Link belt vs regular belt

boneyard51

boneyard51

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I’ve got a small mill, Rong Fu, and need belts for it. I was thinking of just buying a length of that link belt to make the belts, as I do not know the length of belts I need. Is that link belt any good? Or should I just make several trips to the parts store? Thanks





Bones
 
I use Fenner Powertwist belts and they are better than the stock V-belts in my opinion. Quieter, smoother and easier to move for speed changes. Should also live longer without getting hard.

I own an RF-31 and it uses B-type belts.
 
IMO, unless you need the small benefits of a link belt I would just run a quality standard belt. Link belts are expensive & they're not designed to run in reverse although I do & they work fine. I don't really see a need to run a link belt on a mill but then again my mill is a gearhead.

I run Fenner Power Twist link belts on my lathe as they eliminated some harmonics I was getting that showed up at certain RPMs when facing. I also didn't like how regular belts tend to develop memory/lump if not used for a while.

Your original belt should say the size on it, assuming it's still legible. Edit: Oh it sounds like you don't have belts at all right now? You can just a piece of string to determine length & measure the pulley for the belt profile.
 
mikey said:
I use Fenner Powertwist belts and they are better than the stock V-belts in my opinion. Quieter, smoother and easier to move for speed changes. Should also live longer without getting hard.

I own an RF-31 and it uses B-type belts.
Click to expand...

Well, I stand corrected, I guess mills do benefit from link belts. :)

Although I didn't recommend them unless needed, I run them on everything I have that runs belts, except for my bandsaw but my I had one on my old bandsaw.
 
I had never used link belts until I used them to correct this horrible groaning harmonic my mill put out at 1800 rpm. It actually made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I first heard it - spooky sounding! I figured it would transmit that harmonic to the finish on my parts so I changed to Fenner belts and the harmonic resolved. Now, when I use a Tormach Superfly on aluminum at 1800 rpm, no more harmonic and no issues with the finish. I also noticed that changing belt positions was much easier so I'm a convert and will run them when I can.
 
Oh interesting, never knew mills got that kind of harmonics like my lathe did. But then again the only mills I've ever used are my PM45, BPs, & a Sharp LMV.
 
The hvac company I use to work for, switched to link belts about 20+ yrs ago. They started to use it on all of their jobs, they gave everyone a big box of 3/8”, 1/2” and 5/8”, they never had to get run for a belt again. The have thousands of belts on thousands of sites, with no issues.

We ran them in any direction, the factory belt rep said the difference in grip, based on direction was about 3-5%, nothing I’m going to worry about.
 
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