Gear drives for Torchmate tables

[Gamelord]

Someone was asking about the gear box drives for my Torchmate table. Here are some pictures for anyone interested. The upgrade I did was to replace all the motor drive belts and pulley's with these gear boxes which completely eliminated all play and back-lash in the gantry. I also upgraded the end of my gantry arm to the newer "T" style which also eliminated all play. My cut quality improved a ton! The entire upgrade was a little pricy but well worth it (IMO).

When changing over form the old belt style drives to the new transmission gear drive, I had to relocate my gear rack on the table. If you have an aluminum Torchmate table, all you need to do is to flip the gear so the drive gear runs underneath the gear rack instead of on top. With my table being older and not the aluminum channel type I had to re-mount the gear rack so the drive gears would work. It is super nice because the rack now mounts flush to the ground rails eliminating any tolerance differences along the length of the table.

I have the older pulley's and gears if anyone wants them, just pay shipping.

[Garysbiz]

I have a Torchmate 2 4X4, which I purchased in August of 2011, it is the 80/20 aluminum frame. Would this work on my table? Can I ask how much it cost? Thank you- Gary

[Gamelord]

If you are currently using the Belt setup like what I am holding in my hand, then yes, the transmissions should just bolt right on. They came as a complete kit with brackets and all hardware. As mentioned you may need to flip your gear rack upside down and/or move it to the upper slot on your frame for the motors to mesh up. I purchased this a couple years ago and love it. I believe the price was somewhere between $800 - $1K for the gear box kits. I can't remember the exact price because I purchased the "T" bar and a bunch of other things as well, total price for everything was around $1900 so I am only estimating on the transmission drives.

Best bet would be to shoot an e-mail off to Torchmate, they are very good about replying right away and should be able to get you the exact prices.

Here is the contact e-mail for Torchmate
support@torchmate.com

[jmsrbrt]

I don't see how this would work on a TM2 since there is only one X axis motor. Seems you'd have to add a second X axis motor so the gantry wouldn't be in any kind of bind without that shaft that is there now. Nonetheless, I've fired off an email to the powers that be. Thanks for the information.

[Garysbiz]

Thank you, I see a little more now, that the "T" style gantry would not work on the TM 2 as the rails are the same level but maybe the rest will. I will be checking it out with TM.

[Gamelord]

My table is 7' x 14' so it has two drives, one on each side. If you only had one drive motor and the other free-rolls then you would only need the one transmission. As I said, I am not sure of what tables/designs these will work on but posted because someone was asking me about them on my table.

Torchmate would be the best to contact on availability and compatibility for your tables.

On a side note, this is just an upgrade and in most cases, is not necessary because the belt drives usually work just fine. I wanted to get more precision from my table and the bushings/gears were getting a bit warn so it was either replace the bushings, belts and gears or go with the more expensive transmissions. I chose the latter obviously and am very happy that I did. My precision improved a ton and I have never had an issue with wearing out bushings/belts/gears or slippage since. It is a bit pricy though.