We have a 5X20 Chipmaster at the museum where I volunteer. It has been a
lovely little machine,and is very solid and ridgid for its size. We are
having a problem with it at the present though, and would appreciate any
information about the variable speed drive. It is one of those double cone
arrangements with hardened steel balls between them. Tilting the axis if the
balls makes the effective radius of the drive and driven cones change, thus
varying the output speed. Our problem is that it will no longer change speed
smoothly from hight to low speed or vise versa.
Has anyone else had this experience? I suspect that the 5 balls are worn
slightly, and I'm considering swapping them upside down to get the load onto
a previously unused section of the ball.
Is this reasonable, or should we just replace it with a shaft and a variable
frequency drive?