I replaced the flat belt on my lathe with a timing belt turned inside out. While it's much better than the old, dried up, cracked leather one, it still seems to slip too much. Since I don't want to over tighten it, how can I tell how tight is right?
It seems that for a given size motor, you should be able to get a certain cut for a given material and you could tighten the belt until that happened. E.g., a 1/3 hp motor should be able to a take a x deep cut, at y feed, at z rpm in d dia 1018. If the belt slips for this set up, it's too loose.
Or, can I just use the old 1/2" (?) deflection rule? Does that apply to inside-out timing belts?
Thanks. Bob