Better belts?

[Steevo]

What are the best belts for eliminating the vibration/shudder associated with standard v-belts? I have been tracing down the "bumps" in the drive of my lathe, and it seems to be the belts themselves. I would like it to be butter-smooth and it seems that everything is smooth until I put belts on the pulleys.

 

[wdgarrett]

For V-belt drives I have used link style V-belts belts from Harbor Freight. They tend to run much smoother and do not require removing the spindle from your lathe to install. Just my 2 cents.

Bill

 

[Highpower]

+1 for the linked style belts.

 

[Tony Wells]

Also for the Fenner style belts. Very noticeable difference on my table saw.

 

[Conrad Hoffman]

I'm a big fan of the Fenner Powertwist belts, but they're not the ultimate answer for my Logan motor-jackshaft. The motor has a v-pulley, but the jackshaft has a flat and runs on the ID of the belt. That means it runs on the tabs of the Fenner. It works OK, but IMO a standard segmented v-belt of good quality would be better. I've yet to find the right length in a segmented belt of sufficient quality. The Fenner belts are also fantastic on the table saw and would probably be good on my mill/drill, but I need the next larger cross section.

 

[bjmh46]

I guess I'll be the contrarian in the group! I've not been impressed with the power transmission capabilities of the link type belts. I've tried the Fenner and also the no-name imports. Yes, they can improve smoothness, but over what? To me, there is nothing better than a high quality notched v-belt from a respected manufacturer like Gates, Dayco, or Browning. I pretty much use Browning since I have two PT dealers nearby who stock a good supply. They are available in classical (ABC), and light duty (4L). The classical are identified as AX-36 as an example. A simple comparison of drive tables for a given set of sheave sizes will show the tremendous improvement in HP for the notched belts vs. plain. The notches allow the belt to conform more easily to the sheave, improving smoothness of the drive. Raw edge construction grips the sheave well.

As a side note, I've found the drive engineering totally lacking on a lot of commercial equipment. Sheaves too small, grossly undersized belt drives for the claimed HP. Rant off--kind of a pet peeve of mine!

Regards
Bob

 

[Conrad Hoffman]

Good point about power, but I'll bet most applications like smaller lathes and such operate way below the maximums for any kind of belt. When I referred to segmented type belts for the Logan, it's those notches I was talking about. Those are just way better belts, especially if one or both pulleys are small. Unfortunately the selection where I live is terrible. BTW, when you use the Powertwist belts there's a small arrow printed on them. They really need to run in the direction of the arrow! The Fenner literature shows some very high HP industrial applications, but they also show several belts in parallel to do it. The biggest problem with the Fenner belts is the high cost.