"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

"Marty Escarcega" wrote in message
...
"ATP" wrote in
:

Any source, other than ebay, for vari-speed J head clone parts? Do the
clone manufacturers also get ridiculous money for sheaves, etc.? I've
tried google but without much luck.




High Quality Tools
http://www.hqtinc.com/

Thanks, Marty. Their website seems to be having difficulties, I was able
to
find their product breakdowns at this link:

http://www.icai-online.com/index.html

I found a headless Bridgeport I'd like to put one of my clone heads on.
Unfortunately I'm missing the vari-disc and spring assembly that rides on
the motor shaft. Converting to VFD speed control seems like a good
option,
but will still require a way to drive the belt on the motor side, which
currently only has the one cone shaped side on it.



If you can come up with a simple way to adjust the center distance or
install a tensioning idler, you might consider installing v-belt
pulleys, or step pulleys, on both the motor and spindle. I've owned both
step pulley and vari-speed mills with VFDs and prefer the step pulley
setup. Much quieter and less trouble and plenty of speed range from the
VFD without much belt switching. Regular v-belt drives are also more
efficient than the vari-speed Reeves drives.

My 1HP step pulley BP spent most of the time set on 1000RPM. My current
Supermax 3HP mill is almost always on 900 or 1800 RPM, and I could
probably get away with just the 1800 RPM setting, giving a direct
spindle speed readout on the VFD, if I put a cooling fan on the motor.
The VFD is limited to 6 to 90 HZ, but I avoid running below perhaps 30Hz
for long periods to avoid overheating the motor.

Ned Simmons

I like the step pulley idea. The shaft on the motor is pretty beat where the
disc used to ride, so I'm not sure how well a replacement would work anyway.