Drive Belt Quality Concerns

[charlese]

I have been so upset over this serious mistake by Shopsmith, I have waited more than two weeks for my blood to cool before issuing this thread. My biggest hope is this subject will become one of the subjects in the weekly staff meetings mentioned by Nick. My biggest concern is compromised performance of all Mark Vs.

I'll try to keep this short and sweet (as sweet as this sour subject can be). There are 5 photos attached which will replace many words. The Gates 2260 is compared to my old 1/2" worn out Shopsmith belt.

After removing my drive belt which was in place for over 5 years of many hours of use. I put on the spare belt that's been hanging in my cabinet. Then ordered a new spare belt just in case. The old belt measures exactly 1/2" in diameter, but I thought it was beginning to run a little rough. The replacement (new) belt gave me a noticeably smoother, quieter operation.

Then the newly ordered spare belt arrived. It was not the same as the proprietary Shopsmith belt I had expected. -- It was a Gates "Truflex 2260" belt. The packaging said it was 1/2" by 26". The width of that belt is only nominally 1/2" wide. In reality it is 1/32" narrower than that. Incidentally that is the same width when our instructions from The Academy" say to replace the belt.

I called Shopsmith to report they had sent the wrong belt, saying it is already too narrow. The reply was, "it is supposed to work just fine". As our conversation continued, I continued to point out the belt is not properly made to replace the old "Shopsmith Belt" - It is not firm on the back (top) - It has a different taper - and the top is crowned which will crown more with side pressure. I was asked "What do you want us to do?" My answer was to go back to the old Shopsmith belt. The reply was - "We will NOT be changing from this (Gates 2260) belt".

Believe me, I put this 2260 on the machine to try it out. IT RAN ROUGHER THAN THE OLD USED BELT I HAD REPLACED!!! I only ran it for a couple of minutes. After this I gave a serious look at the Gates 2260. It has two bulges on the sides. One at the visible seam (joint) and another 9 inches from the seam. The actual width measurements on this Gates 2260 are less than 14/32" in diameter, except for the bulges - they are both 1/2" wide.

For comparison, a new Shopsmith proprietary belt measures 9/32" wide, and is smooth.

I also did an Internet search for belts. While searching in the variable clutch belts, I did not find one a narrow as 9/32" or 5/8" or 1/2". At this time I have no idea of who made these proprietary belts for Shopsmith. Although I did not find a suitable variable clutch belt, I did find the Gates 2260 Truflex belt. It was obviously designed and made for use with fixed pulleys NOT VARIABLE CLUTCH SHEAVES. Belts for variable clutches have flat backs and strong, stiff fiber stitching near or at the back.

I am mostly concerned with the future Shopsmith users. If their machines perform like mine did with that Gates belt, they will soon be discouraged. Frankly, I am surprised we have not heard any comments on this belt before. Drive belts are listed as one of the most often replaced parts. Surely, I didn't get the first one!

This changing of belts, by Shopsmith, appears to me to have been an ill advised, financial (bean counter) decision, not an engineering one. If so, it is my hope that the costs of the proprietary belts can be accepted by the company, so we can again have smoother running machines. If the cost to us SS owners becomes a bit higher I think we can accept that. Some may go to link belts, but not me and I believe, most of the others. The other alternative of continuing with this 2260 belt is not pretty!

now the photos: They speak for themselves.

[ldh]

Chuck,
Check with Bill Mayo. He may well have the answer for belts in the use of the link belt by Browning.
ldh

[johnmccrossen]

Charlese, I recently replaced the drive belt on my old Mark V with a Gates 4L260. I found the same width issue that you point out. The Gates belt I purchased was made in Mexico. I had the sales guy check all of his 4L260 belts and we found they all were at least 1/32" undersize (specs say 1/2"). I guess that is within the mfg acceptable tolerances. I did not find the other quality issues that you did, but when I installed it, I found that at high speed, the belt runs about 3/16" down inside the sheave flanges. I'm not getting the correct speeds at either end with it. I figured the 4L260 was too narrow and too short so I was about to order the correct spares from Shopsmith, but I see from your pictures that this is what is being supplied now so I'm not confident that I should do that right now. I put the old SS belt back on and it runs right at 1/8" below the flanges at high speed without making any changes. From the looks of your pictures, it seems that SS needs to review (or do) their receiving inspections to verify the quality of their drive belt stock on hand. Also it seems like they may need to verify that the new belts will actually function properly with the variable speed sheaves. I hope there is some response from SS on this. John McCrossen

[a1gutterman]

This does knot look good or bode well for ShopSmith.

