Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Toothed belts for DROs

Hi David,

I'm surprised at how many people seem to have trouble with the heat welded
polyurethane belting. I've been running watch lathes and small drilling
machines on it for quite a number of years now and I've had very few
breakages - only two I can remember and those were because I hadn't used a
clean knife blade to make the join so it had scale in it. The best belting
of this type I have found is a green ribbed variety which is stocked by
Charles Walker & co of Clay Street, Sheffield. I also had good success with
a grey material which was being used to set the glazed panels in office
partitioning.
I take it you do join the ends by holding a knife blade vertically in the
vice, heating it to just below red heat, pressing the clean, square cut ends
of the belting onto opposite sides of the blade and then drawing them off
together so that they fuse. After I've done this and allowed the belt to
cool thoroughly, I usually heat the blade again and use it to smooth out the
slight bump at the join, blending it in with the rest of the belt.

Ian
--
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK
www.iw63.freeserve.co.uk

----- Original Message -----
From: "David M. Munro" <munro@...>
To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 02 August 2001 13:14
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Toothed belts for DROs


> As a regular user of watchmakers lathes, I'll second that. Every option
for
> commercial belting is bad. Originally they used leather belts, and some
> still swear by things like shoelaces. The standard belt is a plastic
thing
> that you heat fuse together. Now, remember, you use a watch lathe with
your
> head inches from an unguarded pulley. These belts always break when you
are
> doing something at high speed, and the belt slaps you in the face. There
> were long steel springs in use at one point (worst still) I finally
> dismantled the headstock, and remachined the pulley from a round groove to
a
> V-belt shape, and now use a quarter inch vee belt on both the headstock to
> counter shaft, and the motor segment. Never had a belt problem in years.
>
> David M. Munro
>
> alenz@... wrote:
>
> > Hi Lew,
> > I have a watchmaker's lathe from my 'prior life' as a watch
> > maker back in the 50's and ran into the same problem as you.
>
>
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