Link Drive Belt

tkhudson · Post by **tkhudson** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:11 am

Somewhere along the way, I read of someone using a link belt from Harbor Freight as a drive belt for their Mk V... has anyone done this?
What are the downfalls? With the current back order situation on this belt.. Im very tempted

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:34 am

tkhudson wrote:Somewhere along the way, I read of someone using a link belt from Harbor Freight as a drive belt for their Mk V... has anyone done this?
What are the downfalls? With the current back order situation on this belt.. Im very tempted

I don't know where he gets them but Bill Mayo is an advocate of the link belt. I believe he uses several of them on his own equipment.

Be patient and he'll confirm that I am sure.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:00 pm

I am very interested in link belts too. I am toying with a pretty high speed application and wondering if a link belt using machined pulleys would handle the speed rather than buying poly vee pulleys and a poly vee belt.

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:31 pm

robinson46176 wrote:I am very interested in link belts too. I am toying with a pretty high speed application and wondering if a link belt using machined pulleys would handle the speed rather than buying poly vee pulleys and a poly vee belt.

If you are designing the pulley arrangement, I would suggest using steel pulleys with the link belts. The aluminum pulleys on 10ER's have shown more wear from the link belt vs. the regular v belt.

tkhudson · Post by **tkhudson** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:05 pm

This is kind of hard deal to pass up since the OEM belt is 19.99 PLUS shipping

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=43771

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:20 pm

I have been using a link belt on my 520 for about a year now with very good results. I didn't buy mine from Harbor Freight, but they would probably be the same.

RobertTaylor · Post by **RobertTaylor** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:41 pm

i use one on my free standing shopsmith band saw. it would really shake, rattle and roll with the original regular v-belt. the twist link belt did fix that as bill mayo said it would. i did not know that harbor freight sells them and got mine from hartville tool. it was the same price except i only got 48" instead of 60".

bucksaw · Post by **bucksaw** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:11 pm

I'd use the Power Twist Link Belt (red in color) rather than the HF belt (I've heard it is stiffer than the Power Twist and may cause your sheeves to wear -- Bill Mayo should be able to verify this). You can by it by the foot all over the internet. If I remember right, I used 35 links.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:41 pm

bucksaw wrote:I'd use the Power Twist Link Belt (red in color) rather than the HF belt (I've heard it is stiffer than the Power Twist and may cause your sheeves to wear -- Bill Mayo should be able to verify this). You can by it by the foot all over the internet. If I remember right, I used 35 links.

I do not use the HF link belts (not sure of the quality) as the red Power Twist link belts is what I have been using for many years. Yes, the link belt will cause the sheaves to leave a fine aluminum dust in the headstock so I assume the sheaves are wearing but I could not see any difference from normal sheave wear from the regular V-belt. It does reduce the headstock vibration. It is an excellant belt if the headstock is not used for long periods of time as they do not stick to the sheaves or retain a set from non-use. I have been playing with cog belts lately as they seem to reduce the vibration also but not sure about retaining a set from non-use. I have a few different types of V-belts to test once I get my shop back together and when my health lets me.

I use the link belts on all the belt driven equipment I have. I like the idea that I can change belt lengths very quickly for some of my testing setups and for using different motors in the headstock.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:48 pm

robinson46176 wrote:I am very interested in link belts too. I am toying with a pretty high speed application and wondering if a link belt using machined pulleys would handle the speed rather than buying poly vee pulleys and a poly vee belt.

I believe you will be more happy with the Poly-V belt for higher speed operations as I believe the links may generate too much heat from the many links rubbing againest each other at high speed. There are many suppliers on the internet for the "J" poly-v belts and pulleys that I sometimes use.