[inthebay]

Long story short, I had a mt3 spindle x2, and today I got my r8 spindle kit, and my belt drive kit from littlemachineshop. Do I need to reassemble the gears, even though they will not be used ever again, when putting the head back together?


Thanks!

[Dano523]

Pull the gears, and put them in a plastic bag. Someone down the line will be asking for them before they convert their machine over to belt drive. Leaving them in the machine just adds to noise if the gears are ingaged.


As for some of the parts, unless you can make filler pieces to close off the holes in the spindle head, may want to leave them in play, Such as the low/high lever.

Next, don't know how hard you are going to run the machine, but search around for belts at a low price and pick up a few. I run my machine pretty hard with large tools, so I tend to cook belts about twice a year.

And before you get deep into the conversion, make sure to tram the spindle head to the column shaft as you are putting everything back together.

Your gong to pull the spindle head from the column shaft support section to pull the gears, and as you are putting the two back together, then is the time to adjust the two so your Z travel of the spindle to the work piece is true.

Short version on this, get a short piece of 3/8" and a long piece or 3/8" round stock and lathe the ends to a point.

With the head close to the table, touch off with the short piece to mark the a piece of stock, then raise the head way up, and double check to make sure that the spindle is aiming at the same spot with the long piece of round stock. You may luck out and find that you only need to rotate the head piece in the column piece as you tighten the nuts, or may have to shim the two if you have fore/aft differences.

And the fun part, since the bolts for the head to column support of blind, you want to leave the bottom bolts only snug, then raise the head above the column so you can tighten the top set of bolts while testing. Once you have the top nuts tight, then you can pull the entire head and go back and tighten the bottom set of bolts.

Lastly, once you have everything just right, go back and install a spring loaded spindle lock in the new belt system. Also to add, if you have not made a column stiffer yet, now is the time to do so. The belt is going to allow you to put more power down to the work piece (even more if you change out the control board since the current board only puts out 90 volt, with the motor rated at 110v, and hobbled to the lower output to try to save the gears), and without the column stiffener, you still be be at chatter city on the cuts still.






P.S. if you need a list of mods that are helpful, just let us know and we can dial you into to them.

[doorknob]

I have seen several approaches to stiffening the X2 column.

Which approach did you use?

[Dano523]

I have seen several approaches to stiffening the X2 column.

Which approach did you use?

Shop Info


1/8" plate (what I had sitting around), with two bolts to the column base with spacers between the plate and base on the wide bottom section, then 6 bolts up the back of the plate to secure it to the back of the column on the upper section only as wide as the column itself, including the main bolt that is securing it as well.

Even when changing out the motor controller to a KBLC-19PM, some of the supports listed/shown are a bit of over kill (unless you are going to change out the motor as well).

Write up on the KBLC-19PM board, and they are less than $20 on ebay.
KBLC BOARD

As for tramming,
Mini-Mill Spindle-Column Alignment - Home Model Engine Machinist

And may as well true the column to the base (column support bracket) before you install the the back column brace support (so you only have to make the support to base spacers once.

P.S> I had a love/hate thing going on with my cheap LMS misting system, that is until I make a new nozzle for it. It's does not true mist to fog up the room, but instead puts down larger sizer droplets at about 15lbs air pressure instead (just enough air to blow the workpiece clean, and just enough Kool mist to keep the tool/work piece cool without a total flood going on; hence do need need to build an ark to sail out of the room after milling).


Also on the subject Kool mist, does anyone else have problems with goo/snot in their Kool mist mix after using tap water? I paint screen the mix when pouring it out of the O gallon bottle that I mix it up in to remove the Goo after it has been sitting for a while, but just figured that the goo/snot was the additives in tap water that was causing such.

[inthebay]

I would love a list of mods to perform! I was actually just going to fill in the hollow shaft with quick-crete, or do the 1" thick bar mod. A list would be great!.

I was very disappointed with my belt drive kit to see that the holes for the mounting plate did not line up in the slightest . I'll have to take it to work and slot them out.

First thing: Imperial dials, haha

The plan for this machine is to convert it to CNC when I have finished saving for the conversion, so power feeds aren't of much use to me. I do like the idea of a control board modification, idealy with the ability for me to replace the potentiometer at some point with a control wire and run it from Mach3, along with (very eventually) a tool changer and an extended bed size in both Y and X

[Dano523]

Out the gate, the .100 full dial rotation will take more than new dials!!!! The threads on the acme screws are .0625 per rotation.

Having said that, its one of the main reason that I spent the $120 to DRO the machine with Igaging scales. If you are going to CNC the machine, then ball screws will be one of the first mods, and would be counter productive changing out the screws for a second time (Mach 3 has a DRO program in it, so no need for dial if you are going to jog the machine manual through the program).

On the head column, don't fill it just yet, if you do air springs, they mounts down the inside of the shaft. On my machine, you will see that I have both a air spring, and the stock return spring. Out the gate on my machine, the head did a slip downward with the factory return spring alone, and when the machine crashed, so did my set of plastic gears. Now if the spindle head get an idea and wants to move, it going to be upward, instead of downward into the work piece to crash the machine.

To shot bus it, if your plan is to CNC the machine, the do such now, instead of a lot of mods for manual that will be a waste when that time comes and it's CNC. Even a spring loaded spindle lock would be a waste, since chance are your going to set the machine up with a tool changer, and just converting the spindle to air lock instead.

About the only mods that I can see caring over from manual to CNC will be the column support, a motor controller board change to get full powder out of the motor, and maybe air springs unless you are going to go pulley/weight system instead. As for tramming and truing, that needs to happen no matter what.

Lastly, with the machine going to be used for CNC, now is the time to start figuring out what incloser that you are going make to use for flood. With a new motor controller and column support, the machine can now take light cuts in steel, and at the speed rates that you will be cutting with CNC for extended amounts of time, flood is the way to go to flush and keep the tools cools.

[inthebay]

I actually have already built an enclosure out of acrylic, as well as made a flood coolant system using a small pump, a filter setup, send and return lines, and an aluminum block bolted to the Z axis fine adjustment sheet metal bracket that feeds into two 1/4" loc-line fittings.

From the website showing the control board replacements, there are two options, one is 1/3 the price and appears to be the same board, is this correct?

Thanks!

[Dano523]

On the motor controller, to short bus it, just find a surplus controller that is rated at least 110V , with an output amperage of at least 4.5amp continuous output to run the motor full speed. The motor is rated at that, with the stock controller putting out way less power to the motor to hobble it so it did not blow the plastic gears (Stock motor controller is 90v output, and with it rated at 350 watts, 350/90=3.888 amps output (not sure if this is continuous, or a when lighting strikes it max output rating instead). The motor rated at 110volt with a amperage of 4.5amps comes up with the motor really needing a 495 watt control board to run the motor full power.

The KBLC-19PM boards at the time of the write up where flooding the market from some reason in the savage electronics department (read could get them even last year for under $20). with a Output of 125 volts at 6 amps, the board is rated at (125 X 6= 750 watts).

So on that note, KBLC is 125 volts output, while the KBIC boards are only 90V output instead. So if you want the motor to spin at full speed when turned all the way up, then the KBLC board is the one needed.