Mini Mill Belt Drive

[editor@glue-it.com]

I lived with the plastic gears on the mini mill for a while before they broke:



More details and images showing what you're likely to find in one of these gearboxes: Mini Mill Gearbox – glue-it.com

I ordered metal gears from the USA (I live in UK) and installed these:



These were ok, but the noise was high and you could still feel the hammering of the cutting tools and so I decided to make my own belt drive:



I've written an article on this conversion with some dimensions that should allow you to modify this idea for your own milling machine: Mini Mill Belt Drive – glue-it.com

[editor@glue-it.com]

A message for the editor: it would be great if there was a thread on the mini mill and then this could go under that as a sub-page - I'm just not experienced enough on your pages to do this.

[Jon]

Feel free to start a new thread for every tool you've made. You're also welcome to add a link to your website in your forum signature, so that it will appear with every post you make.

[ncollar]

very nice fix and I'm sure you are very happy with the quiet belt drive.
Nelson

[Mike Waldron]

Very interested in your conversion to belt drive.
Also as I have a Sieg X1L that Mike Cox has converted in such a manner as to deliberately avoid strain on the motor bearings. Do you know what type of bearings your motor has?Could be rather crucial.
I am considering a similar conversion, but haven't taken anything apart on my machine yet to check the motor bearings.
Bronze plain are likely, but ball would be better,
Mike

[ncollar]

Mike
Your machine was made to run those rpm and the tension on the belt and the tooth to tooth contact should be a great liability. My thoughts it would be less, at least the noise would.
Nelson

[DIYer]

Thanks editor@glue-it.com! We've added your Mini Mill Drive Conversion to our Milling category,
as well as to your builder page: editor@glue-it.com's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Mini Mill Drive Conversion by editor@glue-it.com

tags: mill, modification, motor

[editor@glue-it.com]

I must admit that I didn't look at what bearings were in the motor.
I've been running quite a light tension on the belt - this small v belt is superb and doesn't slip and I ordered 2 belts at the time and have never had to swap it over.
The noise levels dropped when I went from plastic to steel gears, however, it was still a very noisy mill.
With the gears though at low speeds you could feel the backlash in them and the resultant impact on the cutter - not sure how much effect this has on the cut, but it did grate on me.
The belt drive is extremely quiet and really nice that you can back off the tension even further to allow some slip if you need it.
Best regards, Nigel

[Mike Waldron]

Nigel:
Thanks for that. I have a Sieg X1L and noticed from its website spares list that its motor has a ball bearing for the lower pulley end,so firmly suspect yours will be similarly equipped.