The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I Installed a new belt on an Edison standard a few weeks ago and now i think it is now slipping slightly. Is there something tacky i can put on the underside of the belt to prevent this?
Thanks,
JB

JB,
There is a chance that you put the belt on too loose. After a little usage, the belt tends to stretch. I suggest that you undo the belt, make it tighter, and reglue with strong contact cement. There is an excellent article in The Complete Talking Machine, by Eric Reiss.
Harvey Kravitz

Hello,
I agree with Harvey that the leather belt has probably stretched. You should always condition the belt before you install it. New leather belts are usually stiff. Pull the belt back and forth over the edge of your work bench this will straighten ,pre-stretch and soften up the leather. As you know the rough side of the leather goes against the pulley surface. I once got a batch of leather belts where both sides were very smooth. You can use sand paper to rough up one side to provide better traction. Also make sure that no oil or grease has accidentally got on the surface of either of the pulleys.
Pete

You need belt dressing. It's made for exactly this problem.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#belt-dressing/=rys4wf

Many industrial supply stores carry it but you won't find it at your local hardware store.

Maybe it can be found at Amazon or eBay, I haven't checked those out.

In all the years that I have installed belts, I never used belt dressing. I just learned something new. I'll have to give it a try.
Harvey Kravitz

The McMaster product doesn't specifically say "for leather," so my hunch is that it's the same stuff as the belt dressing sold at auto parts stores to prevent serpentine belts from slipping. IOW, there's probably a local source nearby so you don't have to deal through the 'net.

A lot of the belt material that I've seen for sale is too thick, too stiff and too hard (and slick) to grab the pulleys well. Proper belt length and tension of the idler wheel help though. If the belt is too long, it slips; too short, the motor binds.

Once I was given a small sheet of very thin leather that seemed to me ideal for belts. I used a steel ruler and Exacto knife to cut suitable strips for making belts; it was great. Years later I went to a Tandy Leather store looking for more. As best as I can tell, what I originally had was kangaroo leather - thin, soft, supple, didn't stretch. But brother, a sheet of it is expensive.

I recently bought some belt leather from Wyatt's and have found it very satisfactory.

Clay

I would avoid stuff that makes the belt / pulleys "tacky".... the "sticky" could cause the machine to run slow or unevenly.

Belt dressing is best left to the oldsters running hit'n'miss engines, steam traction, and other stuff the runs from a big flat-belt.

I buy Ron Sitko"s belt material and I find it very satisfactory. A proper belt can have some slippage and still work quite well. I keep the belt on my Triumph adjusted so that when I grab the mandrel and stop it, the motor slows to a stop rather than being jerked to an immediate stop. It runs fine and has plenty of power for the upper works. What it does not not do is to put extra load on the pulley shafts and rob power from the motor. It also prevents the belt from stretching. That Trimuph, set up as described, will play 12 2 min. cylinders on a full wind with no slippage or other problems.
Granted, other Edison machines don't have adjustable tension, so belt size is more critical on these machines. Even so there are some tricks that can save a belt that is slightly large. When I restored my Standard D and made a new belt, it turned out to be very slightly oversized, so I backed out the front motor mount screw about a half turn or so to get it to run so I could see how my efforts had turned out. That added just enough tension so the belt would conform to the pulleys and grip properly. I never reworked the belt - it's still running well several years later just as I set it up that night. No need to remake the belt. Another trick along this same line is to add a helper spring to the tensioning arm.
I've not seen a situation where belt dressing is needed if the belt is properly sized and the top works are clean, well lubricated and properly adjusted so that nothing is either loose or binding. The pulleys must be clean and dry, the tension roller must be clean and turn freely, the tension arm must move freely on its shaft and the tension spring must be properly installed and not be bent or otherwise distorted.

Jim