Conveyer Build

[Lil Giants]

Well, no two tubes the same with the mold lines to use as a cutting guide... one belt is 69mm, another is 72mm... that I recall off the top of my head. I measure throughout the entire length to find the widest area, the cut varies 1 - 2mm in width... not perfectly true, but that shouldn't pose any problems.

Tight enough that I could probably play a tune from it. If the bearings I got fail, then I'll install bigger bearings.

[Rvjimd]

Sounds like you are a bit tighter than I am at this point. I plan on trying a bit tighter as I add the support rollers.

Thanks for the info.

Jim

[Jared]

One trick to improve tracking is to make the end rollers slightly crowned or fatter in the middle. That's how the old belt-driven farm equipment and line shaft equipment in old machine shops were made, if you've ever wondered how the belts don't fall off. A friend of mine was building some conveyors that had about rollers about 10" by 2" and the belts wouldn't track. I put them in the lathe and tapered the outer third of either end by about .050" or so and solved the problem.

[Rvjimd]

Jared,

I want to make sure I understand correctly.

The center of the roller diameter is larger than the ends?

I tried the other way making one a bit concave in the center but it made it worse.


(I guess fatter in the middle makes sense. Not what I tried first.)
Jim