Shopsmith Forums

OK, I searched the forums, and I found some suggestions...

But here's a hot tip. You can get a replacement drive belt at Ace Hardware. It's made by Mitsubishi, it costs less than $8, and the number is 4L260. I'll post a photo of the sleeve shortly. It's 1/2 inch by 26 inches. I've installed one on my 1985 Mark V, and it works great.

mrblanche wrote:OK, I searched the forums, and I found some suggestions...

But here's a hot tip. You can get a replacement drive belt at Ace Hardware. It's made by Mitsubishi, it costs less than $8, and the number is 4L260. I'll post a photo of the sleeve shortly. It's 1/2 inch by 26 inches. I've installed one on my 1985 Mark V, and it works great.

Did you measure the width, or are you reading off the label.

The difficulty with obtaining a correct replacement is that the belt manufacturers are making 12mm belts and calling them 1/2" belts.

They are also taking liberties with the length and are making metric lengths and calling them inch lengths.

They seem reluctant to manufacture any belts with non-full inch lengths.

I also thought I had found a good third party belt(even a 1/2" length), but the online specs, and the actual current part are different.

FWIW the Mark 5/V NEEDS a 25 1/2" belt that is over 1/2" (17/32 to 9/16) wide at the top and 3/8" thick.The correct length is 26 1/2 "

The belt must interface with both variable pulley sheaves over their full range. If the belt is too narrow, it runs the risk of dropping too far down into the sheave fingers(and jam, or make noise/vibration). If the belt is also too long, it may also extend too far out on the pulleys(maybe even above the od).

Although the 26" belt may 'work', it is doubtful it is running the speed range correctly.

If the belt is 'narrow', it is better to be short(25") than long(26"), but the shorter belt will limit the total speed range adjustment. It will not however have the dropping into the bottom of the pulley sheaves problem if the high speed adjustment is done so as to prevent it. The speed adjustment may not then be capable of going all the way down.Actually your suggestion is short.

Bottom Line - Stick with the Shopsmith replacement belt, but make sure the description above matches what they sent(They tried 'other' belts in the past, and that was a disaster).

I believe most of the belt manufacturers are no longer tooled up to produce the old timey version that the shopsmith needs.

One could also go with the link belt and get the proper length... the number of links to use is posted somewhere in all this. Worked very well for me.

While it may not wear as well, I DID check that it would go all the way out to the edge (well, 1/8 inch from it) of the pulleys without slipping between the fingers at the center of the other pulley.

It seems to be working just fine.

mrblanche wrote:While it may not wear as well, I DID check that it would go all the way out to the edge (well, 1/8 inch from it) of the pulleys without slipping between the fingers at the center of the other pulley.

It seems to be working just fine.

I would expect that with the longer belt. A shorter, narrower belt is likely to drop down in the control sheave pulley.

I am curious with the 26" belt 1/8" below the edge of the motor pulley what the high speed adjustment position was. i.e. where did the top of the adjustment screw end up relative to the top of the jam nut? I would expect it to be below the nut. I also would expect the total speed range to be less than the entire range from 'fast' to 'slow' on the indicator dial.

The belt if narrower may change the predictions above, and move the high speed adjustment closer to 'normal'. However it would be more compensatory if the 1/8" belt to edge was reduced to near zero when making the high speed adjustment. Being narrower, you would still need to be cautious re the dropping too low into the control sheave.

Forgive me for dwelling on this, but having tried myself to acquire a third party source with many disappointments, I really wish to completely understand other's experience with belts I did not try.

When I have more time, I'll take off the belt cover, run it up to full speed and down to minimum speed and either take photos or a video.

I don't know what full speed actually is on the ShopSmith in RPM, but it sounds plenty fast enough. But, let's say it's normally (just to pull a number out of the air), 2000 rpm. And lets say with this belt, it turns out to be 1900 RPM. Does that sound like a big enough difference to be significant? And keep in mind that only at max and min RPM would you be unable to achieve the target speed. Everywhere else on the dial, you could turn the dial up a hair to get the speed you want.

I compared the 4L260 to my old belt, which had been worn down so narrow that it DID go too far down the pullies. All this was cause by the set screw on the eccentric bushing not being tight, and the screw that held the bushing in place being broken. This Shopsmith sat in essentially an unenclosed shed, unused, for at least 10 years, so who knows when those problems developed?

Oh, and I had to re-work the speed control. It was way off in its adjustment before the belt replacement, so I have no idea what effect the belt itself actually had.

But it now works better that it ever has since I've had any acquaintance with it.

mrblanche wrote:When I have more time, I'll take off the belt cover, run it up to full speed and down to minimum speed and either take photos or a video.

I don't know what full speed actually is on the ShopSmith in RPM, but it sounds plenty fast enough. But, let's say it's normally (just to pull a number out of the air), 2000 rpm. And lets say with this belt, it turns out to be 1900 RPM. Does that sound like a big enough difference to be significant? And keep in mind that only at max and min RPM would you be unable to achieve the target speed. Everywhere else on the dial, you could turn the dial up a hair to get the speed you want.

I compared the 4L260 to my old belt, which had been worn down so narrow that it DID go too far down the pullies. All this was cause by the set screw on the eccentric bushing not being tight, and the screw that held the bushing in place being broken. This Shopsmith sat in essentially an unenclosed shed, unused, for at least 10 years, so who knows when those problems developed?

Oh, and I had to re-work the speed control. It was way off in its adjustment before the belt replacement, so I have no idea what effect the belt itself actually had.

But it now works better that it ever has since I've had any acquaintance with it.

I am pretty much from the school of "as long as it works OK".
I pay virtually no attention to the numbers on the speed dial. I have spent most of my life working on machinery and adjusting speeds based on function and sound.
I am a "tweaker" and live in my own world.
It works for me...

In all honesty, I was on my way to buy a link belt when I remembered that I had seen a lot of short belts at the local Ace Hardware, and stopped by there. If this belt doesn't cut it, I'll take other steps...but in the meantime, the Shopsmith is working again, and not smoking, shaking, etc.

I corrected a couple of errors in post #2. Sorry!

Adding one little note... In actual woodworking (or any other use) I have never operated any of my Shopsmiths at either extreme end of the speed settings. I have done so when working on them but never in functional daily use.
Other users may function entirely differently than I do.
Most of the world does.
Having said that, I have always bought my belts from Shopsmith for the few replacements I have needed.
I have never worn one out myself. I can see busy turners wearing them out fairly often. For one thing I have always had a table saw available even back before I got my good one and secondly having more than one SS really spreads the wear out between them.