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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.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
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.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 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.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 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.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.