Sieg SC4 Lathe - noise reduction through headstock belt drive conversion

[EnglishBreakfast]

Amazing it was that loud, 87db is like an air compressor and not a quiet one.

I assume this conversion also requires a change to an electric lead screw if you want to maintain powerfeed control and threading.

Yes, too bloody loud... and that would've created big problems with the neighbours!

It dosen't actually require a ELS-conversion as its possible to set up the gearbox in such a way that the power feed runs in the correct direction while the spindle is also turning in the correct direction for cutting operations (although technically "reverse" on the electronics, due to both intermediary and main shaft turing in same direction now, rather than opposing as it was before the belt conversion).

All it means is leaving out a gear at the back of the machine. This picture is probably a better explanation...

Basically before the conversion the two gears I'm holding would sit on the shaft with the bearing (marked in blue). Now just the smaller one of the two gears (marked in yellow) can be exchanged for the spacer the arrow is pointing to and then meshes with the first large gear. The gear that's no longer used is 42tooth, identical to the very first gear and only served to change the direction of rotation in the original set up. What's also not visible is that the first large gear is mounted on an arm with a slot whereby angle and position can be adjusted accordingly making sure different gear combinations fit... however I have also not tried too many combinations so cannot say for certain that all thread pitches are possible!

Would still much prefer an electronic lead screw to save messing about with different gears to get the correct thread pitch set up though! Plus fewer dB