Starting to research options for doing a single belt mod to my RF-30. This won't happen for a while but since I am researching pulleys and belts for my current rebuild of the machine I figured I might as well gain an understanding of where to go once and if I get a chance to take it to the next step.
The idea would be to go to a single belt between the motor and the spindle with possibly an idler for tension control but ideally not.
Option 1 is a long belt going from motor to spindle with pulleys large enough for the belt to clear the round column. Concerned about belt sag in this case and the potential need for greater tension in order to deal with it.
Option 2 would be to bring the motor forward, lose the enclosing sheet metal and mount the motor upside-down on the front of the head with a short belt to the spindle pulley. This would be a much tighter layout but it would shift a lot of weight to the front of the column. Not sure what that would do to such things as being able to crank the head up or down. Could be fixed with an electric jack replacement for the hand crank or slicker motorized version.
Aside from the million choices one could make for such setups, the most fundamental question is about the type of belt to use. There are timing belts and ribbed belts (like they use on superchargers). What would you use and why?
Thanks,
-Martin