[Nateg281]

So I've finally started on my X2 cnc conversion and the first upgrade I'm going to make to the machine is a belt drive. I'm torn between these two:

Fignoggle's design with a single pulley:
http://www.fignoggle.com/workshop/ar...type-version-2

and....

Sterling Steele's variation that LMS sells:
http://www.stirlingsteele.com/beltdrive.html

I'm sorta leaning towards Fignoggle's design right now since his leaves all four bolt holes on top of the machine open. This is good because the direct pressure drawbar I'm designing will hopefully be able to use those 4 holes and bolt directly onto the machine. For those of you with the Sterling Steele kit is do you find yourself changing belt speeds much on the pulleys? Do you think that a single pulley speed would be detrimental to some machining operations on the X2? Please share your advice, opinions, and any other experience you might have. Thanks.

[Crevice Reamer]

I use a Steele drive. No problems and easy to install.

There's a THIRD possibility you may not have considered:

http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread...#post658488.#7

CR.

[Nateg281]

I use a Steele drive. No problems and easy to install.

There's a THIRD possibility you may not have considered:

http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread...#post658488.#7

CR.

Very interesting. I won't have the funds till January and that's when Fignoggle said his would be ready to ship. If his isn't priced competitively I guess that third option would be worth looking at for sure. My one big question is how much do you change pulley speeds with your Steele kit? Do you think I'd regret not going with the dual speed kit later? Cost isn't a problem.....

[Crevice Reamer]

The belt drive eliminates the High/low changer. The two pulley drive is its equivalent. Low range gives low RPM and high torque. High range gives high RPM and low torque.

The X2 motor is not very powerful and with only one pulley, you trade low-speed rpm and torque for high speed RPM. This may be okay if all you want to do is run small cutter fast as possible in aluminum, but if you need to do much hard-metal cutting, you won't have much torque at low speeds with larger end mills.

Now if you had one of the not-yet-available SX2s, with BLDC motor, then you'd have good torque EVEN with the high speed pulley. The SX2 COMES with a single pulley belt drive set up for 2500 RPM.

CR.

[Nateg281]

The belt drive eliminates the High/low changer. The two pulley drive is its equivalent. Low range gives low RPM and high torque. High range gives high RPM and low torque.

The X2 motor is not very powerful and with only one pulley, you trade low-speed rpm and torque for high speed RPM. This may be okay if all you want to do is run small cutter fast as possible in aluminum, but if you need to do much hard-metal cutting, you won't have much torque at low speeds with larger end mills.

Now if you had one of the not-yet-available SX2s, with BLDC motor, then you'd have good torque EVEN with the high speed pulley. The SX2 COMES with a single pulley belt drive set up for 2500 RPM.

CR.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but most people who do the belt drive upgrade take out the internal gears? I guess from what you've said I'd be more likely to get the dual speed upgrade from LMS and just do a HOSS style drawbar.....or figure out another way to do a bolt on drawbar.

Nate

[hoss2006]

Just use studs instead of bolts to mount the belt drive plate.
Tighten it down with nuts and washers and you'll have stud left
to do the same with your drawbar mount.
Or just use longer bolts that tighten down the drawbar mount and belt drive plate together.
Hoss

[Nateg281]

Just use studs instead of bolts to mount the belt drive plate.
Tighten it down with nuts and washers and you'll have stud left
to do the same with your drawbar mount.
Or just use longer bolts that tighten down the drawbar mount and belt drive plate together.
Hoss

I'd thought of that, but that would utilize just the first two holes since the motor mount partially covers the back two holes. I think that the cylinder would be better off mounted to a square plate utilizing all four mounting holes to evenly distribute the force. Just two holes for mounting would be iffy I think. Maybe I'm missing something obvious. Feel free to point it out

[hoss2006]

I think I see what your going after. The motor plate may interfere with the
plate you want to mount your cylinder on at least when changing from hi/low.
The belt itself may not clear the rear mounting holes when in low.
A slightly longer belt say a 15 inch could give a little more room, not a lot but maybe enough.
The motor would sit farther back.
The rear mounting holes are farther from the spindle center than the front so you could
make an offset mount for the rear holes that would give a little more motor plate clearance.
You can see it on my page.
All in all it looks doable, having the parts on hand would help you in your design of the drawbar.
Hoss

[Nateg281]

I think I see what your going after. The motor plate may interfere with the plate you want to mount your cylinder on at least when changing from hi/low. The belt itself may not clear the rear mounting holes when in low. A slightly longer belt say a 15 inch could give a little more room, not a lot but maybe enough. The motor would sit farther back. The rear mounting holes are farther from the spindle center than the front so you could make an offset mount for the rear holes that would give a little more motor plate clearance. You can see it on my page.
All in all it looks doable, having the parts on hand would help you in your design of the drawbar.
Hoss

Now we're on the right track together. As far as I can figure, I need a custom belt drive kit. I need a belt drive kit designed after the Sterling Steele kit with dual speeds, but I need it stretched about an inch or so longer than the standard. I would then need the front pulley reduced in diameter, but at the same time, have the rear pulley increased in size proportionately so that the RPMs wouldn't change in the kit. That way, all 4 bolt holes would be totally exposed for a bolt on drawbar. Anyone care to do some custom machining for me? If I had my mill set up I might attempt it myself, but I'm not that ambitious yet

Nate

[ibuildstuff4u]

I have the belt drive kit from Steel and do like it, but didn't like the spindle speeds in the end. The stock mill went 2500 RPM in low and that worked really well for me, but after I installed the belt drive the low speed went to 1700 RPM and I lost too much torque if I switched the belt to the high speed where you can get around 4300 RPM. The $99.00 kit looks nice, but I wouldn't want to only have the fast speed setting. Something in the middle of the two speeds would be perfect, but just the hight setting alone would be hard to work with for me.

