I'm after some advice, I have a Startrite LM260 planer thicknesser, I changed a very worn and noisy V belt for a link belt costing £34 from Ebay. the link belt is dramatically quieter but I have removed five links since intalling it and it seems that the tension required to stop it from slipping is possibly going to cause long term harm to the motor pulley. I am happy to keep removing links if it will bed in but i am wondering whether i'm flogging a dead horse. With the V belt i could easily plane away whatever i wanted but it's getting bogged down and slipping straight away.
Using a link belt on a planer thicknesser
- Thread starter MichaelChou
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Is the machine designed for that link belt, a vee belt transmits power through its two sides and should not bottom out and I wonder if the link belt has enough contact area to perform like the V belt, it even sits low and looks like a temporary solution to get you out of trouble.
You’re right. I got a torch in and it bottoms out on the pulley!! That’s the answer. Thanks.
I had it set up with air flow from the back and a 100mm hose running to my vac at the front. I had three holes at the back and I’ve ended up covering them up when I put in a sloping section to guide the chips. Collection got worse when I added the holes. It just gathered in the hood. I flip it upside down to use underneath when planing. I get about 70%of the chips planning and about 90% when thicknessing. It boomed like crazy before I put the sloped part inside.
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Ive got 1 for the thicknesser and one for planing. The thicknessing hood is much lower profile and has a number of holes at the front ( equal to the outlet ) and I get virtually all the chips. Certainly everything that gets chucked out the top.
The planing box is the same as yours but the hole is above the slope. I works very well now im on 6" pipe with new extractor. On 4" it could clog after a while ( the axminster extractor wasnt great )
Originally I had no holes, but pete ( inspector ) gave me a tonne of info on dust collection and it included having adequate through flow to allow the pipe to suck properly. Collection improved immediately
The pic with the thicknessing hood is the old 4", but basically the same as the 6" version
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I would try fitting a notched v belt. They grip much better so you need less tension.
Thank you, ive just ordered one that isnt notched but if that doesnt work out i've now got a back up plan!
Thanks for the reply, a low profile hood for the thicknesser makes perfect sense, this is version three, looks like version four is on the way!
Did you use the black plastic adapters to attach the hose?
something else that i did was to add some ply strips before the infeed roller and after the outfeed roller to deflect the chips down into the shroud
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I like the ply idea!
I used these, they are square to round 6" adapters.
I tried fitting a bit of pipe in it and heating it up to shape the end. 1 worked, 1 didnt. In the end, i found the hose fits well, just takes longer to change over, whereas with the 4" it was plug and play. I'll get another adapter and try again at some point as its quicker
Edit to say, the 4" had a bit of pipe which was permanently fitted to the hose and plugged into the hood or thicknesser box as required
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Thanks for the pictures. I’ll try something similar
