Blah, things took a hard turn down disaster avenue today... I managed to finish running the wire, and get everything connected for real... And the drill press motor wouldn't turn on... After a few minutes of scratching my head, and pushing the button again, and again, and again, expecting something different to magically happen, I pulled out my multimeter.
I found I DID have power on all 3 legs to the drill press switch, but apparently the wires between my switch and the motor were grounding out to the chassis somewhere, so the switch wouldn't let me turn it on. Amazing how clever 80 year old technology can be... Anywho, the insulation on the wires coming out of the motor down where it comes out of the motor was all cracked and rotten. After cursing for a bit, I demounted the motor, and managed to crack it open (after shattering the incredibly flimsy pulley that was on there... Another $10 tacked on to this project..) Luckily, there was enough wire inside the motor for me to solder on new leads, and poke them back out of the motor. I am incredibly lucky that this is an ancient motor that was designed to be serviceable. A lot of newer motors are pressed together. I haven't gotten it back in, as I need to pick up a pulley tomorrow and it will be easier to mount it with the motor off than on.
Another problem I was having, is that after turning on my converter switch for about 30 seconds, it would kick off... I had the same problem on the machine I stole the switch from, but I assumed it was the motor overheating... After scratching my head again, with more swearing... I eventually figured out I have it installed backwards ^^; I'm not used to switches having a definitive "In" and "out". But, I was done for today, so I haven't flipped it around yet to see if it solves my problems. Hopefully I'll get it done this weekend.