Has anyone made their own X3 spindle pulley?

[digits]

Hi guys - I need to make a custom pulley to go onto the X3's spindle.

Looking at the thing, it seems to be a 20mm shaft with 6x 5mm wide, 2.5mm deep splines sticking out. I had a go at making one by drilling some 5mm holes on a 20mm pitch circle, and then boring the centre out, but it just doesn't fit, and I've mangled it trying to open it up by eye. I don't suppose anyone has a CAD drawing or a smart way to make one?

Cheers.

[MIKE JEFFERS]

if you have the origonal pulley use the centere and fit it to a new exterior
if you see what i mean
alternativley
measure it and draw it out in cad make a broach from silver steel then cut your own
pulley if its an ali one will work just fine
make the broach about 0.002" small and pre-machine as much away as you can
mike

[digits]

Thanks Mike unfortunately I don't have an X-3 or even an original pulley to measure!

Looking at the exploded diagrams on ARC Eurotrade, the X-3 seems to use some conventional gear with a large bore and a single key-way, which then fits over a sleeve with internal splines which engages the splines on the spindle.

I guess I am going to have to try entering the profile into my CAD tool, and then using sheetcam to rough out the splines with an endmill before using a hand file to square them off.

I am also considering just boring out my pulley to just fit over the outside of the splines, and then to use 3 or more set-screws to engage the splines and keep the pulley centered.

I'm not sure which is a better approach, but as I already have a half scrapped pulley which could be bored, I might give that a go first.

Cheers.

[pzzamakr1980]

First off, are you trying to increase spindle speed. If so you can do this without screwing with the spindle pulley by simply switching the motor pulley and the other pulley. This gives a theoretical spindle speed of 6600. I figure a realistic speed of 5500 is a sure thing. Secondly, if you are trying to get rid of the gears for noise, go to econobelt or spdi, both of which have adds on this site, and purchase two pulleys for htd5 pitch belts. Get one 30 tooth and one 32 tooth. Try to purchase the narrow, 6mm or 9mm belt, whatever size they mention on the arceurotrade site. Then simply cut off the gears on each stock pulley and bore out the two aluminum pulleys you got and do a nice tight fit and toss some epoxy on there and never worry about it again. If you are scared of ruining your pulleys buy some more from grizzly, they are really cheap. This will cut the noise level nearly in half.

[digits]

Originally Posted by pzzamakr1980 First off, are you trying to increase spindle speed. If so you can do this without screwing with the spindle pulley by simply switching the motor pulley and the other pulley. This gives a theoretical spindle speed of 6600. I figure a realistic speed of 5500 is a sure thing. Secondly, if you are trying to get rid of the gears for noise, go to econobelt or spdi, both of which have adds on this site, and purchase two pulleys for htd5 pitch belts. Get one 30 tooth and one 32 tooth. Try to purchase the narrow, 6mm or 9mm belt, whatever size they mention on the arceurotrade site. Then simply cut off the gears on each stock pulley and bore out the two aluminum pulleys you got and do a nice tight fit and toss some epoxy on there and never worry about it again. If you are scared of ruining your pulleys buy some more from grizzly, they are really cheap. This will cut the noise level nearly in half.

I don't have an X-3, or any of the stock pulleys, just a spindle and some bearings! I have figured out the CAD for the spline, which I can now cut sucessfully with a 4mm endmill, but I don't know if I can cut one 35mm deep - so I'm just trying it right now to see what happens! I really wish Littlemachine shop stocked all the X-3 parts as well as the X-1 and X-2 parts.

Cheers.

[pzzamakr1980]

just order it from grizzly.

[digits]

Originally Posted by pzzamakr1980 just order it from grizzly.

If they were on the same continent as me I would! I have now learnt how to, and how not to, make my own ones though

[pzzamakr1980]

Ahh yes, that could be a bit of a problem. Well chalk it up as a learning experience and good job!