Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I was out shopping today and stumbled upon this Hollow beading cord! It is 2mm diameter with 1mm hole inside, the advantage is it is Much more limber with the hollow core so it passes around a small Diameter pulley Much better than solid 2mm o-ring material.
  The secondary advantage of the hollow core is you can make a splice with a very short section of 1mm cord, this is very benifical for guys like me that need reading glasses, the 1mm interior cord acts like a glue alignment fixture giving professional looking joint with ease! I am only putting a little more than 1/16 Inch of 1mm cord inside each half to avoid a hard spot in the new belt.
  I am doing some testing right now and the hollow belt compares favorable with how well Wilesco spring belts flex around small dia pulleys but much smoother looking and seems a bit more quiet. I can not say it is lower power consumption than a spring belt, but the best alternative I have found so far. Super glue joins it beautiful.

Pony bead lacing is the product name:

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A belt about to be glued, the joint is at 12:00


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Once glued, the joint is very hard to see, here my new belt is running the govenor on my D10 quite nicely. The belt tension is quite low yet it is conforming to the govenor small pulley fairly well, I am trying for low belt tension here only to reduce parasitic drag, you could pull heavy tension on driven accessories if needed as the belt is strong.


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A gluing method that is working well for me is:
Put a drop of thick super glue on one end of the short 1mm interior cord, slide this half way in the left hollow cord, it sets in a couple seconds because of the close fit, then the action of sliding the first half in scrapes the extra glue into a nice ring right at the 2mm splice, simply slide the right hand side on and press lightly to gather for at least 15 seconds, then wipe away any excess glue that has squeeze out for a neat looking joint.
  I am finding I am able to use the new belt only 2 minutes after gluing.

Thank you for the find. I like lots of options for cording.

I just ordered 60 yards of 4 colors for something like $5

But hurry, only a few left seriously.

Must be in high demand??

I wonder if I use the plugs provided, could simply use that?

The bead lacing does come with some clear 1mm joining line, it is hidden inside the packaging. It fits the tube well, but is VERY stiff, there are grades of fishing line that would be softer. I think if your pulleys are say 3/4 inch diameter and larger the stock joiners may be fine, I am just fussy and like to see a nice smooth belt path travel and don't like to be able to hear a thump-thump sound as the joint passes by the pulley, this is much more noticeable on pulleys that are 3/8 inch diameter and smaller as the 2mm belt has to make quite a sharp turn at that size. I had the 1mm o-ring cord in stock and it is the softest cord of the correct size I have and it is very compatible with super glue, so I used it, but I think there may be several products that could be used for the joiner cord.

Here is a photo of the joint material that comes in the cord kit:

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If anyone tests the hollow belts, I would love to get feedback on how they work out?
  My primary interest was a softer belt that conforms to the shape of a small Diameter pulley at low belt tension, but I am also curious how well they transfer power, for instance I was thinking what if you had a Solid 2mm belt And the hollow 2mm, which would slip less under load? If the pulley groove is say 2.5mm will the hollow belt squish oval under tension and give a greater contact patch?  Or any other observations (good or bad) would be great, thank you!