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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    Default Belt drive conversion for mini mill

    I have the mini mill from Hare and Forbes and am looking to replace the plastic gears with a belt drive. Anyone had a go at this? I'm tipping that there are no Australian suppliers of the a belt drive for these mills but in case there is, can you let me know please?

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    PM sent - but incase anyone else is looking for the belt dirve for an X2 then I can recommend LittleMachineShop. Excellent service.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    Marsden, QLD
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    Now you have the mill, think of this, if you NEVER EVER use a 'fly cutter', then you will most probably "never" need to replace any of the plastic gears AT ALL. These 'bloody weapons' ( fly cutters ) are as hard as buggery on the plastic gears in these machines.

    OK, you want to still be able to use a fly cutter, no respect for the machine at all, eh, your a masochist then.

    There are two possible ways to add a belt drive to these mighty midgets.

    First way, is the el-cheapo and quickest way possible, but, a Fly Cutter is still preferably a NO-NO, with this first way.

    All you need to do is just replace the plastic gears on the motor and the one it drives, but still be able to use the plastic high low gears, then it's a reasonably easy job to do. You just have to turn up a couple of pulleys from ally or acrylic, or whatever you have on hand, buy a belt from the dressmakers that runs a sewing machine and you still have the high and low gears. Do a couple of mods to the top that is already on the machine and your cookin' with gas.
    With this conversion, the fly cutter is possible to be used, BUT ONLY on the softer materials, absolutley NO steel or iron allowed, ally is OK, as long as it's only a fly $hit your removing at a time, brass, bronze, yep, the two speed plastic gears will survive this stuff, so long as you take it easy.


    Second way, is the very expensive way and you will have to wait for it, or, you will have paid thru the nose for 'air fright'.

    Is go buy it from the yankees, as no one sells a kit from Australia, to my knowledge. So if you got the dough, then spend up big. Choice is yours to make.

    Pictures are available of the el-cheapo conversion and the size of the belt, if anybody want to see them, I did this conversion a couple of years ago and it's still going strong.

    regards radish

  4. #4
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    The other reason to go with a belt drive is the reduction in noise, it's really significant.

    There are a number of home made belt drives, search the Yahoo group GrizzlyHFMiniMill or go and have a look at Hoss's web site for free belt drive plans (actually go and have a look at Hoss;'s website anyway, it's amazing)

    Now does anyone want to buy some fly cutters for their minimill???

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    Thanks a lot Geoff and Radish for your posts, they are extremely helpful.
    Geoff I will respond to your PM when I start clearing some messages and I appreciate your generous offer.

    Radish, I would love to see your conversion. I'm itching to get back to my "toy". If the conversion is not too difficult, I might be able to get back into it this weekend. I will have to say though that my lathe/mill skills are pretty rudimentary and that is one reason why I haven't been able to build the free belt conversion that I have seen on the Internet.

  6. #6
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    I did this conversion when the two plastic gears up at the motor decided to disintegrate, yep, using the dreaded fly cutter, I had been warned, but like a bloody fool, I reckoned I knew better, right, D-H that's the name.

    I needed the mill in a hurry and the kit bits from the states would have taken too long to arrive.

    I found this idea on the web somewhere, can't remember where now. It's worked quite well so far and I'm not complaining about not having the use of the fly cutter at all, I just use slot drills or end mills, OK, it does take a bit longer to do some things, but hey, my times my own, so who cares.

    The belt is from a sewing machine, can't remember which brand, but it was a common sewing machine and the belt is available. Oh, buy two, you never know if a belt is crook, eh.

    Pulled the machine apart and measured the O/D of the gears and made the pulleys the same O/D for the belt to run on, Used the exact same I/D measurements so the pulleys would just slip on and be held in place the same as the plastic gears. Then had a look at the top plate the motor mounts on and used one of the bolt holes as a pivot point, then just added a small bit of angle iron to one side of the plate, that way the motor could pivot over, so the belt had some tension on it.

    A bit of a surprise was that if the machine was overloaded, the belt would start to slip, l-o-v-e-r-l-y, no busted internal two speed plastic gears now, a bit of a bonus.

    Added another bit so the spindle lock will work as intended, put it all together and it works like a bought one.

    Now I measured every thing up and then drew it up on the computer, before I did any cutting and shutting, just to make sure it would all work. If you do decide to have a go at it, then, I do recommend that you do the same, please make sure it all works, before you start to cut anything.

    The first photo shows the top plate and look close and you can see I only knicked out the corner under where the motor pivots, then there is the couple of extra additions to it, as well as the pivot slot for the belt tension.

    The second photo shows the small pulley attached to the motor.

    The next two are the belt, pretty straight forward that lot.


    It's an easy and cheap option, if you want to have a go at it, I do think that your maching skills will radically improve as you go along, nothing like learning "on the job", if you get my drift.

    regards radish

  7. #7
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    Nov 2004
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    Thanks, Radish for posting the pictures. Do you find that the belt slips a lot on your setup? Does your set-up cope with a fly-cutter on mild steel and light cuts?

  8. #8
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    Firstly -- Does your set-up cope with a fly-cutter on mild steel and light cuts --

    If you want to use a fly cutter on steel, then sell the X2 mini mill and get a machine without any plastic gears. If you want to use the X2 mini mill, with any plastic gears in it, then chuck the fly cutter away. The fly cutter creates such a hard whack each time it hits and this is transfered back to the driving plastic gears, these gears can not take this shock load and they just dissintergrate.

    Can I say it any clearer than that?

    The expensive belt conversion from the states will allow you to use the fly cutter with very light cuts in steel, but, and remember the but, if it grabs, it will stall the motor, this is bad for the control board.

    This easy and simple belt conversion, will allow a bit of slip to occur if you jamb a drill, if you tighten the belt up real tight, then you are just going to stall the motor when something grabs. Stall the motor quite a few times, you will soon fry the electric control board, then your up for about 150 smackers, choice is yours to make on that one.

    Instead of a fly cutter, my weapon of choice is one of these jiggers, instead of just one point bashing away, as per fly cutter, this cutter gives you two whacks at the workpiece with each rotation, so half the pressure is being applied to the plastic cogs that are left in my machine, with each point taking a very small bite. I still do not use my mini mill for steel though, steel for me is still a no-no, once bitten, twice shy.

    For what I do, this mini mill is all I need, it will handle bronze, brass, aluminium, acrylic and I even have a whack at wood with it.

    regards radish

  9. #9
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    Nov 2004
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    G'day Radish again. I understand where you're coming from but if the mini-mill can't handle steel then that is a major shortcoming. Before buying it I researched the internet and seeing the sorts of projects that users were capable of, it looked like a good low-cost, small storage item. I haven't heard of anyone frying the control board but then maybe I don't use it enough and need to be more aware.

  10. #10
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    Tiger,
    Not sure if you're still looking for a belt drive kit for your mini-mill.
    Just thought I'd let you know that the belt conversion kit is now on sale from LMS. Only for the next week though.

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