To solve my RPM problem I changed out my speed control and was able to get more torque and RPM out of my stock motor. Now my low speed RPM is around 3000 RPM and the high is 6400 RPM with a lot more torque too!

Some where on the site is an old post showing how to do the up grade, I searched, but couldn't find it.

Dale P.

[mrcodewiz]

6400? Does the spindle handle that OK? I would love to see the writeup for that.

[Starleper1]

Just to vouch for my kit. You can run this kit at low speeds with no problems. A lot of misconception is played out here because everyone THINKS they know. I've tested my kit through pretty much all speeds and never had any issues what so ever. Now if you think your going to put a .750" endmill in your little X2 and cut a harder materials like steel, then you need to reconsider your machine choice. The X2 is not intended for heavy duty work no matter belt drive kit you have on it.

Don't get me wrong I'm not bashing or hating on any other kits, because they are both great products from what I can see. I'm just stating that I've tested my kit and have been using it for a long time now and yet to have it fail.

~Scott

[Nateg281]

Just to vouch for my kit. You can run this kit at low speeds with no problems. A lot of misconception is played out here because everyone THINKS they know. I've tested my kit through pretty much all speeds and never had any issues what so ever. Now if you think your going to put a .750" endmill in your little X2 and cut a harder materials like steel, then you need to reconsider your machine choice. The X2 is not intended for heavy duty work no matter belt drive kit you have on it.

Don't get me wrong I'm not bashing or hating on any other kits, because they are both great products from what I can see. I'm just stating that I've tested my kit and have been using it for a long time now and yet to have it fail.

~Scott

With your kit do you keep the HI/LOW gearing inside the head? What RPM range does your kit get with the HI and LOW gearing? Still not decided on a kit, but I'm thinking that maybe a stretched kit might be worth making. Any chance you could make me a kit like yours, but maybe stretch it an inch or so longer? Then I might be interested.......

[Starleper1]

You don't have to remove the gears that are on the actual spindle inside the housing. You do, however need to remove the intermediate shaft and gears, as well as the lever to go from high to low.

The pulleys are setup at a ratio of 1:1.333 So if you take the given 6000RPM that the X2 motor spins and divide it by the 1.333 you get just a hair over 4500RPM

So virtually you get 0-4500 RPM on one pulley.

Now I would be glad to make you a custom stretched kit. What exactly do you need stretched? Are you looking to have the motor sit back farther?

Send me an email at [email protected] and we can work out the details.

[ibuildstuff4u]

Starleaper, I really like your kit, it's just for my use the RPM range wasn't what I wanted which is why I went with the Steel kit. It cost me $30.00 more for the kit, but it had the two step pulley. If someone didn't need the extra pulley the $30.00 savings would great.

Yes you can slow the spindle down with the speed control, but you will loose some torque verses running the motor at full speed and having the gear ratio closer to the desired RPM. 2500 RPM works great for me, and to get that with your kit I would have to lower the speed control pot to around 1/2 which is going to end up with less torque.

No one said you can't run the mill at a lower speed, just that you will loose some torque. Thankfully the speed control on the mill boosts the power and tries to keep the motor at the same torque level, but it's not as much as the torque level when running at the top speed.

I bought the steel kit and played around with the belt and speed control settings for quite a while and couldn't find a good combo for the RPM and torque I desired which is why I changed out the power supply.

Dale P.

[ibuildstuff4u]

Here is the power supply mod. First you need a KBLC-19PM board. I got mine off E-bay for 25.00. I just looked and there are several of them for sale starting at $25.00 for a used one, to $64.00 for a new one.

Wiring it up is pretty easy and I'm posting a diagram below. You can google the board number to and find more info on the board if needed. After installing the new power supply I adjusted the pots on the board and got a lot more RPM and torque out of my stock motor. The stock speed control only puts out 100 volts when running on full speed, but the new board puts out 115 volts as well as more amps. I have been running this mod for about a year now and haven't had any issues with the motor over heating. I did install a fan in the new power supply case to keep the board cool. I got the boxes for the power supply and control box from a local home improvement store in the electrical department.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Dale P.

[ibuildstuff4u]

The Stock mill RPM was 1100 in the low speed and 2500 in the high speed.
With the belt drive RPM was 1700 in the low speed and 4300 in the high speed.
After belt drive and power supply mod. The RPM is 2322 in the low and 6057 in the high speed.

I don't use the high speed pulley, but have heard of people doing so with out any problems with the spindle bearings. I guess I would just keep an eye on the spindle temp and make sure it's not over heating or baking the grease out of the bearings.

Dale P.

[Nateg281]

I guess from the previous posts, that I'm trying for the impossible. I don't particularly want to go with a single pulley system after looking into it and doing some research on my own outside of cnczone. However, the only two groove pulley setup that is commercially made doesn't suit my needs either. I guess I'm left with the choice of going with the Steele kit, or waiting and doing my cnc upgrade to the mill and making my own custom belt drive that's dual speed and suits my needs better. Hmmmmm.......

[Dougal]

I haven't yet picked out a belt-drive kit. I have a KB Electronics speed controller which gives me ~3300RPM in high range.
I have yet to find a use for the stock low range in my X2.

[hoss2006]

The kit that I made has 3 holes to choose from for the motor plate to pivot.
It could move the motor another inch farther back than what I use for a 14 inch belt.
Hoss