Securing belts and tension adjustment

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

I am having issues with keeping the belts tight. I have read that some folks have had luck using a fishscale to set an arbitrary tension but haven’t seen what the optimum should be. Has anyone tried to add a spring to the adjustment end to keep the tension the same?

3

Just got my fish scale from Amazon. This will help!

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4

I tried the spring Thing. Their sitting in my spare parts box now. I had the zip ties for awhile and it worked great. I upgraded to the gt3 set up and found some belt clamps at openbuilds. Their ok. A pain to use but they look better.

6

I know right lol. They work good but you have to use pliers to crimp them on. So once I got started it was too late to stop. I considered it a challenge after that.

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7

I posted a little gizmo that Imade from 1/4 delrin somewhere on this board. I’m on a phone but can look when get home. The belts don’t budge any more

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8

Here it is

9

Thanks

10

For the Y axis I would try setting one side with a fish scale, then setting the other Y belt by plucking it and matching the pitch of the first one.

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11

That’s my motto!

12

Some people can’t hear the difference. I’ve played in bands with a few of them, lol.
:flushed:

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13

What fish scale did you buy? Share a link maybe?

15

This one. $8.79

American Weigh Scales AMW-SR-20 Yellow Digital HanGinG Scale, 44lb by 0.02 LB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012T9QNA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_17PMxbX473VEY

16

Thanks!

17

I made a video about belt tension, it’s in this thread: X-Carve Maintenance/Troubleshooting Videos - Add Your Own! - #2 by RobertA_Rieke

My belts are set to about 3.15 pounds to lift up 1 inch in the middle. I got this cheap fish scale from Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B301MPI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

18

As a warning; I tried to check my belt tension tonight, and yanked one of my y axis belts right off the machine. It was secured with a zip tie AND shrink wrap. Wasn’t getting a reading on the scale, and kept pulling… Whoops!!

Don’t do it.

20

Thanks for all of the suggestions and tips. I ziptied all the ends and secured it with heat shrink, that made it look neater too. I haven’t gotten the scale yet but at least they sound about the same and seem to be tight. Thanks again to all of you!