Putting some grip (stippling) on an aluminium drive pulley.

Putting some grip (stippling) on an aluminium drive pulley.

I've always wanted to work out a way to put some extra grip on a home made drive pulley to prevent or cut down on belt slippage. It would be nice to have the tooling that Wilesco use on their grooved pulleys. I had a Dremel saw accessory that the outer plastic shell broke and I thought what can I do with the saw blade. Rudimentary, but it worked well. I should be able to work out now a way to mount it so it doesn't need to be held, though its not as dangerous as that looks and being hand held allowed me to skew the saw blade at the various angles needed easily.

Use the technique for cutting a worm wheel with a thread tap.

**LINK**

Paul

I'd love to try that Paul.

What an ingenious idea Jim!

It's amazing what can be achieved with very simple tools.

I found spiral flute taps worked better when I was doing the starting grove in steel flywheels for model boats.

Poly Vee Belt 2 Ribs "j" 4.64 mm wide will do the job.

Pulleys in aluminium are easy to fabricate with a high speed steel tool ground to 40 degrees.

Eric

OK for a starting cord, but I'd guess that a belt running continuously on such a pulley would hve a short life.

Depending on the vee angle, roll the pulley hard against a triangular or square file.

I'm assuming this pulley is for a mamod style metal spring 'belt' otherwise Picador + every car maker from the invention of the car dynamo up till the poly vee belt got it wrong.

I'm with Dave Halford, the grip will be great, but belt life will be short. Make sure you have a good supply of belts.

Worked out great for its intended purpose running small steam toy accessories (that some are prone to slippage) no wear on the green watchmakers lathe belt.