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Flat belt for a SB16

tar356

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Location
CA, USA
I know there has been a lot of talk on here about belts. I did some searching, but is there a definitive thread regarding belts?

Mine has an old green heat seamed belt of some sort that has seen better days. Although it's still working, I'm noticing more wear and tear lately, and the tracking is starting to go away. Seems it wants to pull to the left on the spindle pulley, and to the right on the lower pulley. Nothing has been adjusted, so I'm guessing it's the belt.

I'm curious about what other 16" owners are using.

One thing is for sure, I don't want the "clack" of a mechanical joint in the belt.

Thanks,

Todd
Orange, CA
 
Ask a local garage to save a few used serpentine belts for you. Bevel the splice a couple of inches and glue with loctight glue "for all plastics". An inch wide serpentine belt will transfer more power than any other belt you ever used. I have a 3/4"wide belt on my 14"Leblond. I intended to replace it with a wider one but it works so well I never bothered. Gary P. Hansen
 
This is a serious question.
Well, ok, it is probably pretty funny to consider, too. :D

What do you guys who have used them think of gluing several together and using on a planer drive?
I could definitely use more friction, hate the clipper joints, and the belts have to be thick enough (as serpentines are) to shift easily and constantly. Is this too far off the wall, or have any of you made up belts with at least 2 joints, and maybe more?

smt
 
I know this is an old thread, but I recently acquired a SB16 from the mid to late 40s. It actually came with a new single phase 220 2hp motor, and the flat belt had been just replaced when the motor was. I still did not like the cloth material flat belt. Even meticulously cleaning the pulleys it always seemed o have more slip than I liked. I had looked into the serpentine belt idea, splicing two belts together seemed smart enough but had double the fail points (since most people are using two belts to make the proper length needed. Polymer belts are far to expensive to buy (expensive being $60, what can I say, I am a cheap Bast$!% haha) So I also nixed that (sera belts are expensive too). I ended up doing something that I have not seen anywhere else *yet*. I took treadmill, cut the belt off on its original seem, cut the proper length of it and inverted it (so the rubber side was facing inward) then glued it (after putting the paper overlap and taper on it to make it smooth) AND sewed it as an extra measure. I only did that too (using strands of para cords inner fibers) in case the adhesive I was using ( all purpose plastic super glue) failed. It has been running for a long time now (.5 years) I couldn't make it slip if I wanted to, its 2" wide, was free, and I've got 6 extra belts ready to go when needed. They will probably dry rot before I ever get to them. The best part of this I found was that I can just wash off the oil with soap and water and a rag, way better then the cloth flat belt, and treadmills are plenty free anymore, just look for them on the side of the road and take the belts! The motors are nice to have too, as well as the linear actuators for the self inclining ones, and the power board can be used for a home-brew inverter plasma cutter, but you didn't hear that from me.
 








 
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