Link belts... vibration reduction?

[marinosr]

I'm considering getting a link belt for the lathe I recently rebuilt. The hinged motor I think is causing some slight vibration issues, but I can't change to a fixed motor setup for storage reasons. I've read many conflicting things on the internet about how well link belts work to reduce vibration. I am interested in hearing opinions based on first-person experience, especially if you have one on your wood lathe. Thanks!

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

I’ve used link belt and machined (rather than cast) pulleys on my hinged motor table saw for for more than 20 years. Still runs very smoothly on that same link belt. So I am a link belt fan. I recall a noticeable improvement when I changed over from the original pulleys and belt.
Another source of vibration can be if your hinged motor does not remain parallel to the driven shaft. Check with a straight edge to see if the pulleys are parallel in working position.

 

[Mike Davis]

Adding some weights to the motor may help.

 

[Joe Scharle]

Link belts are noticeably smoother than a V belt.

 

[gmakra]

Years ago when link belts first came out they were sold in HVAC and industrial supply houses. And the big selling point was you could temporarily repair a broken belt with a small coil of link belts. Then get the proper belt so you could get two service calls out of the deal and look like a hero.

The bottom line on link belts is they are a band aid. They do not have the surface area of a regular bee belt. And under heavy use they will fail.

Vibration issues are typically mechanical and one needs to look at the root cause of the vibration and address that.i.e. bent sheave. or something along those lines.

 

[bob vaughan]

Several years back I was given a link belt to try. The guy said it made a big difference to him. I found that it made zero difference other than it was noisy and I suspected that the hard edges would be rough on the aluminum pulley. Qualifying my observation, the aluminum step pulleys I was using had just been trued up on a metal lathe. I think that the link belts may make a bad situation work better, but it won't make a wobbly or dinged pulley perform like one that is running perfectly true.

 

[marinosr]

Thanks for the advice all.

Vibration issues are typically mechanical and one needs to look at the root cause of the vibration and address that.i.e. bent sheave. or something along those lines.

Another source of vibration can be if your hinged motor does not remain parallel to the driven shaft. Check with a straight edge to see if the pulleys are parallel in working position.

I have made sure that both pulleys are dead-on coplanar to one another. The motor has some vibration to it, even with the pulley off, and the belt has some set, so i imagine that these are the sources of vibration. I rebuilt the motor as best as I could w/ new bearings, so that's not going to improve, so I think I've tuned the setup as much as feasible. I was hoping the link belt would reduce some of the transmission of vibration from the motor to the lathe though.

Adding some weights to the motor may help.

I considered this, but the belt is properly tensioned as-is, and I don't want to overtension and reduce the life of the bearings. I also read (don't know if this is true) that overtensioning can actually increase transmission of vibration.

They do not have the surface area of a regular bee belt. And under heavy use they will fail.

Have you seen them fail? This is not a concern that I've heard about anywhere. Most sources say they will outlast rubber belts.

 

[Mike Davis]

I had one on a small garden tractor and it worked great. If it didn’t fail on that a lathe is no problem.

I ran my lathe for a while with a small motor. It vibrated due to the belt slipping. A little weight helped a lot. But, if you have good tension then go on to the new belt.

 

[gmakra]

Yes under heavy use they will fail. They are also hard to keep properly tensioned since they stretch.

Occasional use they will last a while heavy use they fail.

 

[Gotcha6]

An old trick used years ago to avoid belts slipping was to apply LAVA hand soap to the pulley/belt assembly. The pumice in the soap was just coarse enough to rough up the pulleys and belt for more friction in the fit.

 

[Craig C]

I had one on my lathe for years and it worked well. As others have said correct tensioning is important.