Your question does not make sense to me.

Nutlink belts are available in A, B and Z section, all of which are vee-belts.

https://www.georgelodgedirect.co.uk/Products/nutlink-belting

To the best of my knowledge, there is no leather belt made in a vee section. Leather belts are usually a flat belt.

Would it not make sense to clean everything and correctly tension the existing belt before deciding that a new belt is needed? If you go and drive your car on ice and the wheels spin, you do not run down to Kwikfit and put new tyres on it.

All of the joinable belts are roughly the same price (circa £50 per metre). For the little use and low duty you will use the machine, alternative overseas (non brand name) suppliers might do just as well. If the machine has not been used for two tears, waiting three weeks for the delivery boat from China is insignificant.

I have the same lathe, replaced the original belt with a cheaper option and regretted it !!

They are expensive !  Try https://store.lathes.co.uk/belts/nu-t-link-v-belt

A good reputation !

Overzealous greasing of the spindle will result in a slippery belt.  I have been using  RDG Link belt  

on my Boxford  for several years without any problems at all.  It has had 100’s of hours of work and I have never had to remove a link to adjust it. I give the greasers a half turn every 4 hours running time or so. Do not screw them down every time you get to the lathe.

Check the state of the final drive pulley that connects through to the spindle on the underdrive – if the sides of the pulley have worn due to the belt having slipped due to under-tensioning, then a new belt won’t make any difference. Been there, done that !  The steel links running on the base diameter of a worn pulley don’t offer much in the way of grip. IIRC this pulley is machined integral with the 4 step pulley, so repair looked like it required the worn pulley to be machined off & a new one attached to the 4 step pulley.

My CUD came with a canvas link belt & I replaced it with a modern fibre reinforced plastic equivalent (Nu-T-Link IIRC) & even tensioned to bow-string tight it didn’t offer much in the way of drive – partly down to the worn pulley & partly due to the slippery nature of the plastic link belt over relatively small pulleys on a short(ish) centre distance – pictures from the belt manufacturers often show them on large equipment with big, multi-sheave pulleys & long centre distances.

Sadly not many alternative final drive options for an under drive Boxford, as the belt has to be split to go through the guard to get to the headstock. In America there are available split vee belts that have a series of holes drilled through the belt from back to front which are joined with a pair of steel link plates held together by screws that go through the holes – the inner plate is narrower than the outer to fit in the vee of the pulley. I have only come across one of these (fitted to an auxilliary drive on a machine that came in from the US) and ,while I can find suppliers in the US, I have not found any in the UK.

I “solved” my drive problem by selling the CUD & replacing it with a Myford, which isn’t much help to the OP.

Nigel B.

Hi Hollowpoint, I measured my Fenner 3280 vee belt today, around the outside, and it came to 28-3/4″, apparently you then deduct 2″ from this measurement for A section belts, to give you the belt length, which comes to 26-3/4″. In my Fenner book, imperial belt length designations are measured on the inside in inch’s, whereas metric belt designations are at pitch length in millimetres. When you calculate the diameter from the outside length above, and then deduct two belt depths and recalculate the length, it comes very close to the 26-3/4″,  The belt depth for an imperial A section belt being 5/16″. A27 is the closest one that is in Fenner’s list. Maybe the Fenner 3280 is just a part number for Boxford’s

Regards Nick.

Hi Hollowpoint, there used to always some variation in in belt lengths, even by the same manufactuer, when I used to be in maintenance years ago, and had to change belts on multi vee pullies, we had to make sure that all the new belts were from the same batch, as if some were from a different batch, you would get some that would be looser or tighter than the rest, and there could be a very noticeable difference, and when you saw them running, the looser ones would really stand out. I’m sure there is a small amount of adjustment on the motor plate, so you may be able to get the next size down to fit.

Regards Nick.

Hi…

Personally I preferred this type of belt, https://fdoconnor.com.au/product/vee-flex-belting. Worked for years without problem, until I reground the bed on my Boxford and had plates welded and ground flat on the cabinet (instead of it levelled on boxford body filler!) which raised the bed and belt now too short, and it’s very expensive and difficult to get hold of unless you want lots of it.

Went through a couple of rather nasty far east belts in a few weeks £50 or so down the pan! Got a Nut T link and after a couple of adjustments for bedding in, absolutely no problems. Has the advantage over the Vee flex of being able to put back links, if you cut too short! Don’t waste your money and patience on cheep stuff and get a decent belt.

Regards Barry.

Hi Hollowpoint, glad you got it sorted, and thanks for letting us know.

Regards Nick.