HI JOHN LATHES .CO.UK KEEP BELT YOU WANT

John.

I bought a bespoke 6mm orange polyurethane belt from here :-

**LINK**

There are various diameters and types . If I remember correctly it was not much more than the type you join either by heating or with the barbed connectors.

Ian

Welded polyurethane belt works very well. The trick to joining it is to hold/clamp it for much longer than seems reasonable after welding it. I don't know if it just takes a long time to solidify at the centre or if there is some sort of crystallisation going on, but it needs much more time than just the surface setting.

When I join the plastic belting, I heat a steel strip (an old kitchen knife), then hold the ends to the metal strip, then hold the ends together while pressing the belt into the V of a bit of angle iron to keep it aligned. I use two 5 mm belts on the Super Adept lathe, and I use 3 mm belts for drive belts on my hot air motors, all of these have been in use for over 15 yrs, maybe nearer 20 yrs. I use the green coloured stuff, it has a slightly rough surface, the first type that I got nearly 30 yrs ago was a pale colour(maybe cream). and it eventually became brittle.

Ian S C

Thin heat joined flat belt is a good drive for tool post grinders, and I think it would do well on a tool and cutter grinder. It is recommended that the flat belts are joined by the professionals.

I have used O – rings, these can be cut and joined with super glue, I made a jig to cut the ring so that the cut was about 30* to the length to give an increased glue area, it's held up well, although its a bit stretchy.

Ian S C

Wasn't the barbed hollow belting also sold as emergency fan belts back in the last century?

I used some of the poly melt joining stuff for an IC model boat starter belt, it never broke despite the miss treatment I gave it. 15 years later it was rotted by the fuel

Edited By Dave Halford on 17/11/2018 16:23:35

Via Arry Moss or Hoddy Patkirk

The thin flat belts work very well on higher speed drives. The yellow one supplied for my Clarkson grinder running at 2,800 rpm on 3 inch (ish) diameter pulleys is more than satisfactory. However a green one bought from a transmission / bearing place for my SouthBend lathe many years ago didn't work very well. Torque transmission appeared to be limited and it was very prone to slip on all but the highest speed where it proved just barely adequate.

Digging into the technical data eventually revealed that torque transmission of these thin belts is very dependant on surface speeds. It seems that stye of belt is generally optimised for high speed duties so technical data should be checked before using in other than like for like or factory / spares supplier approved duties. As I recall it they do vary and there is a reason for the different colours.

I eventually got a leather faced fibre glass cloth backed Stephens Miraclo belt for the SouthBend which was wonderful.

Clive.