Drive belt woes

[Chris Hamel]

I previously posted about lubrication questions on my 11 inch Logan. Thanks for all the advice. (Think I got that covered) my problem now is my flat drive belt slipping. I have had an issue for quite some time with the lathe stalling due to the belt slipping. Especially during operations like boring with a large drill bit (3/4 ") and parting. I have tried tightening the belt, cleaning it and even flipping it over. I think it is time for a new belt. I have looked on eBay and have seen several options including a belt with a splicer made to order and another which seemed to be a kit where you glued the ends together. Does anybody have a suggestion?

 

[Gaffer]

I bought the Al Bino belt for my SB 9A, and it works fine. Lots of folks have switched to serpentine belts. Initially, I looked into splicing, but it didn't make economic sense to me to buy the equipment for a likely one-time repair.

 

[Nutfarmer]

Don't know how belt dressing would work on a smaller flat belt like on a lathe,but we used it on the hammer mill's flat belt with good success. The one draw back was the mess. Shortening a leather type belt can be done by lacing by hand. No special equipment needed. Look up how in an old Machinery Handbook.

 

[Chris Hamel]

Tried belt dressing. Didn't help. Where do I get an Al Bino belt?

 

[Chris Hamel]

I was considering this one off eBay.

SOUTH BEND,ATLAS,LOGAN DRIVE FLAT BELT 5/32" X 1"CUSTOM CUT,LATHE,OTHER MACHINES | eBay

Bonded together with friction and skim coats. The fabrics most commonly used are nylon, cotton duck. SOUTH BEND, LOGAN, ATLAS FLAT DRIVE BELT, CUSTOM CUT, LATHES, MILLS, OR ANY OTHER MACHINES, CAN BE USED FOR OTHER APPLICATIONS.

www.ebay.com

 

[woodchucker]

Serpentine belt. works great. I had to flip mine recently as it was wandering back and forth after 7 years use.
Very happy with it. Not a big deal to pull the spindle on my SB9.. I think people are too afraid of pulling their spindles apart. But on an old style lathe like ours, it's not a big deal.

 

[Gaffer]

Any size flat drive leather belts supplier: Al Bino Industrial Belting

Al Bino Industrial Belting is your supplier of flat drive belts tailored to your size requirements. Call for a quote and our smooth order process.

albinoindustrialbelting.com

 

[Gaffer]

Serpentine belt. works great. I had to flip mine recently as it was wandering back and forth after 7 years use.
Very happy with it. Not a big deal to pull the spindle on my SB9.. I think people are too afraid of pulling their spindles apart. But on an old style lathe like ours, it's not a big deal.

When I bought my 9A, I disassembled it to clean and fix any issues. The leather belt was extremely worn and loose, and I intended to replace it with a serpentine, but I was very disappointed to find a previous owner welded/brazed the spindle to the gear.

 

[Nogoingback]

Logan also sells belts: I bought one from them which required spindle removal (which I was doing anyway).
Very thin material (don't know exactly what it is) but it has a tendency to slip. If I were doing it again I would
probably look at a serpentine belt since the rubber would grip better and I doubt they stretch like the one I
have, or leather.

 

[ericc]

That is a pretty large drill bit. I would be careful of putting too much stress on the lathe. You could try working up to that diameter by drilling with smaller bits first. The same thing holds for parting. If something is a little loose and the blade catches, it may be better to slip than crash. That said, I was able to get better results by making sure my belt was slack using the detensioning lever before leaving it for long periods of time. Also the tension turnbuckle can be tightened. Before doing this, I put a torque wrench on the chuck and tightened until there was slippage. I don't remember the torque setting, but it can be found with a web search.