and stem with a 3/8 screw thread in the stem,fitted a draw bar through the head after running a morse taper reamer to make the connection clean and certain.
I had experienced chuck drop out,quite unpleasant.Now when I drill blanks mostly I do them in batches of a hundred or more and leave the drill run since motor initial starting current measures up to 40 odd amps briefly on switch on and most motors are designed only for so many start stops per hour. I get about 400 t0 600 blanks per drill for 40 cents figure this is dirt cheap,never change the speed for various timbers,dont have burn or blowout.I use an XY axis vice with separately fitted jaws that have three vees vertical and one main vee horizontal that I use to ream the blanks after glueing and squaring the ends on a disk sander.Our timbers can match your toughest so I drill them all without any problem unless I get tired and missjudge the odd one.
The reason switches and centrifugal swithes fail is the arcing both ways,after one switch failing and one previous under powered motor failing on the centrifugal switch for which no replacement is available in this country these were some of my solutions.
I use car and a repeatable technique to insert and remove blanks to keep safe.
As an electrician by trade I collected motors excess to needs for years so when I was bitten by the pen bug have been able to modify and make many machines from scratch.
When I fitted the first lathe with a three phase 415 volt motor using a 2 1/2 hp motor I measured the starting current after fitting a variable speed control to it using single phase,because they soft start there is no surge at switch on and the motor starts single phase 7.5 amps runs 7.5 amps,very impressed.
My next venture will be my 18 inch bandsaw with a 4 hp single phase motor a converted meat saw with no rubber rims,the initial surge worries me so I made some pens for a mate of mine (Slimlines) and he gave me two variable speed controllers from his mushroom farm when he converted the air con system,incidentally the band saw blades really last well without tires so I will not bother ever fitting them,it has a huge throat opening and is built like a brick wall,weighs half a ton.
Peter