Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Belts and Pulleys  (Read 906 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Downwindtracker2

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 79
Belts and Pulleys
« on: December 21, 2018, 01:26:24 PM »

As a retired millwright they were part of my everyday life . Most, if not all machines will come from the factory using "A" profile belts.  This profile had been standardized in the early part of the last century along with "B" and "C". The "B" and "C" are wider and  heavier duty. They are now obsolete in industry, but still very widely used. You can go into any industrial supply , bearing supply and most farm supply, and ask for them. There are three series of belts here in North America  , fractional as in hp., letter, and high performance  (3V,5V, 8V) Back to what you need to know, fractional sizes are 3Lxxx,4Lxxx, 5Lxxx . The last two will interchange with "A" and "B". The first number on the belt will be A-xx then in (  ) will be 4Lxxx . So you don't even have to worry about the "L" just the "A"  , like A-37. The pulleys, correctly called sheaves, also come in profiles to match the belts. Don't expect your new "A" belt will fit, you will need the adjustment. Quality control with belts has always been an issue, and now that they are made in places like China and Thailand .........

Hope this helps when you are looking at changing that ratty belt. You may have to take the ratty belt in to match because you can't read the number, chuckle.
Logged

lapidaryrough

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 229
    • www.lapidaryrough.com
Re: Belts and Pulleys
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2018, 01:43:25 PM »

Other two types of belts on the list to consider.

 automobile belt  give a bet  for the hot  cold under the hood.

 Machine belts  don't, if they do time to buy new.
Logged
Silicate life form

Downwindtracker2

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 79
Re: Belts and Pulleys
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2018, 07:13:32 PM »

I remember asking if any of the wall of belts were of any use. My partner's response was "Naw, automotive belts are 3L. " That was in 1978. I was just thinking about a spare for my Valiant. He really knew his stuff, so I believed him. In the last place I worked, the forklift shop had their own wall of belts. Forklifts are both cramped and very dirty to work on, so I stayed out of there.
Logged

lithicbeads

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3214
Re: Belts and Pulleys
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2018, 07:39:55 PM »

Maybe this gets deleted but your mention of forklifts reminded me of a factory I worked at as a boilermaker. A forklift hit something and busted one of the joints on the roll bar. The big boss saw it and told the forklift driver to park 5 feet from a grounded support I-beam. He then took a chain and connected it to a bracket on the I-beam and to the tow motor and called for a welder.He told the welder to weld the broken support on the to motor and as he welded the boss hit the chain dozens of times with a stick causing a huge number of arcing on the chain links.then he ordered the chain to be one of two to lift a gigantic boiler and he insisted on the wrong chain angles. When the boiler was a few feet up he told a worker to crawl under to place the blocking.We never ever went under a suspended boiler we used long 2x4 to push the blocking in place.That was a Christmas eve , the one I can never forget.
Logged

Downwindtracker2

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 79
Re: Belts and Pulleys
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2018, 09:03:55 PM »

Oh,my G  that's scary.

It's often asked, even sometimes on machinist forums, about ordering a belt from the machine manufacturer . Well, manufacturers buy off the shelf, just like you and me. Then charge twice as much. That's why I posted this little note on belts and pulleys. I've found counter people generally like hearing about something different and as such are very helpful.
Logged

bobby1

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 209
Re: Belts and Pulleys
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2018, 11:13:55 PM »

If a place has a wall of belts most likely many of them are very aged and deteriorated. I always go to a place that specializes in belts. They generally have a frequent turnover thus their inventory should be of newer belts.
Bob
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.094 seconds with 38 queries.