[AT] WAS: Snow Blower now Belt Dressing

[Ralph Goff]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Goss" <rlgoss at insightbb.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] WAS: Snow Blower now Belt Dressing


Alignment on a flat belt is almost a "no-brainer". When a belt wants to walk 
it is going toward the LONGEST distance between centers it can possibly 
find. It involves more than just getting the input and output axles lined 
up, but one of the pulleys needs to have a slight crown to it so the longest 
distance between rotating centers is always in the center of the belt. If 
you don't have that condition because of limitations on what you can do with 
your belting situation, it will always cause you trouble. If you have ever 
looked closely at a line shaft installation, you will find at least one 
pulley in every pair is crowned. Cast iron pulleys are made that way on 
purpose. It isn't just that having the parting line in the middle of the 
pulley was easy -- it is necessary. We had trouble keeping the flat belt on 
the hammer mill when we first bought it and tried to power it with our John 
Deere. So Dad wound several layers of friction tape around the center of the 
pulley on the mill so it was slightly crowned. It solved the problem, and I 
found out at an early age that friction tape isn't just for the handles of 
baseball bats.

Yes, the hammer mill pulley has a slight crown to the centre and I believe 
the wood saw pulleys are buillt the same way.
I should mention that the flat belt in the wood sawing video was not a true 
flat belt like the old ones. This was actually a modern multi-vee belt used 
on farm equipment. The belt was turned to run upside down so that it in 
effect does have a flat surface to run on the flat pulleys of the engine and 
saw. Seems to work well all these years.

Ralph in Sask.