Last week, I broke the belt on the Xbox axis. Ordered a new one from Amazon. It came, I installed it today. I went to carve a nice pocket for my holiday decorations contest entry, and the belt broke again! Brand new belt!
What am I doing wrong here? Naturally, I have no extra belt. So I’m out of commission again.
Do you know how much tension you’re putting on it? I was breaking belts with 5-6 pounds to lift 1 inch at midspan, and currently have mine set to about 3.5 pounds.
Did it break in about the same spot as the previous belt? Did it break where it’s naturally resting on the pulley or rollers when you’re not using the X-Carve?
If the pulley isn’t aligned with the rollers, that can cause wearing of the belt that will make them fail early. If the belt is getting a lot of dust and debris on it, that can cause early failure as well if it gets pushed into the belt material by the rollers or pulleys.
Good question on the tension. It could be that it was high. I’ll try starting lower next time, and just tighten it if I get tracking problems. Frustrating to be without the machine for a few more days!
Any ideas where belting could be found in a local store of some kind?
Can’t help with that, I got mine from Inventables when I was dialing in the proper belt tension.
I always keep extra belting on hand just in case. When you rely on the thing for extra $$ and you have customers waiting for their stuff, it’s a good idea to be prepared for this stuff. You can buy it on Amazon for less and it’s the same stuff. A lot of them offer extra pulleys to go with it and it’s not a bad idea to have them on hand as well.
Only thing I am having a hard time finding is a Z axis belt. Anyone know where to get those since Inventables isn’t stocking them yet?
Buy belts which are Made in the U.S. from SDP/SI — might as well upgrade to 9mm wide where possible while doing so.
