Craftsman band saw slo-speed converter belt

I got my slo-speed converter set up on my band saw and it worked for about.. maybe 30 seconds before the wider belt disintegrated. Didn't seem like a big deal but turns out it's an oddball timing belt and I'm not having any luck finding a replacement.

Curious if anyone has ever successfully sourced one of these or ideas on how to work around it. BRECOflex has one that is pretty close – just a little too long.

I've attached a few photos of the unit with an intact belt as well as the specs that I've come up with.

• Belt is labeled BR-3000 with no branding or size codes.
• Pitch is approx .25" (yes unfortunate)
• There are 56 teeth on the belt
• It's the old trapezoidal teeth
• Width is 1"
• it's too wasted to measure the length but wrapping a tape around the pulleys reads 13.625" (350 mm)

any help is much appreciated...

Think I would look into why it failed first, what's binding, if a used unit is the drive pulley shot wore teeth.

That's the problem with old equipment ........... parts

Greg

I'd get in touch with Gates. They are the experts and they've tracked down farm equipment belts I didn't think I'd ever find.

Here is a thread that has a lot of information, but no easy solution.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/proprietary-timing-belt-250-pitch-custom-source-214658/

Having run it for about 30 seconds and owned it for not much longer... tough for me to know what kind of life this thing has lead. I do know that it had been sitting unused for a couple of 10 years. The belt looked "rotted" to begin with.... hoped it would hold on for my light use until I could find a replacement.

I sent a note to Gates last night.... will see if they can help. thanks for the advice.

Thanks Provincial. I read that thread as well and found the same poster on another site – contacted to see if he ever figured out anything.

I would be curious to see how Sears lists that belt. They have no parts but the parts lists go back to the dark ages. Do you know the Sears model number for that reducer? Sometimes there is more than a stock number for a part.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

see if this helps....

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283408&page=3

TheEquineFencer said:

see if this helps....

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283408&page=3

Click to expand...

Opps! I see now....

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283408



http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=18784

In case anyone is wondering.... got a message back from Gates... without specs from the manufacturer, they did not want to attempt a custom replacement. I totally get it. My belt basically disintegrated, I can't even give them a good read on the length and I don't expect them to trust the measurements from my $20 digital caliper.

I doubt Sears will be much help ... 1. they sold Craftsman... 2.The unit was manufactured by the long defunct Savage 3. It's not even listed in the "sears parts direct" database.

6PTSocket... I believe the model number is 9-2342.

I have a couple other feelers out. I may end up trying to replace the pulleys. Even if I could find a place to manufacture a 1-10 off of this tiny belt, I doubt very seriously it would be cost effective and might not even fit.

Thanks Equine for the links

ahhh me... another old tool another new project...

Just got a very long, helpful email from an engineer at BRECOflex:

Thanks for the inquiry. You may be right, it’s possible someone else had come to us asking if we make a replacement for these in the past. Unfortunately we don’t. The ¼” pitch is not a standard imperial belt pitch (standards are 1/5”, 3/8”, 1/2” and 7/8”) and we couldn’t offer with a minimum order either as there is no extrusion tool I know of to make them. Looks like Sears probably had some company back in the day make a proprietary run of custom belts just for this particular equipment. It was likely done to solely guarantee them the replacement part business if anything was to happen over the lifetime of the product. I’m willing to bet anyone at Sears today wouldn’t even recognize this reducer equipment let alone be able to get you info on parts or replacement sources.

I would not use one of those oddball V-type SFX belts in the catalog either. They aren’t the exact pitch or tooth shape so they won’t mesh correctly. Also lead time on those would be in months if they can still offer… I don’t think our suppliers in Germany stock those anymore. The pitch of 6.35*56 teeth = 355.6 mm which is 14 inches belt length exactly. Not sure which of your length measurements is more accurate.

Honestly the cheapest (from a standpoint of not buying minimums or new tooling and waiting a long time) and quickest solution would be to replace the timing pulleys and belts with something of similar scale, for example our T5 (5 mm) metric pitch. I know nobody likes to hear that, but the T5 has been around as long as that equipment and is a standard worldwide. Almost every belt supplier including us has that pitch if you needed replacements at some point. We can even make you the new pulleys within 8 days so you can keep the gear ratios that are in there and fit it onto the existing shafts. To venture a cost estimate, an equivalent T5 setup of the (4) pulleys (two of them about 3” outer diameter ≈40-50 tooth) and (2) belts wouldn’t be much more than $200 or so altogether. The belts are cheap, pulleys not so much, but they shouldn’t need replacing again. Unless you can find a whole new dual-reducer system for less than that cost, this would be your best option.

SO .... as I just said... I think I'll end up with new pulleys. Now watch the old ones have a proprietary shaft diameter.

"those oddball V-type SFX belts" he mentions... they have a belt in the catalog that is very, very close to the dead belt... but he's right... the chance that it would be a PERFECT fit are pretty much nil. Oh well... we know that BRECOflex hires thoughtful engineers.

I know this is an old post, but I was wondering if anyone has found a replacement belt/work around for this Craftsman slo-speed converter?

Dayr said:

I know this is an old post, but I was wondering if anyone has found a replacement belt/work around for this Craftsman slo-speed converter?

Click to expand...

West Coast Belts makes a direct replacement set. I just installed them on my SLO-speed converter. You have to remove the smaller pulley on each shaft and stretch a bit to install.