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Need a little help with first horizontal mill

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Plastic
Joined
Mar 5, 2020
Hi All!

My first post here. I've come across this forum a while back while searching for a horizontal mill and relevant information. This is a great site! I ended up getting a US Machine Tool Co mill and have been using it for a while now. Works great but I need some help. The previous owner didn't have the handles/wheels for it and I've been searching for some but can't find anything that will work. Could be that I'm not looking in the right place either. They need to mount to 3/8" square post. The handle in the middle would also need an extension so the table doesn't interfere with it's use. I've attached a picture as well.

The other area I need some help with is a vibration. When I was putting on the large belt cover I loosened the bolts on the motor plate. I must have not got it back in the right spot since now there is a vibration when the mill is running. What is the best way to align the belt and try to eliminate the vibration? It's driving me nuts. I've moved the motor around on the plate a few times but nothing seems to work. I've also attached a picture of the motor.

Thanks in advance.

Brandon

I'm not sure why the pictures are sideways either. They aren't that way on my computer.

Mill Front.jpg

Mill Motor.jpg
 
What is keeping the belt tensioned? If it's just the weight of the motor, you need something to hold it in place as under even a little load a motor will want to crawl up the belt. Most machines with a hanging motor like that will have some kind of turn-buckle or screw to push the motor bracket down and hold tension.

Does the vibration go away when you disconnect the V-belt? If not, it might also be that your pulley is out of balance or the motor has a bent shaft, if the vibration ends up being on the machine side of the belt, I'd start going through looking for bent or sticking parts. Could be a lot of things, so it helps to narrow down which moving parts or group of parts is the issue.
 
What is keeping the belt tensioned? If it's just the weight of the motor, you need something to hold it in place as under even a little load a motor will want to crawl up the belt. Most machines with a hanging motor like that will have some kind of turn-buckle or screw to push the motor bracket down and hold tension.

Does the vibration go away when you disconnect the V-belt? If not, it might also be that your pulley is out of balance or the motor has a bent shaft, if the vibration ends up being on the machine side of the belt, I'd start going through looking for bent or sticking parts. Could be a lot of things, so it helps to narrow down which moving parts or group of parts is the issue.

I should have mentioned that I didn't notice the vibration when I first used it. It was only after I tried to install the belt cover. It was hitting the pulley ever so slightly so I tried to adjust it to fit. Now I have a vibration. As I can tell it's just the motor weight keeping tension. I can lift up the motor and bracket no problem. I'll play with it a bit per your suggestions and see what I can see. Thanks.
 
3/8" handles are hard to find, and sometimes expensive. You could try taking a 3/8" drive socket and welding it on backwards to a short piece flat bar, then attach knob to the other end. I was thinking about doing this when I temporarily lost mine.
 
You can check belt pulley alignment with a long straightedge.

Remove the belt(s). Does the motor vibrate when run by itself?

Belts do get flat spots. Run it for awhile. Another trick is to apply a bar of soap to the edge of the belt while running.

metalmagpie
 








 
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