Belts

[DPittman]

This hardly deserves its" own thread but I didn't want to hijack John's lathe thread where belts were being discussed.

I've always been amazed at how tiny of a belt they put on my little 10x22 lathe. It's just over 1/4" wide and there is only one of them. Even my old Atlas 618 had I think heavy 1/2" wide belt on it. I can't say I have ever had any trouble with this tiny belt and the motor will stall before it slips. They must be made better these days?
I think the worse thing about this belt is that it will be hard to find a replacement when the time comes.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Good observation. Years (10+) ago a fellow on my street had extensive house renos done. He added a bonus room on top of his garage and it unexpectedly impacted his ability to use his garage door opener. After modifications to the opener he needed a custom garage door belt. Now, I know these are very different than motor belts, but I was able to source one in Ontario. I remember talking to the guy on the phone and he said just what you may be observing: belts have in fact got much better over time. In addition to embedding wire in the material, others I think have nylon or maybe even stronger materials. But like tires that never seem to leak or get punctured as often as they used to, I agree with you that I seem to change belts far less than I used to. Yet they look (at least to my eye) less robust. So something has changed for the better.