Snowy Rivers
Well-known member
Good things happened this morning....
No physical work....but went to see a local company that handles the Flexco belt lacing.
I get there and the folks are very polite and helpful....but soon it became obvious that they did not have the 550 series lacing in stock....or so they said.
We talked about options and I brought the conversation back to the reality that I want/need a lacing that can be easily dealt with in the field without special tools.
Riveted lacing was not gonna happen.
Thiokol had used the flexco lacing on the 2100 and the 1200 and the 550 series was what was used.
OK...MAYBE THERE ARE BETTER OPTIONS....BUT I AM NOT GOING ON A DAMNED FOOL CRUSADE TO FIND OUT EXACTLY WASSSUP WITH SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
The Flexco 550 was on my machine and obviously had been for a long time.
THEY WORK......
The conversation drifted back to the 550 lacing and the salesman says "WE can order them.
$125 per set for a 12" belt.
I comment..."So you don't have anything for "Touchy feely eyes on"
The other sales rep say "Just a minute" he heads into the warehouse.
Comes back with a nasty badly trashed box of parts.
There are enough pieces to connect three of the 12" belts.
Thiokol used 3/8" bolts....Flexco uses a special 1/4" bolt with a goofy head and a special nut
3/8" hex bolts it is.....
So the bottom line....
Fella offers me the entire box of parts for $50
This is a no brainer....Grabbed that deal in a heart beat.
So we now have enough to do 3 belts.
The card comes out and Missy in the corner handles the paperwork......
Conversation heads into the belting arena and I give the sales boys the dims.
12" wide and 187" long nominal..
We discuss the specs on the belting.
The lacing is rated at 300 PIW (Pounds per inch of width)
The belting he is showing me is 3/8" thick 3 ply at 330 PIW
The original belting used by Thiokol was 3 ply...... no PIW available at this late date..
The next jump up is a 4/500 (4 ply at 500 PIW )
The lacing is rated at 300....no reason to go that far beyond the lacing rating.
Now for the best part
The 12" belts at 287" long $140 each.
This is not a bad deal at all.....
I am pleased with where this is going....and the outfit is 30 minutes away and they have the belting in stock.
Next chapter in this project is gonna be to build the tooling to layout and drill the belts....and to assemble them STRAIGHT AND SQUARE....
So far..... my plan is to make a jig that can drill about a 3 foot section in one setup.
Index the end of the belt and drill 8 sets of holes....re-index and indicate off the last holes...go again.
I want to make damned sure that we do not end up with CREEP......poor pitch measurements are gonna suck.
Do not want the tracks climbing off the sprocket
No physical work....but went to see a local company that handles the Flexco belt lacing.
I get there and the folks are very polite and helpful....but soon it became obvious that they did not have the 550 series lacing in stock....or so they said.
We talked about options and I brought the conversation back to the reality that I want/need a lacing that can be easily dealt with in the field without special tools.
Riveted lacing was not gonna happen.
Thiokol had used the flexco lacing on the 2100 and the 1200 and the 550 series was what was used.
OK...MAYBE THERE ARE BETTER OPTIONS....BUT I AM NOT GOING ON A DAMNED FOOL CRUSADE TO FIND OUT EXACTLY WASSSUP WITH SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
The Flexco 550 was on my machine and obviously had been for a long time.
THEY WORK......
The conversation drifted back to the 550 lacing and the salesman says "WE can order them.
$125 per set for a 12" belt.
I comment..."So you don't have anything for "Touchy feely eyes on"
The other sales rep say "Just a minute" he heads into the warehouse.
Comes back with a nasty badly trashed box of parts.
There are enough pieces to connect three of the 12" belts.
Thiokol used 3/8" bolts....Flexco uses a special 1/4" bolt with a goofy head and a special nut
3/8" hex bolts it is.....
So the bottom line....
Fella offers me the entire box of parts for $50
This is a no brainer....Grabbed that deal in a heart beat.
So we now have enough to do 3 belts.
The card comes out and Missy in the corner handles the paperwork......
Conversation heads into the belting arena and I give the sales boys the dims.
12" wide and 187" long nominal..
We discuss the specs on the belting.
The lacing is rated at 300 PIW (Pounds per inch of width)
The belting he is showing me is 3/8" thick 3 ply at 330 PIW
The original belting used by Thiokol was 3 ply...... no PIW available at this late date..
The next jump up is a 4/500 (4 ply at 500 PIW )
The lacing is rated at 300....no reason to go that far beyond the lacing rating.
Now for the best part
The 12" belts at 287" long $140 each.
This is not a bad deal at all.....
I am pleased with where this is going....and the outfit is 30 minutes away and they have the belting in stock.
Next chapter in this project is gonna be to build the tooling to layout and drill the belts....and to assemble them STRAIGHT AND SQUARE....
So far..... my plan is to make a jig that can drill about a 3 foot section in one setup.
Index the end of the belt and drill 8 sets of holes....re-index and indicate off the last holes...go again.
I want to make damned sure that we do not end up with CREEP......poor pitch measurements are gonna suck.
Do not want the tracks climbing off the sprocket