[billmayo]

Chuck, I would send the belt back to Shopsmith. With the bulges, it must have really caused bad vibrations. You need a belt without any bulges in any direction. Really a poor quality belt. This must be a recent decision to change manufacturer (lowest cost?) as my last motor belts from Shopsmith this year were the old style motor belts. Shopsmith must have sold all the old belts in stock. Hopefully some of us will complain about the poor quality belts and Shopsmith will soon switch to a different manufacturer. Otherwise, you may need switch to using one of the 2 different types of belts I listed below.

The original Shopsmith motor belt was 26 1/2" long and was wider than 1/2". I find that these belts end up taking a set (they become oblong from setting on the sheaves) and cause increased vibrations if the Shopsmith is not used at least weekly.

Skip Campbell (10ER guru) suggested using a cog belt as they worked well on the 10ER machines. I brought a dozen on sale (really cheap) at Amazon.com and have used a few on headstocks. I found them listed today but they are no longer on sale. These cog belts are 26" long, 1/2" wide and does require resetting the high speed adjustment. So far, they are looking good but I do not operate my Shopsmiths regularly. There was reduced vibration.

Goodyear AX24 TORQUE FLEX V-BELT by Goodyear
List Price: $12.94
Price: $12.57
You Save: $0.37 (3%)
In stock.
Processing takes an additional 3 to 4 days for orders from this seller.
Ships from and sold by Hires Automotive.

I have been using 1/2" link belts on my Shopsmiths for many years. Vibration was eliminated for most of my headstocks. Since I do not log large amount of hours on my headstocks, I have not seen any excessive wearing of the sheaves. I check once a year. It does keep the sheave's belt surface looking clean. I use 35 links so I get 2 belts plus extra links from the below listed belt. I had to reset the high speed adjustment when using these belts.

Fenner Drives 0418030SL PowerTwist Plus V-Belt
List Price: $37.04
Price: $29.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $7.05 (19%)
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Chuck,
Check with Bill Mayo. He may well have the answer for belts in the use of the link belt by Browning.
ldh

[judaspre1982]

====================

[woodburner]

Bad decision on Shopsmith's part if all they are trying to do is save some money.

To sell new replacement belts that look in worse shape than the worn one does not say very good things about how Shopsmith is running the ship now-a-days:( . Having to purchase a belt that when replaced you need to adjust the speeds for the machine to work correctly, is not what they should be selling.

There are a lot of owners out there that will not notice that this is happening. This can also effect the performance of the machine and its longevity. I'm sure the vibration will be noticable though.

If Shopsmith keeps trying to pass along cheaper made parts to their current customers, I am sure they will just sink further down the financial hole and end up in the extinction file.

Shame on them for letting their quality slip away like this. How many other cheap parts have they been trying to get by us to save a few bucks. Don't know who is in control of this type of decision making , but a change needs to be made, and made now.

[dusty]

I must have missed something crucial. Just how many customers do we have reporting that they have received seriously defective parts. How many different part types are we talking about. Must be dozens.

I have heard of one reliable customer report that he received "a drive belt" that seemed to be less than quality.

Tell me about all of the others that cause you to come to this level of condemnation. Don't keep it a secret from us, we all need to know.

[woodburner]

I do have an example, my own.

I recently purchased two new floating tables to extend my Shopsmith's crosscutting. The tables came with some very deep scratches and gouges in the top of both of them. If someone at the company had taken the time to check the tables before they were shipped, then there would have been no problem. The poor quality of the tables was completely obvious and couldn't be missed. I had to send them back and wait over a month for the replacements.

Another one was when I ordered an Incra ruler and they shoved it into such a small shipping box that it was bent and useless when I received it. The only way to get it into that small box was to bend it, so they had to know. At least with that problem they let me keep the bent one (it wasn't any good, so I tossed it) and just sent me a new one in a larger box.

Now, I don't like bashing the Shopsmith company. I love my SS tools. But from what I have been reading here and on other Shopsmith forums, this seems to be a growing trend with them.

Dusty, did you see the photo comparisons of the drive belt in the other thread. Very disappointing, especially when it effects the performance of your machine and you can't do any decent woodworking with it because of the vibration. Having to go to an outside company to fix a problem with my Shopsmith wouldn't sit well with me, especially when Shopsmith offers the parts themselves, and then drops the ball with its quality.

I'm sure there are several more examples, but most will not want to hang out the dirty laundry here on the forum. And I don't blame them. Hope this satisfies your curiosity Dusty.

[Ed in Tampa]

A few months back I bought a replacement belt but I haven't installed it yet. I looked it over today and to me it seems okay. I can't find any bulging or crowning or any of the the other things.
Perhaps you got a bad belt.