Riveted Linked Vee Belt

I've been working on installing a bigger pulley on my Faircut countershaft.

Now I need to deal with the drive belt. It is a linked Vee belt and I have a spare one that I can take links from.

So far I have managed to split the spare belt and get 4 links separated but it has been quite a fight.

I've tried googling but just come up with info on more modern linked belts.

Does anyone else have this kind of vee belt (pics below) and if so is there a 'knack' to joining and unjoining the links?

So far the best I have managed is to put the belt in the vice, bend it sideward and upwards (backwards if you like) and then attack it with various sized screwdrivers and scribers to lever the rivets out of the slots.

It looks like it should work using the bigger hole in the middle fo the slot but the rivets pass through 3 links so it isn't obvious how to get the rivet into this part fo the slot.

I'm hoping there is an easier way!

Thanks in advance

I favour this type, the only drawback for me is the effort needed to take links out and re-join the belts. As far as I know there is no easy method, just brute force and my fingers are arthritic.

I favour this type, the only drawback for me is the effort needed to take links out and re-join the belts. As far as I know there is no easy method, just brute force and my fingers are arthritic.

Thanks... I will continue the fight then.

Trouble is I'm not sure if 4 links is the right answer so there will be a second round if my guess is wrong.

I've used a lot and there isn't an easy way, its a knack one acquires. I use a small slightly bent screw driver as a lever. I'm told in former times a tool called a button huck was used. Both Brammer, and Fenner used to make it so maybe a look on their sites might bring some thing up. John

If you bend them with the outer face on the inside of the bend the rivet is pushed towards the wide part of the slot. Then using your third hand and a screwdriver push the link off the rivet.

Martin C

back when I was at work we had a tool for the job . a sort of bent over circlip pliers , put it in the slot ,close the handle and open up the slot making it easy to slip the pins out

Phil

By the way, the preferred direction of movement is from left to right relative to the photo's. If the machine is used occasionally in reverse, that is ok.

Thanks all. I have completed the current bout with the belt and the lathe is up and running again.

I'd say that joining the belt is marginally easier than separating the links... only marginally though.

Turns out my guess of 4 links was correct... which would have been great if I hadn't changed my mind and put an extra one in.

I will check the direction - easy enough to swap it round if it's wrong.

Following testing there will be more changes so further changes to the belt length will be needed. Not today though.

I will check the direction - easy enough to swap it round if it's wrong.

Lucky you! The most common reason for fitting linked belts, these days, is beacuse of access/ease for the repair. Avoiding having to remove spindles from lathes and such like.🙂

That said, my compressor (already ancient when I bought it over thirty years ago) is still going on the same belt. I think I may have removed a link or two, when I had to replace the motor around twenty years ago.

When I altered mine it reminded me of Dad and shirts with separate collars - only a lot harder with these belts.🙂. I would not want to make one up from a box of separate components - unless there is a tool for making the job easier!

The Smart & Brown model A has a linked belt from the motor to the 3 speed gearbox which is 1/2" wide and takes 1 1/2 hp. Mike got it off a while ago and took out a link and it is still going strong. I bought some 13mm as a spare, but it hasn't been needed yet.

Nearly 5 decades since I had to shorten one of these, I don't recall that it was particularly difficult. From memory I just forced it open with a worn screwdriver,

The more modern linked belt have rectangular heads to the rivets. The just need turning 90 deg so that the head lies along the slot and then they part very easily.

Brian

I bought a link belt fo r my lathe recently and found that it was easy to remove links by turning the rivets sideways as Brian says. Older belts were a bit different I seem to remember, not too kind to fingers.

There are several different makes of these belts, the type with the tee shaped end of the links is the easiest one to work on, you just turn the tee in line with the belt to remove and reconnect and turn the tee so it faces across the belt to run. It is called "nut-link"

**LINK**

Hi Andy

Seems years since i last used any belting like this , Hard work together with luck before you win Looks like all of the info given Toghether with your patience and time you won Not suprised you had to add more suport heavy casr iron pulley

Regards Brian

Forgot to add, link belts are about three times as dear as standard v belts. !

Hi Andy, a co-conspirator & I once campaigned a very large lathe & drilling machine in his workshop & both required major dismantling to replace main motor drive belts therefore when this was necessary we replaced these with said Brammer link belts largely to preclude the hernias that removing the offending components would have caused, these were not the original brown ones but the more modern red. I got good results using a pair of circlip pliars of the type where removing the pivot screw & replacing it in an alternate hole converted it from internal to external operation. The following falls under the auspices of the Official Secrets Act, as an experiment he conducted a trial by filing the heads of the rivets into the more modern rectangular shape & so that he could assemble the joint with an ordinary pair of pliars, starting with head of rivet longways then twisting through 90 degrees, worked like a charm & the machine ran for years, however there are clearly Heath & Safety implications involved so don't try this at home. In fact I still have a 7 foot 6 inch length of it hanging up in my garage (unmodified!)

BobH.

I can see the appeal of a linked belt for anything big and unwieldy... or even anything requiring partial dismantling to change the belt.

My setup permits me to slip the belt off over the pulleys without any problem so that's not my reason.

My drive setup is very space constrained and lacks any convenient means of adjusting the motor belt tension... so altering the belt length and using the very limited bearing holder movement available from the slotted 'Handy Angle' uprights is my reason continuing to use the linked belt.

The main reason though is that the belt (and a spare) came with the lathe and I've never had a reason to change it.

I have also used link belting with just one metal link screwed to the belt. The belt having a series of vertical holes. Just cut to length and screw on the link. But will slip on very small pulleys.