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Thread: Linked belting
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20th August 2014, 11:36 AM #16Cba
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My personal experiences with conventional V belts on machine tools are:
- conventional V belts are spliced. At every pass, the splice causes a "thump". On a lathe, this thump can show on surface finish. Poly-V belts (aka serpentine belts) on the other hand are endless, meaning that they have no splice and therefore no "thump" at each pass.
- conventional V belts have a memory. They will take a "set" if not used regularly. This set adds to vibration. This is less a problem with V belts that are ribbed on their back. I personally find that the very cheapest V belts take a set much quicker than good quality brand name belts. You get what you pay for. Tthe logos of the two belt makers "Gates" and "Great Wall" do not by accident look confusingly similar, but the products perform in every way very differently. Poly-V belts (aka serpentine belts) do not suffer from "set" even after long periods under tension of not being used.
- conventional V belts are made with rubber and perish over time. They are also to some degree affected by solvents and oils. In particular the presence of Ozone (Ozone is for generated by the arcing of brushed DC motors) will hasten the time it takes to perish. Poly-V belts are resistant to aging because they are made with Polyurethane.
- For any sort of machine tool, I do replace conventional V belts with link belts. I use Fenner V belts (from eBay seller Ohioblademan) and have found them to be A LOT quiter. And especially on the lathe to improve surface finish. Even on the humble 6x4 bandsaw I find the link belts run much smoother and no vibrations.
- In my lathe it would be necessary to remove the spindle to replace the V belt. That in itself is reason enough to upgrade to a link belt, as these can be installed without pulling the spindle.
- If designing a new drive for a lathe or mill drive conversion, I highly recommend to use Polybelts. I have converted my X3 mill to VFD and polybelt.
- for tractor implements, I found that in conventional shape V belts it is worth paying extra for Kevlar reinforced belts - these also use the more durable Polyurethane instead of rubber. Last longer and and stretch less. The downside is that cost is about 2-3 times higher than for conventional belts. You always only get what you pay for.
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20th August 2014, 03:18 PM #17SENIOR MEMBER
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The other places linked belt is really handy is on farms and boats. Pretty much anywhere where it's going to be a big PITA to nick down to the local shop only to find they're out of A36 belts. We always used to take 3 or 4m of A section to sea with us. Saved taking a ton of spare belts. PDW
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20th August 2014, 08:36 PM #18.
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I have limited experience with linked belts. I bought one from Transeals to avoid the task of removing the Hercus mill's spindle. The linked belt, when installed, stretched and continued to stretch for the period it was in the mill. I eventually replaced it with a conventional Gates belt. Is stretching a characteristic of these belts or did I buy the wrong brand? BT
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20th August 2014, 09:55 PM #19Cba
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Bob, yes there is considerable stretching during the first say 10 hours of operation. It can be as much as necessitating the removal of one or several links. In my experince, link belts seem to require less tension than normal V belts. After a while the stretching seems to stop. There is also a "preferred" direction of rotation, albeit they work well in occasional reverse use too, like in a drill press for tapping.
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