Belt Maintenance?

[tbaker2500]

I have a series 1 1100 (2006-7). It's sat or been used lightly for several years, but in the last 6 months its been used very heavily.

I've noticed recently, especially with higher humidity, that the belt is squeaking. The pulleys are pretty glassy smooth now, but the belt doesn't seem too smooth. I've confirmed that I'm not hearing bearings or anything, it's clearly the belt. Usually, when I hear a sound change like that, (no squeaking to squeaking) it means something is in trouble.

Has anybody else had experience with the belt? Is it ready to fail? Use it looser, tighter?

Or I could just forget about it. Got kinda hyper sensitive to the sound of the machine. :-)

[Sp-4renegade]

A new belt from Tormach for the 1100 is $14.60. I would just op for a new one. Cheap insurance. Blown belt on the Tormach the spindle stops, the feeds dont.

[nitewatchman]

I replaced my 1100 belt with a Fenner Link-Belt. The result is much quieter high speed operation and less vibration.

nitewatchman

[Gerry Sweetland]

I snapped the belt on my 770 the second day I had it (no coolant, soft gummy hardware store aluminum, no brains when it came to feeds and speeds) While I waited for the warranty one to arrive I was able to find an equivalent spec belt except for material at a local mill supply. This belt ran much quieter than the poly belts. When the new ones came in I put one on the machine and thru the Goodyear belt in a drawer with the spare poly belt. Didn't take long before I put the Goodyear belt back on. The belt has worked fine for the past year and shows little wear but I do only run maybe 6 - 8 hours a week.
The poly belts I have create a ticking sound and a suction sound, squeak or something.
I would like to try a Fenner link belt.
Gerry

[tbaker2500]

I replaced my 1100 belt with a Fenner Link-Belt. The result is much quieter high speed operation and less vibration.

nitewatchman

Interesting belt! Is there a favorite place to buy them from? (Don't suppose you have the size on hand, do you?)

I do notice high-speed vibrations from the current belt.

[TXFred]

I replaced my 1100 belt with a Fenner Link-Belt. The result is much quieter high speed operation and less vibration.

How do these belts handle high loads? They have less surface area in contact with the pulleys. Do you experience any slip when doing heavy cuts?

Frederic

[nitewatchman]

I have used Link-Type belts on a LOT of applications over the years (more than my fingers and toes) and have never had any problem with wear, pulley wear, slipping or breakage. I have also used some of the larger series belt to replace 8 belt matched sets with 8 link belts and found them to far outlast the original vee-belts. The 1/2" and bigger belts are easy to fine, even places like Woodcraft and Grizzly stock these. The 3/8 or 3L belt we need is a little tougher to find and I have found Fenner to be the best belt for my use. There is another similar belt made by another company that is green in color, they seem to work okay but they constantly seem to shed green fuzz or debris.

I got my belt from a seller on e-Bay, Power Twist Plus Link V-belt 3/8" 3L 4' FENNER DRIVE | eBay. The belt arrived in a few days as a 4 foot coil with instruction on how to size the belt if you have not done this before. The really neat thing adjusting the length. If for some reason you donot get the length right the first time, just twist the belt apart and add or remove links as required. Twist it back together and you are ready to go. The same with damage although I don't see this being an issue on the mill spindles. Twist out the damaged section and twist a like number of new links back in.

I just added a Series 3 Operator Panel to my Series II machine so that I could have the panel mounted Load Meter. (Nice upgrade by the way, fits nice, looks great, works well). I can now have some idea of spindle loads, Cuts made with a 75% meter load are stable and with no apparent belt slipage, so I would have to say that it works well for me.

There are some that will advise against using Link Belts in applications like a spindle and cite that the belts are designed for directional use. While it is true that the link have a preferred direction which is marked on the links by an arrow, in practice I have not found this to be an issue. If some one finds that this is a problem please donot tell my Tormach, Spindle Shaper and two other milling machines. Apparently they don't know this and are happy running in either direction.

nitewatchman

[Don Clement]

+1 on the link belt. I have used these with single phase Dune like thumper motors with excellent dampening qualities.

Don

[nitewatchman]

I am in the process of making some "stuff" so I thought that I would test the Fenner belt for the slipping question.

I loaded my TTS Sandvik R290 Facemill and socked it into the cut enough to "peg" the new load meter in the red. LOTS of Aluminum chips, motor slowed, no chatter or howl, tool did not pull out and NO BELT SLIP.

nitewatchman

[TXFred]

Thanks for testing this! I'll add one of these belts to my shopping list.

Frederic

[tbaker2500]

Thanks for the info! Time to order one!

[philbur]

Did you do a back to back test with a standard (OEM) belt?

Phil

I am in the process of making some "stuff" so I thought that I would test the Fenner belt for the slipping question.

I loaded my TTS Sandvik R290 Facemill and socked it into the cut enough to "peg" the new load meter in the red. LOTS of Aluminum chips, motor slowed, no chatter or howl, tool did not pull out and NO BELT SLIP.

nitewatchman