Member postings for John Hinkley

A further update. Well, I finished the new mounting and motor plates and stripped the mill to fit the kit. Great excitement. Didn't last long, however. After removing the top nut on the spindle and the spacing sleeve I put the new driven pulley on the spindle. It rattled around like a good'un. It appears that, although the spindle of my mill has, indeed, a diameter of 30mm, like it says in the blurb, the business end where the pulley fits is 28mm in diameter! So, I'm back to square one - or at least square two - and am having to remake the large pulley all over again. Another wait while the raw material arrives from Darlington! Added to that, the motor shaft is 10mm diameter and not the 9mm I was expecting. At least I can ream the hole out to fit on that one. Alright, it's my own fault, I should have stripped it all down and measured it first. I hold my hand up to that one. First rule of engineering - never assume. Second rule - never assume. Lesson learned. (Sound of twit eating humble pie.)

Original kit now up for sale! Quelle surprise!

John

A follow-up to my previous posts. I made the pulleys for my design of belt drive, having sent off for a couple of v-belts from America. The project went on the back burner for a while and we went to the UK to visit relatives. Just before we went, however, I celebrated my 65th birthday, and as a very generous present to myself, I took the coward's way out and ordered a belt-drive conversion kit for the mill, also from the USA (Little Machine Shop). On my return from the UK, the kit duly arrived and I proceeded to strip the mill in preparation for fitting it. To my surprise, the hole spacing for the mounting plate didn't match that on the mill and upon further inspection the PCD of the motor mounting holes was different, too! So, beware, if you're tempted to get a kit from the 'States - not all clones are the same! I'm currently awaiting the arrival of some aluminium plate from M-Machine, so that I can make new base and motor plates with the correct spacing for my mill.

Also, can I just add, for those who are advocating toothed belt drives, another reason for using the v-belt and pulley system is the fact that I get two speed ranges, whereas a toothed belt drive would limit me to one.

Regards,

John

I've today ordered a Singer sewing machine belt from a company in the UK. It's slightly longer than the Gates one, but otherwise is identical and, having played around with pulley sizes and spacing in a CAD program, it'll do nicely.

By the way, I chose to use a vee belt over a toothed one so that, in the event of a stall, the belt will tend to act as a clutch and slip, rather than the motor being stalled and risking a burn-out. Originally, of course, the nylon gears act in a sacrificial role in these circumstances.

John

Trevor,

I've sent you a PM.

John

I've had an email today from Beeline. They can't supply the belt themselves, but have quoted (a fairly reasonable) just over £20 for a belt to be sent direct from the USA. Delivery is quoted at 14 to 16 weeks!! I won't be taking them up on the offer, but I think I will try one of the many sewing machine shops in the area. Thanks for the idea, Pat.

John

Mike,

I've emailed beeline to see if they can help. Unfortunately, the Truflex line doesn't feature on their web site. I'll wait and see what they say. Luckily, they aren't very far away from relatives in St. Albans, where we visit from time to time, so I might even be able to pick up a couple next time I'm over.

John

Thanks for all the replies. I've tried the links, but they all seem to point to toothed belts, which are not what I'm after. Looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet at source in the states.

John

John and Russell,

Thanks for the links. I'll give them a go, although my preference is for a v-belt for simplicity.

My eldest daughter flies for Virgin Atlantic, so if all else fails, I'll have to get her to get me some! Unfortunately she's in Delhi this weekend!

John

John and Russell,

Thanks for the links. I'll give them a go, although my preference is for a v-belt for simplicity.

My eldest daughter flies for Virgin Atlantic, so if all else fails, I'll have to get her to get me some! Unfortunately she's in Delhi this weekend!

John

Having unsuccessfully tried to search the forum for help with this subject, I've decided to start a fresh thread.

I have an Amadeal XJ12-300 mill (Sieg X2 clone-ish)and am going to make a belt drive conversion kit. I'm not going to take the easy route and get one from the USA, the postage costs are too prohibitive, so I'm going to make one to my own design, albeit based on the plans which are readily available on the internet. My main problem is sourcing suitable belt. The kits use a Gates Truflex 0130 v-belt. I've got no chance finding a supplier here in France, and, it appears, you're more likely to source rocking horse manure in the UK, too. Has anybody found a supplier in the UK? I know that there are users of the belt drive in the UK - what do they do for spares?

By the way, the plans that I've seen seem to be mostly from the USA and therefore have Imperial dimensions. Anybody know a source of metric ones?

John

P.S. Yes, I have stripped the nylon gears once already and yes, I've replaced them AND I've got a second, spare set!

Mine was OK. Unfortunately I'M wrinkled!

Surely if we try hard enough, no one will answer David's original question and the thread will be longer than Graham Meek's "simplified screwcutting"?

John

As I have said before, in a reply to a similar question elsewhere on this forum, I bought an XJ12-300 mill from Amadeal some while ago. It cost £412. I reckon that I've spent at least that again on mills, vice, centring kit, collet set and last month, a three-axis DRO set from Arc Eurotrade. Nearly finished fitting it, but have yet to use it "in anger". I'm very pleased with my mill - it does exactly what I want it to do - and that's all you can ask of any machine. Who wouldn't like a Bridgeport or similar, but not everybody can accommodate such a machine in their workshop. I would say, look at all the machines in your price range - let's face it, that's the real deciding factor - and plump for one or the other. Choose the one that best suits your specific requirements. Best of luck!

John

Lars-Peder,

For what it's worth - I've just done a clean re-install of Ubuntu 11.10 and all the asociated files on my laptop and now it opens all the digital issues. It's a long way round to cure the problem, but it passes the Sunday afternoon away!

John

Garry,

I, too searched the net for a freeware CAD package. Luckily for me, I have a laptop which runs Linux OS (ubuntu), where software is 99% free and LibreCAD (and its clone QCAD) are both simple, effective CAD packages, which read and write .dwg and .dxf filetypes - i.e. AutoCAD compatible. I also have Draftsight both computers, but although it is a comprehensive program, I find it too complicated to produce the sort of drawing I, and it sounds like, you, are trying to make. When in the UK last Christmas, I picked up some parts in a Maplin store. While waiting to be served, I was tempted by a disp[lay of DVDs near the till. One was TotalCAD2D/3D and set me back the princely sum of £7.95! It's fully-featured and comes with a very good help file, supports multiple filetypes and is quite easy to learn. I don't know if it was a special, one-off offer, but I would recomend it, if you can get hold of a copy. If you don't like it - you won't have spent small fortune.

John

Lars-Peder,

I'm reading this on my laptop, which runs ubuntu 11.10, with Firefox 10.0.1 and this combination won't open the digital issues, either. Looks like it could be an issue with ubuntu. I seem to remember having a similar problem with an earlier release of ubuntu, too. No such problems with the desktop running Windows (Vista) + Firefox 11.10. Try the ubuntu community help forum. God luck.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 13/01/2012 08:51:11