Twisted flat belt problem

Charlie

Well-known Member
I'm running a sawdust blower using a 5 inch twisted flat belt to change the direction of rotation. The belt has metal alligator
lacing. Is there any good way to separate the two sides of the belt where they barely slide against each other moving in opposite
directions? The lacing point sometimes catches on the other side of the belt. I'd love to solve this issue.
 
(quoted from post at 12:05:45 07/08/20) I'm running a sawdust blower using a 5 inch twisted flat belt to change the direction of rotation. The belt has metal alligator
lacing. Is there any good way to separate the two sides of the belt where they barely slide against each other moving in opposite
directions? The lacing point sometimes catches on the other side of the belt. I'd love to solve this issue.
As far as I know you can't run a twisted belt if it has steel lacing. Never tried it. Hammer mill belt runs with a twist but is endless with no splice. Wood saw runs a straight flat belt with steel lace.
 
You could try hammering the lacing down flatter.

Be sure to hammer it with the pin in place so not to collapse the pin loop.

And trim the pin so it can't catch.

Any way to tighten the belt so the center doesn't touch?
 
You might use a grinder and round the ends of the splice a little, and make sure the fat side of the lace is on the outside. If no joy, buying a new belt might be needed. Jim
 
By lacing point do you mean the pointed part of the clip is pushed through the belt and catching, if so grind the point off. It might actually be the belt corner at the splice. Could try shorting the pin and removing the clips right at the edge and cut corner at an angle. I run a twisted leather belt on my drill press and it has never caught. Maybe its too short between the pulleys or one is too small. The elevator in town had a large twisted flat belt that ran I believe the hammer mill in the basement. You had to walk right by it to get to the office, as a kid its always scared me especially when that splice went by. It was completely un-shielded of coerce.
 
I've seen a round steel post driven in between the belts where they are vertical...may help.

Ben
 
In my grandpa’s farm shop in the 60s he had a metal working grinder that was from a blacksmith shop and it was set up to run from a line shaft. He did not have a line shaft but it was driven direct from an electric motor about 8ft over the floor. The original belt I believe was a 2 inch wide leather flat belt in a twist to give proper direction. I am certain it had some type of metal splice and it worked fine for years. Now I am a little wet behind the ears to make this statement and I have no hands on experience, but I am almost certain not all flat belts used back in the day on thrashing machines and the like were continuous and had splicers and ran twisted. If you don’t get it by using the other suggestion I would get some ..gaffers.. tape as shown in the link to wrap it. It is a heavy cloth tape. I think it would work to cover the metal parts that are catching. I don’t know if that is a good price or not it was what came up. I just know it is fairly heavy and sticks well. I only know of it because I have used it to repair light leaks in film cassettes use in industrial radiography.. like x-ray weld testing.
Example tape
 
Way back in the 1950s and mid 1960s we used to drive a threshing mill, hammer mill and a silage blower with a 100ft crossed belt with alligator lacing.
At the lacing joint the edge of the belt was angled and the lacing wire/pin was bent like a "L" on the end with the short part of the "L" pointing away from the direction of belt travel.
On windy days Dad would drive a bar in the ground next to the belt but not touching it on the opposite side from where the wind was blowing, protecting the belt from being blown off the tractor drive pulley.
 
time to get an endless belt , i dont think u will fix that problem they always rub when crossed.
 
Like said dress the ends of the splice a bit, I have ran the twisted with splines for 40 plus year never once had a issue,, every flat belt I have has splices
 
I have Brown and Sharpe 2G screw machines which use a 1 1/4" wide flat belt to drive the feed mechanism. They are twisted to change direction when tapping. all are laced, never have any issues. Granted, it's a lot narrower belt.

Seems as though I remember the guys that did threshing for the local farmers driving a steel stake in the ground to separate the belt. This was back in the 50s and 60s.
 
I have run belts with metal lacing with a twist for years.
A round piece of pipe driven into the ground if I ever had a problem.
Never hurt the belt one bit.
I use the Clipper lacing in the belts and don't have a problem with them either.
Also use weed trimmer cord to hold them together.
Richard in NW SC
 
Were ran for years and years with the metal lace on twisted belt with no problems ever. And the post is to control flopping on a belt that you cannot quite get tight enough for some reason. Endlas were only for small diameter pullys like the 4" diameter pully on a hammer mill because the lace does not like making that short of bend going around pully.
 
Thank you to everyone for the wide range of comments and suggestions. I can't use an endless belt because of my configuration, but I trimmed up my alligator metal lacing and things ran well yesterday. I'll look into some of the other lacing methods mentioned if a problem develops. I also tried a vertical small diameter plastic pipe at the overlap point, but the mount failed quickly. I may try it again if necessary but am hopeful that with a slight pulley realignment I did, the issue may also go away.
 

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