Lathe flat belt help

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mwestcott

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I am getting extremely frustrated with finding a flat belt for my Logan 816 that will work. Everything I've tried that others have reported success with has been a failure for me. It appeared the automotive serpentine was the choice of many. I really don't want to take the headstock apart for an endless belt, so I tried skiving and plastic glue, and it broke almost immediately. I tried lacing with Kevlar fishing line, which began cutting through the belt material, elongating the holes. The belt squeaked like an old car, so I used some belt dressing, but it apparently ate the line, which frayed and broke. So then I tried thin stainless steel wire, but it cut through the belt material worse than the fishing line and the holes near the joint almost broke through. I made new holes and tried picture hanger wire fastened with a bit of solder. The wire broke, twice, within a few minutes of use, where the wire bent through one of the holes. And yes, the line and wire was run in the belt grooves that were against the pulley. I had the belt tensioned loosely, per the Logan Lathe instructions.

So I bought a clipped flat belt from an internet vendor. It was made of some very slippery material, and will only run the lathe if tensioned so tightly I think it would eventually cause bearing trouble, and even then it slipped when taking cuts the other belt handled with ease. When it didn't run off the pulley on startup, which was most of the time.

So yes, I could use some cheese with my whine.....

I'm done trying to rig something at home. I see Scott Logan has belts at Logan Actuator. They are twice the cost of the one I bought (yeah, buy cheap buy twice...) but if it's a quality product I don't care. Does anyone have experience with those or with any others that are good quality and proven to work well? Thanks!!
 
Good leather belts with Clipper lacing work just fine. Do not let a bad piece of leather from a vendor give leather belts a bad name. A good leather belt works fine, though it will need to be shortened as it slowly stretches.
 
Look for industrial supply house or industrial rubber supply as many can make the belt for you.

We picked up a roll of belting at an estate sale and the rubber place crimped the ends on.

Avoid Internet unknown vendors.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
 
I have had an 820 that had a belt that was purchased from Scott. Very good quality. It was purchased by the previous owner so I'm not sure of the price. I bought an endless belt from him for one of my machines. I never did find out what material it was made of but it was a great belt. Blue in color if I remember correctly. Since then I have just used serpentine belts. They work well and they're inexpensive.
 
John Knox is a SUPER guy. He loves to talk and knows his belts. I restored a 10" LOGAN for a friend & needed a belt. Called John, the told me about the lathe & belt size gave me a price, I think it was $20 +/-.
He then sent the belt "when you get it try it out if you like it send me a check, no credit cards". The belt came with the lacing installed two pins, instructions on care & installation along with his address to sent the check. JUST A SUPER GUY! He makes me wish I needed more belts.

fixit
 
Hi @mwestcott

That is discouraging.

Here's how I did my flat belt:
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/leather-belt-question-sb10.35226/#post-298680
and there are a few other ideas in that same thread.
I consider old serpentine belts as a free resource. Once they start squeaking on a vehicle they get relegated to shop use.

If you really want to avoid removing the spindle, you could also try link belt like this:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=30051&cat=1,240,41067
I have never used it, but have seen it used here in place of flat belt.

Good luck and please let us know how you make out.

-brino
 
Brino, I did try a link belt. The flat side was too slick and would run off the pulley, and if it did stay on, it would run off when taking a cut. It would run well with the linked side to the pulley, but either way, it was too thick to run on the largest spindle pulley - the casting is too close and it would hit it. My lacing on the serpentine was similar to yours, but the narrower material I used would cut the belt (which makes sense when you think about it). Maybe I need to find some bigger diameter heavy cord. The stuff at Lee Valley is no longer available. With your serpentine, did it squeal on startup? When the serpentine was working OK, that's the one thing that was really annoying.

Fixit, how has that leather belt held up? I really like the idea of using what the lathe originally used, but hear a lot that leather stretches, slips, etc. If it stretches too much I'm out of luck until I send it off to be re-clipped.
 
mwestcott said:
Brino, I did try a link belt. The flat side was too slick and would run off the pulley, and if it did stay on, it would run off when taking a cut. It would run well with the linked side to the pulley, but either way, it was too thick to run on the largest spindle pulley - the casting is too close and it would hit it. My lacing on the serpentine was similar to yours, but the narrower material I used would cut the belt (which makes sense when you think about it). Maybe I need to find some bigger diameter heavy cord. The stuff at Lee Valley is no longer available. With your serpentine, did it squeal on startup? When the serpentine was working OK, that's the one thing that was really annoying.

Fixit, how has that leather belt held up? I really like the idea of using what the lathe originally used, but hear a lot that leather stretches, slips, etc. If it stretches too much I'm out of luck until I send it off to be re-clipped.
Click to expand...


Owner has used the lathe for maybe 2 years NOT daily hobby use only. No problems noted. I suggest you talk to John, he will give you all the answers you want & then some, he is a talker.

fixit
 
Like fixit said, John Knox will make a belt for you. If you start talking Sheldon with him, you're going to be on the phone for a while. He's a great guy.
 
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