Hi Oldboy. You are obviously married to the metal gear concept. That's ok! It's all good.
It's a shame the Sherline has soured you against belts. Frankly, I think maybe you were pushing the limits of the tiny Sherline toy.
The X2 is 2 or three times the mill compared to the Sherline. The LMS belt is also much larger than the Sherline's puny belt. Neither one will let you hog out steel though. I just hope you don't expect Bridgeport performance out of the little X2--even WITH metal gears.
Oh, and of course when you outgrow the X2--You won't want to upgrade to the belt/gear driven X3 or the Belt ONLY driven Super X3 or X4. You'll probably be much happier with the oil bath geared transmission in the IH:
http://www.industrialhobbies.com/Pro...umn_mill_2.htm
CR.