Check your belts!

X-Carve
5

I snapped my right side y belt last sunday. Due to financial issues and the need to get the machine back up as soon as possible for what I was working on,I went the amazon method for new belting. 10.00 for 5 meters with free shipping thanks to my daughters prime account, the stuff doesnt seem as stout as what inventables has. I’ll see how long it lasts. Out of respect for Zach and the crew I wont post links for what I picked up.

Once my money situation improves I’m thinking of going the gt3 route as well. Phil, keep us posted on your upgrade please. When the time comes I may contact you in regard to sources etc.

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8

One of my Y belts looked exactly like that that two weeks ago. I was lucky to catch it between projects and had enough belt on hand to change out both "y"s.

When I say exactly, I mean I wouldn’t know the difference between your picture and mine.

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10

I’ve had the 3GT for a long while now, pretty much right after my X and Y belts both looked like yours did in that pic.

I used the same tension setting, right about 3.8 with the fish scale.

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12

Yessir

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18

I told you you would love the 3GT belts.

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19

Yeah, it’s almost too much power:). Wish id done the bigger steppers a year ago when I changed my belts…

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22

With the new belting on these motors you will really like it. I have been doing roughing passes in pine at 350 IPM with a 1/4" endmill. I screwed up my settings once and drive a 1/4" bit at 1/2" depth of cut at 250 IPM in hard maple and the bit just kept on cutting.

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24

Agree, I’ve been super happy as well, and other than accidentally driving the bit into one of the aluminum rockler hold downs, I’ve not been able to make it miss steps. My next upgrade in this regard is a 1000mm lead screw for the X, but I’ve got a backlog of orders i need to get thru first…

26

Hmmmm I wonder if the new belt holder (plastic slide on thingy) will work as well.

28

Wow! No chatter, no stutter! impressive.

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29

What motors are those? I thought the NEMA23 motors were something like 260oz ish motors…

31

Ah. The ones that come with it are the 51mm 140oz motors… interesting. I bet I could do the X&Y axis only, really easily. New pulleys and drop them in during regular belt maintenance… Any recommendations for sourcing the parts?

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33

Run a 1/32" bit through there! Wanna see how it hogs out the wood! =). Make sure it’s catbide too!

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34

Any recommendation from anyone as to where to access this 3GT belting? Also, do you recommend new pulleys or are the stock ones okay? If new pulleys are needed where do you access them?
Thanks for any help!
…Gord

35

I know it has been gone over in other threads but I just thought I would add this as many seem to be confused by it as I was at first, and it seems relevant to the discussion.

3GT does NOT = GT3

3GT refers to the pitch of the teeth on the Gates profile timing belt. The stock X-Carve belt is 2GT which denotes a 2mm tooth pitch. You can’t interchange 2GT and 3GT.

However-

GT3 refers to the third revision of the “PowerGrip” Belt that Gates produces. This belt is stronger than the GT2 belt that comes stock with the X-carve.

You may use GT2 and GT3 Belting interchangeably AS LONG AS the tooth pitch matches the pulleys you have.

An example would be my machine in its current setup is using a 2GT2 setup. This means I am using a 2mm pitch pulley with second generation PowerGrip belts. I am switching to a new setup which will be 3GT2. That means I switch to 3mm pitch pulleys with second gen belt simply because the place I am getting the parts from has leftover stock of GT2 belt cheap. To my knowledge Gates no longer produces GT2 belt since the GT3 belt has replaced it. If you have the stock pulleys you can get GT3 belting. JUST BE SURE you get it with a 2mm pitch. i.e. 2GT3. Hopefully I was able to explain this properly. It’s a mildly confusing naming convention. The below link is to the PowerGrip belting. You can see at the top where it denotes 2mm or 3mm pitch.

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37

Thanks for the info… It helped me. =)

38

Thank you, Phil. Much appreciated!!

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39

Thanks, Phil! It this what you are using?

Also, I’m guessing there is some machine config changes that would have to be made to go with these. I’ll have to dig on that.

42

Yup. As I said it has been mentioned a few times in tje past. You mentioned it as did several other people in the past. I have known this for a while now but some people are still confused by it.

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43

I’m still confused but a bit more informed. I had no idea regarding the naming conventions that were being used ie; 3gt vs. gt3. obviously the GT has different meanings depending on how it is used.
Although i have not got a firm grasp on the designations (or reality, some would suggest) :slight_smile:when it comes time to upgrade I know that I have some research to do before i click the “order” button.