Replacing belts on a Bridgewood 15” planer

[Brian Steinberger]

I basically did a major cleaning on my Bridgewood 15” planer I’ve had for 5 years over the last few days. Removed and cleaned indeed and outfeed rollers, cleaned and greased all the chains and sprockets, changed the oil etc. in the process I re-tensioned the belts as they had been vibrating for some time and I found them a bit loose. When I fired up the machine this morning it sounds better but still roared and vibrated quite noticeably after turning it off.

So I think I want to replace the belts. Who knows how old they are. My first reaction is to put a power twist v link belt on. This has always worked great for me. However I’ve never used them in a situation where there are 3 drive belts like on my planer.

Would link belts be ok in this situation? Or should I find a nice matched set of new V Belts? If I should stick with the V belts where is a good place to purchase a quality set?

My planer is very similar to the Grizzly G0453.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Rod Sheridan]

I would stick to standard belts.

Go to any local power transmission supplier, they will have quality belts.

I wouldn't worry about a matched set, not required for such a low powered load...........Regards, Rod.

[Matt Day]

You could try cogged belts to, the AX ones I think would be what you’d need. They handle small radius pulleys a bit better.

[Brian Steinberger]

Thanks guys. I see some Browning AX belts on amazon. They appear to be cogged. They are measured in pitch length? How do I know exactly what size I need?

[Brian Steinberger]

I did find a nice belt length calculator online. I’ll put the link below in case anyone else is interested.

https://bepltd.com/pages/how-to-calculate-belt-length

[Matt Day]

Your old belts should have markings on them giving you the size.

[Don Jarvie]

Surplus Center.com has a great variety of belts in pretty much all sizes.