Micro Mill gear fix

[ShayArnett]

I broke my first part last week on the Micro. Stripped the keyway out of the motor gear.

Just wanted to let everyone know if you have access to a lathe you can machine a temporary adapter. All I did was bore out a piece of aluminum to a tight press fit over the motor shaft, turn the outside down to a tight press fit with the gear ( drill the gear out to get a fresh clean surface). I hammered the adapter into the gear and slid it over the motor shaft. Works pretty well slipped once while I was piddling last night, but looked at it again and plan on drilling and tapping through the gear and adapter for a setscrew to lock in the keyway on the motor shaft.

The adapter should hold me over until i get around to ordering some pulleys and bearings to convert to belt drive. Still have the overwhelming urge to cnc this thing, too bad I only have one set of motors and drivers. Keep going back and forth with the choice of router or mill. Only thing keeping me from it is that I have a couple projects I would like to do with a router, and with a mill most of the first parts would be replacements of the conversion parts, nothing really in my mind for the mill other than having the capability if needed.

[phantomcow2]

Belt drive is the way to go, i've done it and have never looked back. Operation is smoother overall.
CNC conversion works nicely, I have mine converted. Well actually my power supply died last week so i have a new one on order, so i guess you cant call it complete. It was pretty easy to convert, mechanically that is. No major modifications need to be done, just really simple motor mounts which can be made on the machine itself. I have an old Pentium 3 controlling it, hoping to get a webcam hooked up to that so I can get some pictures soon