Busy Bee Cx600 Milling Machine And Plastic Gears

[owdlvr]

I have the CX601 and have not used it that much. I am however worried about the gears. Without dismantling the machine, I have tried to determine which gears we are talking about from the parts diagram. If some one knows the part numbers for the these and the best place to buy them I would be grateful to hear from them. As well I am wondering where the LMS website mentioned earlier is loacated. My apologies for not being able to figure this out.

BTW, I contacted Busy Bee and they basically confirmed that the CX601 has both plastic and steel gears. Boo.

After reviewing all of the options that are available to me, including driving down to bellingham to pick up a Grizzly, I finally put a deposit down on a CX-601. Yes, it does have the plastic and steel gears. Currently the gears are in stock at the Toronto Warehouse, but they did admit to me that when they are out of stock it can be a while to obtain them. They emailed me the part numbers and (current) pricing of the gears, which I assume you can cross-reference to the parts diagrams at the back of the manual:

pcx601230 $19.99
pcx601209 $29.99
pcx601double shifting gear $59.99

For what it's worth, I'm simply going to buy a spare plastic gear to have "in case", while ensuring that I triple check the gear mesh on each of the gears before and after break-in. Based on what I've been able to find online, problems with the plastic gears seem to be either initial issues (probably didn't check the gear mesh before initial use) or from crashing the machine. My plan of attack is to enjoy the machine as is, and if the gears become an issue, swap over to a pulley setup. It appears as though you can buy a full kit, just the pulleys or make the whole thing yourself if so inclined.

For my order, I simply requested they include "the gear that most often strips out when you crash the machine", which Norm in BC seemed familiar enough with. Once it arrives, I'll post the correct part number and cross-reference it to the 601 part diagram.

-Dave

 

[charlton]

Thanks for posting that information, Dave.

I assume the double shifting gear is part 212 "shafting gear" (as it's called in the manual) 31/56T. Looks like two plastic/nylon gears on the shaft assembly and one on the motor.

Cheers,
Charlton

 

[owdlvr]

I've only seen the mill in person to measure it for my shop, and I've been doing all the ordering over the phone / email with the intention of picking it up at the end of the week. Once I'm on-site at Busy Bee with the machine, I'll try and confirm against the manual exactly which gear is what. Should only be the end of the week before I know for sure.

The way I see it, having a spare gear is probably the same as the spare motor for my race car. I used to pop motors with relative frequency until invested the dollars to have a spare on the stand, always waiting. I've never needed it

-Dave

 

[charlton]

Sounds good. It'll be hard to determine anything by looking at the machine I suspect but hopefully the store salespeople will know. Unfortunately, here in Concord (Toronto), I find some of the salespeople rather clueless about what the machines they're selling which is a real pity.

Yes, it seems when you have a spare all ready, you won't ever need it. As soon as you get rid of the spare, something will happen that precipitates needing the spare. It's the curse of Murphy.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Our Canadian dollar is a petro dollar. As the price of oil drops so does our dollar. Oil $29, CDN$ 68cents this morning. We have bottomed in the low 60s, before. I'm kicking myself for not ordering tooling from Enco when our dollar was much higher. No border waits,now.

For things like bearings and sheaves there is Wajac and Motion Canada. You get better stuff cheaper. Wajac is clueless on bearings, but great if you need a bulldozer part, they did take over Kaman Bearing. Acklands is Granger. For machine tooling, both Thomas Skinner and KBC are good to deal with.

 

[owdlvr]

Picked up the CX601 yesterday, and managed to get it installed in the shop. It would appear there is no easy access to the gears, either for taking a peek and/or for checking the mesh. My spare gear is coming from Toronto, so it will be a bit before it arrives out west. Will report back when I learn more.

 

[charlton]

Congrats. Two of the plastic gears shouldn't be too hard to access as they are just hidden under the motor mount. It's the double gear on the counter (secondary) shaft that will require work to get out.