Attaching things to belt

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Good luck sewing through kevlar reinforced belts, and super glue will probably rip right out.

Actually, I think those two things can be made to work, though it will depend on the exact application and the thing being attached.

With a commercial sewing machine (like an upholstery machine), you can probably pierce thin aluminum sheet metal (less than 0.020 in) and sew it right through the belt. (You can also pre-punch thicker metal.) You can probably find Kevlar or Spectra thread.

Also, several types of belts are designed to be welded with a high quality ethyl cyanoacrylate superglue (Loctite 404, for example), which may also bond adequately to metal. Watch out for flexing the joint too much, though. Even if the glue survives, you may overstress the substrate.

In both cases, to get it to go around a pulley, you may have to attach it with a single line across the width of the belt. Carefully consider the engineering of this system, because it sounds like it's inherently kind of fragile. Chain may ultimately be easier: see here for more ideas about attachment chain.

[d.kho]

We're using the chain too, but duct tape works really well in a pinch with the belts. Since when did it not? (We've actually tried it.)