9 Aug
2006
9 Aug
'06
3:16 p.m.
Can you
recomend any places to start looking (usual disclaimers, of
course). I collect names of companies that sell useful stuff for
hacking/restoration.
I just go to one of the local electronic stores. They have a wall display of assorted belts, each individually
packaged
(to justify the price? :< ). Of course, they have no information
as to *applications* so it is wise to know what you are looking
for before walking in.
Again, you're lucky. Over here, there are companies who sell 'belt kits'
for particular models of VCR, with no information as to the sizes of the
belts each kit contains. Great if you want to fix that machine, not so
good if you want a belt for something else. I don't know of any place in
London that will let you match up a belt (or who will supply a belt by
dimensions).
FWIW,
there's a program in the HP67 Mechanical Engineering Pac (which
will also run on the HP41 series with a card reader) that calculates belt
length given the diameters of the pulleys and the coordinates of their
shafts. It assumes the belt goes round the outside of all the pulleys, it
gets the wrong answer if one pulley is outside the belt (which would be
done if that pulley needs to turn the opposite way)[1].
The problem with many of these belts is they usually ride in
a groove cut in the circumfrence of the pulleys. It seems
like the depth of that groove is typically half the "diagonal"
thickness of the belt (assuming a square cross section)
So, one more bit of math involved. It's often easiest to bring
an old belt -- even if broken -- since the packages are
I've had blets turn to a sticky rubber blob (like the rollers in the
other thread), then you can't match it up.
-tony