27 Aug
2014
27 Aug
'14
2:17 a.m.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2014, Al Kossow wrote:
I just thought of a really simple way to tell if the
band in your 3M cart is
shot if you don't happen to
have a tension meter handy.
[...]
using, but you get the idea. Bad belts have
significantly less tension
and require a lot more deflection to produce enough force to overcome
the friction of the table.
I don't remember if I've already told my experience with that (assuming
that you're talking about ordinary QIC cartidges).
Belts that don't have enough tension usually have a length of about 21cm
(put flat on the table). Using a cartridge with such a belt inevitably
produces tape salad, especially at higher speeds.
But you can "restore" a worn our belt by applying heat. The best is to
pour hot water (70?C should be good enough) and you'll see how the belt
shrinks and regains its dark black color. After that, clean the belt (it
may have some sticky residues on the surface) and restore it in the
cartridge. The shrunk belt has a length of 12-18 cm instead. I've
successfully restored many belts with that method.
Christian