Sieg X2 belt drive

I've had a Sieg X2 clone (Chester Conquest mill) for several years but until recently it's been used primarily as an accurate drill press. When I bought it I was aware that the plastic gears had a habit of stripping so I bought a belt drive conversion from Sterling Steele but never actually installed it as the plastic gears remained intact. I actually forgot I had it but rediscovered it when moving stuff into the new workshop so I thought I'd install it. No problems at all doing that but I realised that the belt - a Gates Truflex 0130 - was of the same vintage and I only had one so a breakage would mean mill downtime.

A quick search revealed that these belts are apparently impossible to source in the UK, which surprised me no end. US suppliers tend to impose exhorbitant shipping costs but I thought it would be worth while letting anyone who has this conversion know that I bought three belts (just to be on the safe side!) from Rockauto.com at a total cost of £13.74 including shipping. They came from the USA and took 12 days to arrive. Good service, excellent price, and I'm pleased to recommend them.

I made my X2 conversion from plans by Jerry Rollett, cant remember if it uses the same belt, but I got my belts from my local bearing factors for the princely sum of £5 ea....the belts are made by Optibelt.....but Gates are available from Beeline Engineering in Milton Keynes

Edited By John Rudd on 08/02/2016 12:51:00

Others might want to use a poly-v belt, you can get them anywhere, easier to make the pulleys, more compact as smallest pulley size is 19mm/3/4" for standard section and more torque capacity than ordinary v-belts.

Neil

Hi

I can go along with the suggestion for using "Poly Vee Belts" on an X2 Mill Drill.

Having done a few iterations on my mill and settled for 1.25 hp motor with two speed"Poly Drive".

4 Rib Pulleys are easy to fabricate from aluminium or cast iron.

Eric