I've had my X3 now for 4 days, and overall am very happy. THis is a solid mill, the perfect balance for my living situation and needs.

One thing though, the geared head is a drag. 2000RPM max is pretty slow, and the gears are noisy. My thoughts are to gears with cast iron, balanced pulleys, and a 4L size V belt. Belt from pulley on motor to shaft. Ideally, I would get a max RPM of around 4000, for drilling smaller diameter holes. Has anybody here done this, what are your thoughts?

Have you managed to do this yet? If so, send some pics or a link and how did it turn out?

You may want to check out Bird_E's x3 top-mounted motor mod here:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28512&highlight=bird_e

I plan on doing something very similar but am using a servo in place of the stock motor.