# x2 mill



## GOOFY063 (Mar 2, 2010)

hello everybody
not sure if this should be here or in boo-boobs but anyway got my new mill in dec, at h/f on sale for 449 less 20%
have played with it a bit and made a little metal sawdust, last week i was trying to actually make something (hold downs for my vise) and boom busted the plastic hi/lo gear so I'm going to try and build a belt drive Ive made the motor pulley i hope alum, will hold up OK. I have more stock on order for the other pulley, what should be the ratio be in pulley sizes? 2to1 3to1 Im also working on a power feed for the table,ill get some photos tonight. and ordered a dro from griz for the down feed, (that's y the gear broke).


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## winklmj (Mar 2, 2010)

Nice work on the pulley. Go over to the GrizHFMinimill group on yahoo and get the Rollet belt drive plans from the files section. That's what I modeled mine after (along with Pitkin, Brewster, and Hoss' ideas as well). Don't remember what the ratio was but it works fine (I run mine in the high-speed setting all the time).

Suggestions: Get rid of the base-plate that's still attached to the motor. Try to get the pulley to mount as close to the bearing in the motor as possible. Less leverage on it that way. Plan on incorporating a spindle-lock into your base plate now instead of adding on later.


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## black85vette (Mar 2, 2010)

Looks like you got a good start. Let the rest of us know how it goes and any issues you run into.  I think several of us would like to do the same thing.


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## John Rudd (Mar 2, 2010)

winklmj  said:
			
		

> Go over to the GrizHFMinimill group on yahoo and get the Rollet belt drive plans from the files section. That's what I modeled mine after (along with Pitkin, Brewster, and Hoss' ideas as well).



Yup good advice, that's what I did on mine after breaking the gears trying to fly cut... 

After adding the belt drive conversion and changing the bearings for taper rollers I've never looked back....


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## GOOFY063 (Mar 2, 2010)

Im also working on a spindle light i picked up a 12 volt 72 bulb light strip on feebay ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/72cm...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item4a9eee9a55) for $5 and used a powersupply off a old linkseye modem seems to work ok i take more pics tonight after work, been kinda dead here at the funeral home ;D ;D so plenty of time to look for new ideals and mods for the lathe and mill and maybe someday i can build a engine

winklmj i got a piece of 3/8 plate coming for the spindle mount and motor


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## tmuir (Mar 2, 2010)

I've never understood why they even make these with gears.
Surley a belt drive and no gearbox has got to be a simpler and cheaper option to make.
I bought the belt drive kit from LMS and I love it.
Good luck with your rebuild.


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## GOOFY063 (Mar 3, 2010)

Well the i got the power feed going last night, found a good use for the cheap plastic gears photo2, also used the trigger and fd/rev switch from the old drill thats what the gears for to change directions. the trigger seems to work good as i can stop by just letting go. wish we could add more photos . ill add photos of the spindle light in the next post


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## winklmj (Mar 3, 2010)

My take on it:

http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o152/wavedudetx/MetalProjects/MillBeltDrive/

And a few updates. 

I actually run mine on Low speed most of the time--not High as originally posted.

And I think I used Hoss' plans and not Rollett's--but they're all pretty similar. And I took Pitkin's idea of using the original spindle-spacer with the keyway instead of doing that integral to the new pulley. I just use setscrews to hold the pulley onto it.

You can see that I added my spindle lock on afterwards. It would've saved me some milling and drilling and tapping time if I would've planned it ahead of time instead of a a bolt-on after-thought.

Mill a small step in your base plate so that it clears the piece of the two-part-head that has the dovetails in it. This will let you tip the head side-to-side to align it w/o the plate interfering. And--again wishing I'd thought ahead--if you extend that part of the plate a bit longer, you can add two adjusting screws to that will help in said alignment. I can't remember who thought of it but you have the two screws press down on the edges of the dovetailed-part-of-the-head and it will help you tip the other part side-to-side.


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## winklmj (Mar 3, 2010)

I picked up two 14v Hitachi drills from the scrap yard this weekend ($0.25 a pound) for just such a project! 

One of 'em the trigger is broke off but still works. Have not tested the other. And I need a good power supply still. I was thinking of re-using the trigger as the speed control by having a knob/screw press down on it (kinda replacing your finger with a screw). I figure that'd work somewhat like a speed pot.

Got any other pics of how you mounted the motor? On mine they simply snap into the drill case so I've got to figure a way to mount them inside a tube like you've done--it looks better.


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## winklmj (Mar 3, 2010)

And one other thought on the belt-drive. When you remove that bakealite/plastic/whatever-it-is base from the motor and mount the motor direct to the new plate--you'll be cutting off one of the ways for air to get to vents in the motor. So make sure to bore that thru-hole plenty big to clear the vents. I also went back and reshaped the bore in the plate more like a funnel so that it could get as much air into it as possible.


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## GOOFY063 (Mar 3, 2010)

looks good winklmj that's what I'm going to try and do. never thought about a spindle lock.
here's some photos of my take on a spindle light


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## GOOFY063 (Mar 3, 2010)

winklmj i used alum #80 conduit bored to fit the motor then bore to fit the gear end and just milled out what was in the way so it would all fit in the sleeve, but all my sleeve does is hold the motor together . the to 2 small screws on the end behind the chuck holds it all to the mounting plate. i also used the old drill chuck (turned-drilled) to adapt to the feed shaft on the mill 
 hopes this helps 
goofy063


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## GOOFY063 (Mar 6, 2010)

well iv got the spindle pulley turned next is the mounting plates. sure would be nice to have a mill for the mount plate


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## GOOFY063 (Mar 10, 2010)

well i put it together last night to see if it would work, milled the hold downs for my vise, if i was going to do it again i would just turn a 1 pulley set up for my needs anyway and ill try to get it looking better tonight ;D


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