Flat Power Transmission Belts

Since it worked before, presumably the pulleys are properly crowned; but you might look at that.

By "half twist" do you mean a figure eight, so that the pulleys turn in opposite directions? Or do you mean a half twist in one of the straight runs, making a Mobius strip that wears equally on both sides (both pulleys same direction)?

If the belt is leather, it may have dried out over the years so that it is no longer straight.

Just some ideas....

The belt is in a figure 8. It is made of a canvas type materiel. The drive pulley is worn a bit on the outside edge and I believe it may be causing the problem. I ordered a new belt an inch narrower. Hope it works better. Thanks for the advice.

Tornado comes up with some good ideas. While experimenting. remember, a belt runs always to the longest part of the runway ( that is why pulleys can have the largest diameter in the middle)

Next to proper alignment, keeping the saw firmly planted so that it doesn't move out of square when making those big cuts is most important.

Then consider if you are using the same feed rate and not overloading the saw as your dad used to use. The sound of the motor slowing should be an indication that you are feeding too much wood into the blade. Back off on feed rate.

With enough practice, you might get to be as good as your father was on that saw.

I grew up with one of these in Arkansas many years ago. Ours was tractor driven.

Keep your fingers out of the way.

Good advice. You're absolutely right about listening to the sound of the engine. It can tell you a lot.

Thanks,

I have seen these many times at the antique tractor/steam power shows. The belts I have seen were considerably longer--guessing 75 feet or more. They also put them under a lot of tension. If your units are separate, they must be rigidly staked so they don't move. Alignment, both axial and angular, is critical. (I don't actually do this, but am an observer!) The longer belts above are steam traction engines driving sawmill, dynamometer, thresher, etc; a buzz saw would use a shorter belt, but 85 inches sound too short.

Per another question--the half twist is to control the direction of rotation of the pulley on the driven shaft.

Yes, I have seen the longer belts on threshing machines. This engine and belt are off of an old horse drawn threshing machine. Increasing the tension seems to help a lot but if the blade gets loaded down with a large piece of maple the belt comes off the inside edge of the driven pulley. The one attached to the mandrel. I have measured the distance between shafts on the drive side and the saw side and making them equidistant doesn't help at all.

Thanks for the input.

Blacksmith

My Grandfather used the same set up run off of an old John Deer tractor. We could go through wood pretty fast, and I bet cheaper than a chain saw and with less headaches. I don't remember the belts coming off, ever.

In Southern Minnesota we a variety of nuts that get together to run their thrashing machines, old tractors, and one-lung'er small engines every fall. There a good bunch, and maybe you can get some guidance over the internet. Do some creative Googleing and then follow up with some emails to the the clubs that show up.

Thanks, I'll try that.