1109 Making Any Size Drive Belts 

you are an absolute life saver. never in a million years did I expect something like this to help so much.

Yet another fantastic idea. Had not thought to do that with belts

I cannot express my gratitude for this information. You cannot imagine how may times Ive bit the bullet and just added another tensioner or random pulley to use up the slack. Thank you...

I've been making joins like this since I was taught it back in the 90s. In low tempenvironments, contact cement works very well. If they belt is going around tight bends back and forth, CA glue can break down over time. Both CA glue and contact cement will fail if they get too warm. High temp silicone works well for high speed high temp situations. As usual, match the adhesive to the task and you'll be fine.

Honorable, Even such tiny tips are immensely valuable. May among us already know many. These saves lots of frustrating hour and money for those who still didn't find a suitable one. Thank you so much to document essential workhop tips for the generations to come, or even for some idiot older like me too. Love you man. God bless you.

So keep your old belts and splice in the good parts. Awesome

i used to do this at work with bandsaw blades for cutting steel and alloys, superb system ,shown to me by an old friend and tutor ,

Another way is a V joint, cut to cloth on both sides then cut cloth out of other end then glue and put in the vise for 30-60 mins. Extremely strong joint. Great video once more Rob

Just wanted to say this got right to the point and was simple to understand Thank you it will save me $ and time.

I have a scarf joint on the flat belt used on my Southbend lathe. A lot quieter than the old lacing method. For V belts I often use link belts these days. Not cheap, but easy to change the length if needed. I purchased a replacement V belt for my milling machine and found the new belt with the same code as the old one was longer. Drat I broke down and got link belt and finally got the belt to fit. Dave.

That's going to come in handy especially for riding mower belts thanks 🤠

Handy doesn’t say it. Excellent work. Thank you sir.

What an awesome timely video subject... belts ARE hard to find especially on older equipment... thank you!!👍

Awesome….just what I needed to know…simple easy and quick..!

And I HIGHLY resonate with your Channel’s “About” section. What an excellent mission and belief.

my washing machine drive belt snapped earlier today, will be trying this, thank you

Excellent content. Thank you for sharing!

I had a problem this week with a really small belt and I tried finding a video like this and some how it's the best I found so far , I am goof with many other stuff but dryers or washing machines but ill try this tip and see if it works

I don't just the way you think or present things here but i also like what you've just done... life saver for me.

You've just solved my problem with a drive belt for my Homemade Leslie upper/"treble" spinning speaker cone. I've sourced some Bus fan belts from the workshop at my workplace , but they were all too long. Width was OK for my re-purposed wheel/pulley, but belts were way too long for the distance between the drive motor (old drill motor) and the wheel/pulley on the rotating speaker cones. Brilliant!. Thanks Robert!

Thank you for this. I included a reference to your tutorial in an instructable I made on joining GT3 timing belts

I've been watching your vids for years. Love what your doing and what you have done. TY!!!!!!!

Fantastic! You always come up with really useful stuff! Thank you!

My washing machine eats through the stitches. I then switched to using balling wire, tightened with pliers until it breaks, leaving a tight ring wrapped around the two sections. Now the rubber and fabric belt material breaks as the wire is pushed into it, but at leas that lasts two washes vs 1 for thick nylon thread wrapped around generously The washing machine is a top loader with a single, very aggressive spin dry speed.

Thank you so much, your enthusiasm is contagious, and you explain everything so well! A lot of other people, have ideas that I become baffled by, as they go on in such technical and dry ways, my brain wanders off, and plays outside!! But you have such an engaging way of explaining these things, that I can take in what you say!! Grateful Thanks. Ax.

amazing idea, never thought of this, thanks again Robert

Great video! Thank you very much I just ordered a direct replacement belt for my mini lathe and of course it’s too big. This video saved me!!!

Save money & save otherwise useless long belts. Thanks Rob for doing the research and showing others how it's done.

Thank you for the great lesson. Amazing channel. Please keep up the great work!

Morning Rob, been pulling belt out of thing for a while now. Well Rob I learnt something today about belts. Who said this channel is not for them.

Great content and always straight to the point. This is the good stuff.

Great idea! I was thinking it would be handy to use some sort of adjustable idler "tensioner" pulleys for a multipurpose dynapod. So you don't have to change the belt when switching devices.

Wow, that is practical and for sure saves a lot of headaches, cash, workarounds or delivery time unfitting belts may cause.

Excellent resurrection of steam age technology for new age materials -- as you, especially do so well. Some sorts of staples can be used at the joints as well. Good job, and great application and tip.

Right off to make three of these :D thanks

Thank you - I seen it before, long ago but had completely forgotten

Fantastic video ! Extremely useful 👍 Thank you so much!

Wonderful instructional video work. Thank you thank you thankyou

That was a very good tip, thanks very much.👍👍

I watched +20 videos of belt joining and this one is the right one.

For smaller timing belts (the same kind as used in 3d printers which roll on gears with small radius) I've found that glue will crack or wear off, but melting the pieces together (heat gun, solder iron) makes it incredibly strong.

Thanks, I forgot about that type of joint. Very helpful

That's really good to know. I was randomly buying belts for my tumbler and I can get an unlimited amount of dryer and washer belts. Cheers mate

Thank you very much sir, exactly what I was looking for!

