"Heavy" pulley - good or bad

[cut2cut]

I am converting my 3 axis metal mill's drive from a gearbox to a pulley and belt driven spindle. The pulleys are both 5.5 inch solid steel so they weigh a fair bit. I'm considering turning them down to lighten them up but am "weighing" ( no pun intended ) the value of doing this. Perhaps I could benefit from the added weight allowing the inertia to make better cuts with less motor ? One drawback being, if it ever crashes, it won't stop cutting as quickly when engaging the e-stop. Any opinions or experience to share on the topic is appreciated before I go through the trouble of having the pulleys turned.

Jake

 

[woodchucker]

Just out of curiosity, why convert from gear drive to pulley?
And I would think the flywheel effect would minimize vibration and chatter, as the heavier are keeping it moving so there is less speed fluctuation, but that's an opinion, not from knowledge.

 

[JimDawson]

I think you'll be fine with the rotating mass, probably not substantially different than the rotating mass of the original system. I did the same thing to my machine.

Most crashes involve a broken tool bit so you are just cutting air anyway. Been there done that, a few times.

 

[cut2cut]

Just out of curiosity, why convert from gear drive to pulley?

I'm fairly particular when it comes to added noise, and the gearbox has , imho, too much gear lash. So although it could last forever, I don't enjoy listening to it. Also, additionally I'm not sure how much gear lash plays a role in cut quality / finish, but I imagine it could.

Jake


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

If you desire low noise use a direct drive, no belts or gears.
Go here http://www.setco.com/products/spindles/
for example.

I also dislike noisy machines yet deal with what I have to use, if low end machine noise is intolerable cough up a couple hundred thousand dollars for a machine that is nearly silent when operating at 1/4 speed. For a mill Mitsubishi, Okuma and Mazak would be excellent choices, if still to loud for you then put them in an enclosed space and run them unattended, problem solved.