Just a quick post with a big "Thank you" to Arizonavideo for my recently installed belt drive conversion. I'd had the head apart a few times and it's been a mess every time. It started with a bearing that was incorrectly installed at the factory locking up and spinning in the top plate and ended with the gears chewing themselves up at an incredible pace.

The last time I had it apart, I put a few magnets down in the oil. When I got the belt drive, I drained the oil and opened it up again. The magnets were covered in so much black iron powder that I didn't realize what they were at first. I've only worked on one other IH12Z and that was at Tommys shop so I don't have much reference for a "normal" amount of noise, but after a little fine positioning, the new belt drive is quieter than our belt drive knee mill. It's really cool to finally be able to hear the cutting rather than the gears.

Right now I'm topping out at 5800 rpm with the TRBs and it sounds great all the way up. No issues with torque so far, but I haven't pushed it either. My next project will be cutting control panels out of Al with a 0.125" 2 flute. I'd been using a router before which worked great (as long as I cut at 40"/min, but wouldn't allow for flood coolant. Running these panels unattended will be a big time saver.

Ken