DIY belts

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MANSION

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Aug 25, 2009
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Hi has anyone tried making their own belts.This is a common practice with the retro reel to reel guys as belts for these vintage machines are hard to come by.By all accounts o ring cord is the thing to use 1mm-1.6mm Nitrile as it dosnt perish and grips very well.This is cut to length making sure the ends are straight and then super glued together (use the real super glue not the 20 tubes for £1 market rubbish).
Ill be ordering some soon to make a few belts with and will post the results once complete
Steve
 

stynger007

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Aug 30, 2009
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The Great White North Canada
Good luck with that!

Some, if not most electronics shops should l have belts for these older machines..IMO it`s matching the sizes and widths without a service manual = trial and error, you just end up with a collection of inexpensive belts that are eventually used..
 

jaetee

Member (SA)
May 5, 2009
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Florida's West Coast
eldorado said:
too bad i cant get my hands on good quality rubber
That's what she said... :lol: :-D

Great idea regarding DIY belts, though... would love to hear more! I'm pretty much in line with Stynger... Trial and error (and overbuying the ones that I know are correct) has resulted in a healty little bile of belts I now have stashed away.
 

panoply

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Jan 18, 2012
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I was thinking about ways to do this -
Here's how to make a belt that is no longer manufactured.
Any size, continuous, with no superglued ends.
I have not tried any of these methods, they're just theories..

If you have a CNC mill - OR - a CNC cutter - Laser Cutter etc you could do this:

1: Buy some sheet rubber (nitrile?) of the appropriate thickness
2: Stick it to the bed of the mill with plenty of double-sided tape.
3: Mill out a nice loop in the appropriate size.
Fit the belt -- if too tight or slack just repeat the precess and nudge the measurements.

If you don't own a cnc cutter maybe this would work? Harder to get a clean result.

1: sandwich 2 craft blades around a 1.2mm width (or to your spec) spacer.
2: attach the blades to some kind of circular, adjustable compass jig.
3: double-sided tape some sheet rubber securely to base of your jig
5:: Possibly double-sided tap some kind of stabilising paper / thin acetate sheet to top of rubber to keep it straight during cutting.
6: cut out circular belt with firm, confident pressure.
7: apply band aid to fingers.
8: go on ebay and buy a proper belt.

Where's the mad scientist emoticon?
 

panoply

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Jan 18, 2012
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united kingdom
Thanks for the warm welcome Gluecifer.
I'm here because:
This week I bought a "broken" but mint Sharp GF-4646 from the junkshop on my street.
It's not the prettiest of boxes, but I needed a cassette player. It's silver, and nicer than anything I could afford in the 80's.

Cost £5
New belts - £1.50 on the interenet - thanks to Boomboxery for the advice on fitting

Listening to mixtapes I made as a kid - Priceless!
 

DocP

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Jan 25, 2012
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India
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