Dear Mr Robert Murray-Smith, I want you to know that you are the very first person i decided to become a member on youtube at all, because I want to support what you do and thank you for that you shared so much of your knowledge so far. Even when you leave the one or other secret out in the free videos , but i get your point :). You give the chance to figure out the rest through experimenting. I Already had a ton of fun with your 1L of conductive Ink and try my selve in producing it as well because i want to build a huge battery with my little modified cell. I cant wait to see the other videos - Keep the good work up. You have true followers out there o.o/ :)

Also works on conveyor belts 👍👍

That's great idea! Have you, Rob, or anyone else split wider belts with multi grooves? How do they last?

Really great tip. Took your video to 1K thumbs up!

Awesome tip. Thank you.

Excellent idea, thank you so much

Brilliant. For our narrow boat, it would be hard to get a standard belt and hope it was right because there are so many possible configurations in the engine bay.

One of those things that I never knew I wanted to know. 👍

Thanks! Gonna try this.

Brilliant!! Thank you so much! Saves hours of time try to work out a better way than trying to figure out how to bind it with repurposed wire

I loved your video, i was searching for ever, I ordered Belts (riding mower belts), and too long, now I'm going to try this trick,,, Thank you so much

Thank you Robert - well explained 👍

Thank you for your idea. Erich from New Zealand

Thank you Rob

Super Glue works quite well on rubber. Cyanoacrylates.

thanks

Thank you!

I use pu round transmitting belt, just melt it together ad its strong

Even better than CA/superglue and contact cement is E6000 solvent-based adhesive, or Alene's "The Ultimate" adhesive. These are waterproof, permanent, and they cure flexible, just like the belt. No stiffness, and it moves over small pulleys very smoothly.

Thanks, I was wondering if it would be strong enough and you have answered my question, I;ll be buying belt material by the meter from now on.

Thanks Bob,that's solved my problem.

Brilliant Rob, great Idea and technique.....Now I just wish I had access to the resourse that our friend Karl has :) Cheers mate.

Very useful, thank you

just tried on a 2GT 6mm belt, looking for the result... Thank's for the help.

thank you!

Excellent information

Good one, thank you i´ll try it out ;)

Great video. Will it work on v belts for mowers?

I suspected. I just didn’t know about that scarf(?) joint. I’m likely going to be installing a belt on my laundry washer doing this. I kept thinking to myself, “This is just rubber and stuff… why can’t I use a solvent or glue to make this thing whole… even if just temporarily?” And cyanoacrylate was the first thing to come to mind. Indeed. Thank you sir for being resourceful and helpful; but most importantly, enabling me (whether right or wrong) to believe for a little while longer that I’m not bonkers. 👍

Very good info there👍

Thanks for "how." Sincerely better...

Could you make your own belts then with fabric topped with rubber cement or a type of silicon?

If using v belt... Look up nutlink belting.. There are other products that are similar... pretty much a stack of leather/rubber/plastic pieces. Each piece has a toggle one side, and a hole the otherside. Can join any number of pieces together to make a belt of a custom length. It brilliant for putting belts around pulleys with bearings on both sides... Think of the pavalava that's usually involved in replacing a v belt on a lathe headstock. Rather than disturbing the bearings... Just break a nutlink belt loop, feed the strip around the pulley, then reconnect into a loop.

I wish you had posted thar 2 weeks ago.... i was going crazy looking for a belt for a 40 year old belt sander 😨

Actually all your bits are interesting.

And stick your fingers to the belt. Well that's what always happens to me when I use super glue like that.

Normal CA glue will crack and fail because it is brittle. There are some specialized CA glues that are designed to produce a flexible joint. Search for boot-fix in the green bottle. It is designed for a flexible set, not a hard acrylic set. Also, I recommend using a setting accelerator.

Today I found out about link drive belts.

Brilliant.

I wonder if you ever got to try my idea on the hubless wheel, if so I'd quite like to know how it went?

Do you know if adding graphite powder to water then heating up the mixture in a microwave creates nano particles of graphene in a solution of water? If so, will the graphene become magnetic due to it's nano structure? I'm asking if this would work since you were able to make copper nano particles the same way; you always find ways to do things in the most simplistically ingenious manner.

great video!

Very cool.

Thanks, any idea where can I buy or find them?

U da man👍 gonna try it

Heeey! Thanks a lot for the video! Do you think this will work with a htd3 belt or is it too small?

I have done that to, but only as temporary repairs. I didnt use glue. I saw them together. I like what you did, but what about making som holes and saw a litle to?

can you share me the Stitching method ..any link or such? Thanks for the simple straight forward video

Hey Rob, if you speak to your friendly neighbourhood mechanics. Next time they do a timing belt replacement. They will throw away the old belt, pulleys and tensioner. If your not putting the kind of load on that a car generates, it will still last for ages. Also if they tell you the make and model of the car, replacement parts are easily sourced

You just said my bacon thanks guy

What kind of glue and what tool to cut the belt knife & super glue, contact cement, heat will separate .Spider wire sewing machine

Good trick

Nice

Would this work on a mower drive belt?

👍

Any vulcanizing rubber glue should do a good job on these.