Posted by David Sherman on Monday, July 16, 2001 at 9:49PM :
In Reply to: Re: Time to play stump the experts.... (Fred C. please...) posted by Lonnie on Monday, July 16, 2001 at 4:23PM :
The reason flat belt systems aren't used much isn't safety, it's that the belts come loose, slip off, break, take up alot of room and are generally a hassle. The fact that they slip when overloaded is actually a safety feature compared to a shaft drive or V-belts. If you run a mill off a direct drive PTO you'd better make sure you have the right shear pin in it or something expensive will break when the saw binds in the cut. If a flat-belt driven machine stalls, the belt will likely slip and come off the pulley and just lay there. As for safety there are plenty of farm workers still getting mangled up when shirtsleeves, hair, etc gets caught in a rotating PTO shaft. If you're worried about safety with any kind of drive, make a guard for it. In my opinion, an exposed flat belt is safer than an exposed drive-shaft because it LOOKS dangerous flapping around like that, whereas the drive shaft looks pretty innocent just sitting there spinning, until your shirt-cuff gets caught and it winds your arm around the shaft and beats your body against whatever's nearby several times a second until your arm finally rips out of its socket. Besides that, if you're setting up an old two-man circle saw mill, as dangerous as the drive belt might be, just about everything else on it is even more dangerous. Be careful with everything!
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