# 7x12 metal gears



## zoltan (Jan 10, 2017)

If someone has changed both the 7x12 headstock gears hi-lo gears to the metal ones, would you mind telling me how much louder they are than the stock plastic gears?

I'm replacing the spindle hi-lo gear with a metal one, and I'm trying to decide if I should replace the countershaft one with metal as well, or just leave it plastic.


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## oldboy (Jan 10, 2017)

They sounded a bit louder when first used, however once the settle in and get a couple of hours use they are not all that much louder.  That's my take on them, same applies to using metal change gears.

Barry.


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## John S (Jan 11, 2017)

Leave the countershaft one plastic as a fail safe. The countershaft is easier to change in the event of a snag but the spindle one is a lot harder.


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## zoltan (Jan 11, 2017)

If I change both spindle and countershaft to metal gears, what would break?


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## John S (Jan 11, 2017)

Probably burn the motor out or the speed board.


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## zoltan (Jan 31, 2017)

If you go with all metal, how often do you need to grease them?


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## Wizard69 (Feb 1, 2017)

zoltan said:


> If I change both spindle and countershaft to metal gears, what would break?




Depends, niether the motors nor the controllers are known to be rugged (at least on the base machine).   That doesn't mean a belt or something else wont give up mechanically.  Jams often damage leadscrews or shear pins


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## velocette (Feb 1, 2017)

Hi Zoltan
Have you considered a belt drive using 4 rib "Poly Vee Belts" and dump the gear drive. Added a PDF File of the pulleys for a mini mill drive on my X2 Mill may be of some help.

Eric 

View attachment zx2-drive-pulleys-maxi-ls.pdf


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## zoltan (Feb 2, 2017)

Once I got into my lathe rebuild I did start looking at something like that, except I need a lathe to make the pulleys...

Hopefully I can make this happen after I get my lathe back together.


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## Wizard69 (Feb 3, 2017)

Poly V belts make for very nice mechanical drive solutions.


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## velocette (Feb 7, 2017)

Hi Zoltan
Yet another alternative for a belt drive 

View attachment speed_reducer2.pdf


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## XD351 (Feb 8, 2017)

I'm with Velocette  on this one , i fitted metal gears to my C2 sieg  along with a 3ph motor ,vfd ,vee pulleys  and two things bug me - gear noise and belts that squeak .
I will be re visiting this shortly and removing the gears altogether and changing over to poly vee belts .
I may use a simple two speed pulley system between the motor and a jackshaft mounted where the original C2 motor was located so i have a high / low  ratio option .
I am thinking  about  a system that uses a driven pulley  set on the jackshaft the are idling on roller bearings and drive  to the jackshaft  is via  a sliding dog clutch that is splined to the jackshaft  - a bit like how a motor bike gearbox works .


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