"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
I have a vibratory cleaner...that uses a "o-ring" type drive belt to
power the bowl. Which material type O ring will last the longest?

I use it to tumble/polish cartridge cases. Originally it came with a
"universal" belt..basically a tube and a splice barrel that one cut to
size, and used the splice piece to join the ends into a circular belt.
I ran out of the belt material a few years ago and havent found any
since then. Ive been cleaning up a bunch of cartridge brass...about
100 lbs so far, using some O-rings I had kicking around..but I had to
stretch them pretty far to get them to fit between the
pulleys...which gave them a very short life span. Since Im going to
have to order a bunch of O rings, which material should I be looking
for? The pulleys are in good shape and are of proper half round
grooves...for about a 3/16" round belt.

Secondly...how much tension would be best for this application? How
much stretch should I allow for, when ordering them? Obviously too
much elongation is bad for the belt...what would be appropriate?

Thanks!

Gunner

I recently used some generic rubber line for duck decoy anchors and made
belts for a fishing rod drying system out of it by heating and fusing the
ends. I don't use it very often but it seems to be holding up just fine.
If a belt does break I can make another one. Not much torque on them. Just
barely tight enough to straighten out the bow between the pullies. Your
mileage may vary.

If you want tough o-rings Viton tends to be tougher than the common Buna 75
(common hardware store o-rings) or even Buna 90. Really tough you can go
with urethane, but its much less flexible.

You probably have a hydraulics parts store nearby. They should have a wide
array of o-ring options.