Gates vs Dayco belts

[Chris Barnett]

Heading out to buy replacement drive belts for the large Grizzly drill press. Have new chuck from Griz which did not solve the bad vibration problem although the runout improved.

Question: Many folks indicate the belts furnished with a drill press might cause vibration problems, but would Dayco be any better since Gates is not available nearby. Have never had problems with Gates but I'm not familiar with Dayco. Any quick knowledge on this brand?

Am beginning to question my selection of a drill press. DP vibrates so badly that the holes drilled in pen blanks are wallowed out and thus oversized.

Thanks
Chris

[Bill Huber]

I would try a Link Belt, I know there is a lot of talk about then not being any better then a normal belt but I know what they did for my old table saw, went from a jack hammer to a humming bird.

[Ben Davis]

+1 for the link belt solution

[Roger Newby]

Up until a few years ago most fractional HP v-belts Gates, Dayco, Goodyear, Firestone, the list goes on, were all made at the Goodyear Plant in Lincoln, NE. just a few miles up the road from me. They all were cured on the same molds and made with the same material. Just different labels. That plant is shutting down but I'm sure the tooling is being used elsewhere. Have you checked the quill for runout? Sounds like it might be bent.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The link Belt is more appropriately weighted for that application than an Automotive or industrial grade belt would be.
The Reason: Tension.
You tension an automotive or industrial belt to a comparatively high tension over most any wood working equipment. The high tension makes the belts run smoothly. Lacking the ability to highly tension the belt the thing will impart it's own bizarre hammering rhythm to the calculus.

The lighter weight belts don't have so much physical resistance so they run oodles smoother. So will flat belts but that'd be a whole new world of pulleys

Oddly, Flat belts are the most efficient at power transmission. Steel flat belts are the best. Straight cut Gears are next and V belts are about as bad as it gets with a power loss of up to 10% per pulley pair.

[Pete Bradley]

McMaster sells Gates machine belts. Top quality and fast delivery.

You'll find there's a lot of gobbledygook and mythology about belts out there. It ain't rocket science. What you're describing sounds more like a runout problem, although it could also be a lightly built DP with a lumpy belt. I'd start by removing the belt and turning the spindle pulley by hand while watching the end of the bit. If you have a dial indicator to check for bit runout that's better still. Roll the bit across a flat surface to see if its bent.

Pete

Pete

[Chris Harry]

Just got a belt from McMaster, and it was labelled Goodyear. But, ANYTHING was better than the stock belt Ridgid sent for my saw.

And I dont know if its just me, but a lot of my equipment (including my drill press) uses poly-V belts. That means no link-belt replacement, but presumably any good quality belt should help.

[glenn bradley]

As others have said, check runout. My Delta went in for warranty work due to that. Even with that solved the belts would oscillate at certain speeds and of course they were the slower ones that I always use. Higher speeds were smooth.

As Pete said, some folks get all worked up over the science of it all. I had already had the experience with my old contractor saw so I wasn't surprised when I switched to link belts and there was no more issue at any speed.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Dayco and Gates are the same quality belt. Both are good.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I fully support link belts, although if your DP has pairs of belts, then you are stuck with regular belts. You do need to buy matched pairs. I read someone mentioned oscillating belt(S), and this sometimes comes from a pair not being matched. One belt has most of the workload, and the other belt is along for the ride, not really helping....
Oh the Gates/Dayco question, they are of equal quality, either is amoung the best belts.

[Stephen Edwards]

I fully support link belts, although if your DP has pairs of belts, then you are stuck with regular belts. You do need to buy matched pairs. I read someone mentioned oscillating belt(S), and this sometimes comes from a pair not being matched. One belt has most of the workload, and the other belt is along for the ride, not really helping....
Oh the Gates/Dayco question, they are of equal quality, either is amoung the best belts.

I may be mistaken but I'm pretty sure that the two belts on my big Grizzly DP are different lengths, the front belt being slightly longer than the other.

Soon after getting the machine and using it just a little I noticed a bad knocking sound in the head when running at low speeds. I fiddled around with the belt tension a bit, got it as tight as the machine adjustments would allow. Problem solved so far.

I do intend to get some of the link belts for a couple of my machines. Not to highjack your thread, but has anyone tried the HF link belts? If so, how are they compared to others on the market? Here's their belt:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=43771

[Chris Barnett]

I had thought link belts might be the answer until I read a rather responsible (and believeable) post which stated that link belts were rather a fad which has lost favor in more recent years, and that link belts would wear out faster, which seems probable.
Although the first belt off the driver would be the more heavily loaded due to losses between the first and second pully which are not seen by the second belt, neither belt is coasting along for the ride; both are transmitting nearly the same load. The OEM belts seem to be a bit stiff which is not a necessity for a good belt design. I did find a source for the Dayco and since they are apparently manufactured with the same equipment, that brand seems like an acceptable replacement. Other than packing the spindle full of heavy gear grease, the only official suggestion is to find the specific cause for the vibration (duh). I do plan to measure runout on motor shaft and the spindle before getting into more rigorous solutions (selling and buying Steel City or even HF like maybe I should have done..could not be any worse!).
Thanks for suggestions and info on Dayco belts.