GenePoole
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2012
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
I finally broke down and ordered a seamless belt from Al Bino (Any size flat drive belts by Al Bino Industrial Belting | Machine belts supplier). I was sick of the whump-whump-whump of the linked belt that came with the lathe. I believe it was causing finish problems when at high speeds.
Two things that worried me were the joint itself holding up and getting it glued together as straight as possible.
As for it holding up, several customers have confirmed that the glue holds fine for years at least.
As for running straight, I watched a video from Al Bino website on a customer installation and I was not impressed with the straightness of the belt after the installation. Here's the video:
New Lathe Belt Glue-Up - YouTube
I decided that I needed a fixture to ensure that the shivved ends would align as close as possible. I decided to mill a slot into an aluminum plate just a bit shy of the thickness of the belt to clamp the ends as close to parallel as possible.
This worked out very well. The apparent runout, I believe, is just the belt wandering a bit on the shaft:
[video]https://goo.gl/photos/2AyF7o7sF67A2zmL6[/video]
If you want to see all the photos I did, check out my G+ photos link:
New Al Bino Lathe Belt - Google Photos
Two things that worried me were the joint itself holding up and getting it glued together as straight as possible.
As for it holding up, several customers have confirmed that the glue holds fine for years at least.
As for running straight, I watched a video from Al Bino website on a customer installation and I was not impressed with the straightness of the belt after the installation. Here's the video:
New Lathe Belt Glue-Up - YouTube
I decided that I needed a fixture to ensure that the shivved ends would align as close as possible. I decided to mill a slot into an aluminum plate just a bit shy of the thickness of the belt to clamp the ends as close to parallel as possible.
This worked out very well. The apparent runout, I believe, is just the belt wandering a bit on the shaft:
[video]https://goo.gl/photos/2AyF7o7sF67A2zmL6[/video]
If you want to see all the photos I did, check out my G+ photos link:
New Al Bino Lathe Belt - Google Photos