DIY drive belt

I have lashed up a grinding machine using a diamond cup wheel to touch up my carbide lathe tools but the nylon camera bag strap that I have made the drive belt from is far to thick and the glued area where I joined it makes it "lump" over the pullets ( 22m dia. and 50mm dia).

My question is, do any of you know of a thin, tough and flexible material,preferably something that I could reinforce by stitching (say 1/64" - maybe a little thicker) in sheet form that I could cut and join to make a drive belt approx. 1" wide? I would need a length of about 18" to form the loop.

Stuart

Why don't you use a toothed belt turned inside out ?

Best candidate for jointless flat belts is PolyVee turned over. It will run much quiter and smoother than the back of a timing belt.

Suppliers stock the belting as a wide band (500mm?) and slit it to suit the number of grooves on the pulleys. I have one with only 3 ribs so its less than 8mm wide

Ian P

Best candidate for jointless flat belts is PolyVee turned over.

It will probably offer more grip that way round as well !

Flat belts should be available from any good bearing / transmission supplier.

There is a heat joinable belting, I think it is used for tool post grinders, and other high speed applications, I think its best to give the supplier the measurements, and let them join it, I think it's more difficult than the round belts. Ian S C

Redthane round plastic belting.Heat up a broken hacksaw blade or old knife,push the two ends onto the heated blade pull away and push the two melted ends together, must be held in line for 5 or 10 minutes leave over night.Next morning remove plastic flashing with a sharp knife and smooth up with some course sand paper. Very quiet in operation. I believe they make a Greenthane as well its small diameter, Ted

Thanks to all for info and help. Have managed to sort the belt problem and the result can be seen here if you are interested.

http://chuck-it-in-the-pot.blogspot.com/