I have links on both my wood and metal lathes.

The link belts are great. The belt must be attended to for the first
while. They have to have one or two links taken from them as they
conform to the V grove in the pulleys. Without removing, the belt will
wobble and make noise and vibrations. They are to long. Take a link out.

Martin

On 8/9/2012 6:11 AM, Puckdropper wrote:
I never intended to turn the bandsaw into a project in itself, but that's
what it's turning out to be. This time, I upgraded to a link belt and
added a dust collection vacuum port.

The link belt was from HF. It's cheaper than most others, but looks just
like the more expensive one I bought from Woodcraft. Vibration at startup
has been reduced, but I haven't tried cutting anything to see how well it's
working.

The dust collection vacuum port was a little harder upgrade, as I had to
take the lower door off and cut a hole. I placed the angled fitting in the
center of the door, near the bottom. A test cut showed reduced dust output
vs the pathetic dust "shoot" on the side.

I'll have to try some real cuts to see how well they work, but I think the
dust collection upgrade will be most worthwhile.

Puckdropper