# Putting some grip (stippling) on an aluminium drive pulley.



## Jim Dobson (Oct 16, 2020)

Putting some grip (stippling) on an aluminium drive pulley.

 I've always wanted to work out a way to put some extra grip on a home made drive pulley to prevent or cut down on belt slippage. It would be nice to have the tooling that Wilesco use on their grooved pulleys. I had a Dremel saw accessory that the outer plastic shell broke and I thought what can I do with the saw blade. Rudimentary, but it worked well. I should be able to work out now a way to mount it so it doesn't need to be held, though its not as dangerous as that looks and being hand held allowed me to skew the saw blade at the various angles needed easily.


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## derf (Oct 16, 2020)

I do the same thing on bedding pillars, only I spin them on a screwdriver and hold it against the bandsaw blade. We call that "Mexican knurling".


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## Jim Dobson (Oct 16, 2020)

derf said:


> I do the same thing on bedding pillars, only I spin them on a screwdriver and hold it against the bandsaw blade. We call that "Mexican knurling".



Thanks for the reply.
A friend of mine just wrote and I'll quote him " "I always use a small tap (3mm) in the drill chuck, with the pulley  hand held, on a piece shaft so it’s free to spin, free fingers need to  be braced against the drill vice,  works OK for me".


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## Jim Dobson (Oct 20, 2020)

Works very well for its intended purpose with model & toy steam.


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## pontiac428 (Oct 20, 2020)

Convex knurler, maybe?


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## Jim Dobson (Oct 22, 2020)

The width on all those would be to wide, the green pulley belt material that I use that's shown in the two above videos is only a few millimetres wide.


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## pontiac428 (Oct 22, 2020)

You took that way too literally!  That _type_ of tool will produce the _type_ of finish you seek.  It was meant to get the gears turning.


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## Jim Dobson (Oct 22, 2020)

My initial method shown was just to show what can be achieved with little tooling (in fact this was as I mention in the video a blade from a broken Dremel saw) and it works perfectly for me and its intended purpose of running toy & model steam accessories, making what you showed above is beyond my capabilities.


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## NortonDommi (Oct 22, 2020)

Wouldn't a rough surface chew up the belt? Is that belt a circular cross-section? If so wouldn't a V-section work better and be easier to make?


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## Jim Dobson (Oct 22, 2020)

Made many many V section ali and brass pulleys for smaller lighter model and toy steam driven accessories, some heavier ones need a little bit more grip because they slip, this stippling worked fantastically for me for what I wanted it to do, doesn't chew the belt up and alleviated any slippage.


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## NortonDommi (Oct 23, 2020)

Jim Dobson said:


> Made many many V section ali and brass pulleys for smaller lighter model and toy steam driven accessories, some heavier ones need a little bit more grip because they slip, this stippling worked fantastically for me for what I wanted it to do, doesn't chew the belt up and alleviated any slippage.


Well I learn something new every day. I have de-glazed V-pulleys if they have become glassy after slippage, have occasionally had to spray 'belt-grip' with a worn belt and have seen V-belts damaged with what look like small gouges or dings in a pulley.  Round section bands like Volta or Durabelt I've only ever seen used with V or Circular pulleys with smooth surfaces. Mind you I've also not worked with belts that small.
  Got me to wondering if abrasive blasting with an aggressive grit would work.


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## NC Rick (Oct 23, 2020)

I believe clean belts of round or "V" profile work best on a correct fitting and matching pulley profile. There is a lot going on in their function.  Gilmer (sp?) Toothed belts are good for accuracy on position when driving positively.


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