I finally got around to building a belt drive for my MD001. Its two speed, 4:1 low and 1:1 high. With the three phase motor and vfd the rpm range is ~100-3500. Most others are going for higher rpms but this is a manual machine so I wanted more on the low side.
I haven't done any milling with it yet but I'm sure it will be better than the noisy gears its replacing. The only problem I had was noise coming from the spindle spline to spline sleeve, which I gather is common after a belt drive conversion. I think the noise is probably there with the stock setup but can't be heard over the gear noise . . . anyway, I have it down to a reasonable level now.
Jason
I haven't done any milling with it yet but I'm sure it will be better than the noisy gears its replacing. The only problem I had was noise coming from the spindle spline to spline sleeve, which I gather is common after a belt drive conversion. I think the noise is probably there with the stock setup but can't be heard over the gear noise . . . anyway, I have it down to a reasonable level now.
Jason