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Urethane Belts for Reproducing Pianos
By Spencer Chase

Greetings,  I might be buying the tools and material to make urethane
belts of the closest modern size to what was originally used.  Belts
made today have a different profile than the old belts which can cause
rubber belts to be noisy.

Dayco used to make very nice fractional horsepower belts which worked
smoothly and quietly, but the new product is not even similar.  It is
quite possible that some other maker has a good belt today but as soon
as you find one you need to stock up as anything can happen when the
belt is made in a different country the next week.

Urethane belts are very smooth, if made and trimmed carefully, and can
last almost forever in this sort of application.  I need to buy a fairly
expensive tool and a large quantity of material so I would like to know
if others might be interested in custom-made belts.

The cost will be about $20 to $25 for the average belt.  Since the new
belt profile rides on a different part of the sheaves than the old
belts it is best to size the belt in place, which requires shipping
twice.

Those who insist on original material need not reply; you can have
custom leather V-belts made which will probably be even noisier than
today's rubber belts and will probably fall apart in a few years.

Best regards,
Spencer Chase
Garberville, CA 95542  Postal service only
Laytonville, CA 95454  UPS only
tel.: 1-707-984-8356


(Message sent Fri 30 Mar 2007, 16:06:46 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Belts, Pianos, Reproducing, Urethane
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