Link Belts on a Uni?

[Herb Blair]

Years ago I upgraded my old Craftsman table saw to Link Belts and felt that it did a great job of reducing vibration.
I recently purchased a new Unisaw and would like to do the same for it.
Who has done this and how many feet of Link belt did it take?

[Rick Lizek]

I work on machines and I would not waste the money. A cog belt is a much better choice. The link belts are good on a contractor saw where the belt is suspended by gravity and regular belts develop a memory which causes the motor to bounce and it loses power and slips on the up bounce. The belt tension is fixed on a cabinet saw so there is no advantage with a link belt. Just buy three belts at the same time. No need to spend extra on matched belts either. The saw will run fine on one belt also. Delta knows this and if they reduced the number of belts folks would be up in arms thinking they were cheapening the saw. PM went to 2 belts. If you look at the larger panel saws with 7 to 9 hp they only use one belt and are fine. We have a Griggio with one belt and there is no slipping with our 18" blade.

[Herb Blair]

Thanks for the advice Rick. Good Points.

[Jim Becker]

I have link belts on my Jet cabinet saw and have not had any ill effects...and it eliminated the "set" that the factory belts always got when the machine sat for a few days without use. That said, a high-quality match set of three vee belts may deliver more actual power since they are al truly the same length...something pretty much "impossible" with the link belts.

[Bill Lewis]

all truly the same length...something pretty much "impossible" with the link belts.

Jim, I was wondering if this would be an issue with link belts. I recently posted this same question regarding belts The ones that came on my new unisaw definately had a set to them. Regardless of the fixed tension, the saw will still vibrate/jump on start up and shut down. If it gets really annoying, or never goes away, I might try to find some better belts in the future.

[Rick Lizek]

Try cogged v belts or wedged v belts. The cogged are better for small diameter pulleys and don't suffer from the memory factor as they are more flexible. The wedged ride lower in the v and transmit more horsepower. I see no reason to spend the extra on a matched set of belts. Just buy three belts at the same time. Belts are made more consistent than in the old days and I don't think you would notice any loss of power if you ran one belt. Like I mentioned before all the more powerful saws run one belt and I'm talking 7 to 9 hp. www.mcmaster.com carries the cogged and wedge belts as should any decent power transmission dealer in your area.