On Jun 30, 10:20 am, trader-of-some-jacks
wrote:
My vacuum cleaner has an attachment that has a small beater brush. The
brush is driven by the airflow from the vacuum itself, turning a wheel
that pulls a small rubber drive belt, that turns the beater brush.

The brush hasn't been turning lately, even after I disassembled the
attachment and cleaned and lubed the friction points.

When I started analyzing things, it turns out that the belt has
stretched out to the point of uselessness.

I'm sure that Sears would sell me a new attachment for $50. I'm sure
that with a lot of homework, I could find a replacement belt, but I'm
not really in the mood to do that homework.

So my quick and dirty cut at making this work is built around the hope
that I can somehow shrink the belt. It's maybe six inches in
circumference and fairly thin. Is there something I can soak it in, or
heat it or cool it to reduce the size? I'm thinking that a quarter to
half-inch reduction in circumference will more than adequately do the
trick.

Can you replace it with a big rubber band?

I doubt if you can shrink the belt, but could you build up epoxy or
something on the wheels and make them bigger?