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New drive belt?
In article vXTIc.69133$%_6.48378@attbi_s01,
(Sandman) wrote:
I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.
As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.
I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.
Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.
At your local hardware store, you can find rolls of "self vulcanizing"
rubber tape used by electricians Should cost about $3.00 a roll. This is
*not* ordinary "Scotch #33" electrical tape.You can recognize this stuff
because the layers are separated by a strip of plastic -- usually red or
blue. The stuff is very stretchy, smelly, and will not stick to anything
but itself, which it does with a vengance (self-vulcanizing).
I had exactly the same problem as you a few years ago, and the few
places I could find that had replacement belts for my 'table wanted well
over $20 for one. Just to see if I really needed to spend that much, I
made a "replacement" using a narrow strip of that rubber tape, simply
stretched, overlapped and stuck together.
Try as I might, I could hear no evidence of the splice at all, even when
I was looking at the 'table so I knew when to pay attention, so I just
used it for the transfers. Actually, it got overstretched about halfway
through, and so I made another. It seems that every time that heavy
platter started up, the belt would stretch a bit; eventually, it just
got too long to be able to get the table started.
If I were going to really put the table back in service for the long
term, I wouldn't recommend using the tape, but I was able to do a
foot-tall stack of vinyls with two strips cut off a roll I already had
in the basement.
Isaac
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