Belts available in the UK

Just trying to source all components locally and after some advice on belts.

As I understand it the belts offer by V1 are fiberglass reinforced and I have also seen people comment that we shouldn’t use steel reinforced belts.

The only place that I have been able to find fiberglass reinforced GT2 belts 10mm wide was from Ooznest and they are almost the same price as all the stepper motors.

Obviously I realize that the belts are not something you want to scrimp on so was just checking if over £8 a meter is reasonable of if you can get decent strength belts elsewhere for cheaper without quality suffering.

Thanks.

That being almost $11.00/meter I can’t help but wonder if you wouldn’t be better off ordering from Ryan @ $2.49/meter, even with shipping? Or would duties apply?

Import duties would apply, that and international shipping costs are the reason I am trying to source everything locally apposed to buying the whole kit form Ryan.

Unfortunately It would seem that 10mm wide is not a popular size over here, lots of 6mm wide fiberglass belts for a reasonable price.

I wasn’t sure how that had gone. Some years ago I used to buy repro Ducati parts from a gent in Australia and even with shipping they were quite reasonable. Of course IIRC the exchange rate was quite favorable at the time.

10mm isn’t too common here either.

You can use 6mm belts, but the idlers, pulleys and stuff need to be the right size (not just 10mm, but the right diameter too). We used 6mm belts on all the machines for a long time. It wouldn’t be the worst compromise. Or, how much belt do you need? Maybe a few extra dollars on this one odd part isn’t so bad and maybe you’ll get really good belts.

I don’t know anything about how to get good deals in the UK though, I can’t help with that.

Have a look here I believe they are located in the UK.

The toothed pulley however is a different model then listed on the FAQ of LR2.

I don’t state in the description that these are fiberglass reinforced though.

I am assuming that because Ryan is selling FG reinforced belts that these are what is recommended.

TBH the price of the belt required wouldn’t break the bank and I have heard very good things about the supplier I found so for the sake of an extra £20 it will probably be worth it.

Thanks again for everybody’s help.

After having another look around at UK based suppliers I did some maths and worked out that getting 10 meters of belt from Ryan would only cost around £5-£10 more after shipping and duties than getting 5 meters from the only UK source of fiberglass reinforced belt I could find.

At least now I will have plenty of spare in case I mess up during the assemble.

For your edification, and anyone else who stumbles across this topic, yes, you want the fiberglass reinforced belts. Since they are making some fairly significant bends, the belts need to be flexible. Steel reinforced belts invariably stress and the steel fails within hours of use, causing all sorts of odd stretching issues.

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I am all for making a sale, any 9-10mm belts you find that do not say specifically are typically fiber reinforced. They typically only say when they are steel belted. If you can find them locally cheaper, I am all for it. Like Heffe said, you can use 6mm-10mm and it will be fin, just use all the specified pulleys and idlers.