Linked drive belts from RDG

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

I went and bought some genuine Fenner twist link drive belt from a specialist belt supplier and gleaned the following info which people may find of interest.

 

1. I paid £40 plus VAT for a two metre pack. That’s the plain A section twist link type (no metal).

 

2. The cheap version available from RDG is a far east copy. It has less laminated reinforcing material in it and moulded in a different material. It’s prone to breakage if you should have a ‘dig in’ and prone to stretch far more than the Fenner product. Typically you might remove one link through settling in with the Fenner belt after a month or so where you’ll be taking two or three out with the cheap one on a regular basis.

 

3. The retailer thinks the Fenner product IS way too expensive and the prices are due to rise again. It makes it very difficult to sell. They almost apologise to customers about the price but the sales reps won’t help with their margins. Until the patents lapse and other belt manufacturers like Pirelli et al come aboard, prices are likely to stay high because they’re the only game in town. The metal link version is even more expensive at £38 a metre. Would you pay £100 for a two and a half metre length of belting when they will sell a conventional rubber V belt (assuming no complicated disassembly is involved) for £7?

 

4. The retailer won’t stock the cheaper clone because from their point of view, and the contract engineers they deal with (mostly air conditioning service engineers), “it’s rubbish” and not worth the saving if they’re constantly being called out to adjust or fix broken belting.

 

5. Twist link does reduce the transmission of vibration very well.

 

Posted for interest.

Edited By Chris Trice on 28/07/2011 15:24:36

[AcrosticusParticipant @acrosticus]

 

Hello Dennis

The latest Fenner Instructions for installing NuTLink belting say that the belt may be installed either way round

http://www.fennerdrives.com/high_performance_composite_vbelts/nutsupertinstall.pdf

The old instructions of which I kept a copy say

DIRECTION OF TRAVEL
The belt will run equally well in either direction but preferably to run as illustrated with with tails leadin

The tails being the narrow part of the link underneath the belt

Regards

Tony

[AcrosticusParticipant @acrosticus]

Fenner PowerTwist belts do have a definite right way round and there are arrows on the belt every tenth link to show this. (The PowerTwist type I bought from Chronos doesn’t have any arrows so presumably it isn’t Fenner’s.) The tab-type tails underneath should, I understand, always be trailing, i.e. the opposite of the recommended way for Nu T-Link.

Regards

Tony

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Hi All

In another life when I ran a factory we used link belts on machines that required dismantling to change a belt. Originally we used the grey/black vulcanized rubber reinforced canvas type. With round ended rivets that you had to thread through a hole and slit in the links to join them together; when the belts were new quite a struggle.

We later switched to red polyurethane belts with a T toped rivet that you turned 90 degrees after feeding the rivet through a small slot that matched the T rivet in the link to lock it, very easy to do.

The polyurethane T link belts were a far better choice; almost indestructible and with very little stretch, they outlived the others maybe 3 to 1. And a bit of Oil did not damage them. The vulcanized rubber belts turned to jelly and delaminated rendering the belt useless. They may cost a little more to buy, but in the end pay for themselves several times over.

Cheers
John

Edited By John McNamara on 31/07/2011 15:06:15

[MAX THE MILLERParticipant @maxthemiller]

My Boxford AUD lathe used a fibre and rubber type linked belt. Last week it broke after 25 years of service. I was amazed at just how much rubber had adhered to the pulleys. It was difficult to remove and reminded me of the horrible goo which forms when the belts in old Philips tape recorders decay. There were many split links in the belt so I scrapped it despite having some spare links.

I replaced it with a genuine Fenner Super TLink SPA wedge belt. I was dubious about fitting the belt by stretching it over the pulleys, thinking I'd have to remove the counter shaft to get a decent tension in the belt. However it works well with no slip, flap or excess noise. I'll recheck the tension after a few hours use.

All in all I can recommend these belts.

Max.

[Kevin FParticipant @kevinf]

Posted by Dennis Rayner on 26/07/2011 10:34:41:

I've been following this thread with much interest because I bought a linked belt for my ML7 a couple of months back. It works a treat but is so much noisier that the old non-linked belt and I was waiting for someone to mention that. When they didn't I investigated and tried reversing the direction of the belt over the pulleys. So much better! Maybe it is obvious to everyone which way round the belt should go but it wasn't to me and there where no instructions with it

 

Dennis.

Ive just fitted a link belt on my ML4 ,I bought the belt from RDG tools ,my standard V belt was looking a bit worse for wear so I decided to be proactive with my maintance ,just for info I have an ML7 counter shaft and matching pulleys on the head stock the conversion was carried out by the previous owner .

At this moment in time I'm not impressed with the link belt ,it is noisier than the conventional V belt at higher RPM and I'm experiencing belt slippage , I've tensioned the belt as much as I can and tried running the belt in either direction to see if belt slippage improves and there's no difference .

From what I can see the original V belt is of a softer more maluble material hence giving more bite and the link belt consist of a harder less flexible material,I think that's why I'm getting the belt slippage .

[Dennis RaynerParticipant @dennisrayner52782]

My experience 2 years on from fitting the linked belt is that it's a fair bit quieter than when first fitted but nowhere near as quiet as a proper V belt which is virtually silent. Tension needs to be fairly high but not to the point where I think it's excessive. Overall I'm very satisfied.

It's just so much more convenient to install then the V belt.

[john fletcher 1Participant @johnfletcher1]

50 years ago I worked for BR repairing and maintaining diesel electric locos, on some the auxillary generator was belt driven, a matched set of six. On break downs or failure we got them going by fitting link belts, we counted the links or often remembered from previous experience to attempt to load each the belt the same (one sixth of total load) Once we had the job on the moved we did remove a link or two and we did mark them with a bit of chalk. It was an expensive and time consuming to replace endless belts even on the depot. Its not such a big job to change an endless belt on a Myford lathe if one follows the instruction in the book. Most motor factors and agricultural dealer stock an equivalent belt for half the cost which the Model Engineer dealers ask. Whilst you are at the agricultural dealer ask about the cost of Esso Noto or the equivalent and you might get another pleasant surprise.Ted

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