Miscellaneous Debris > Chit-Chat

Qume daisy wheel printer drive belt

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DaleReid:
When I was young, single and had money I bought a new Qume printer that interfaced to an IBM Personal Computer.  It was an amazing upgrade over the old dot-matrix with quality of print, and was of course blown away with laser printers when they came out and finally fell to the price they are now.

The 3/8" or so wide drive belt that moves the spinning print head from side to side broke when I was playing with it recently (which I do every few years when I'm feeling nostalgic) and wonder if there is a source for the belt material, even if Qume/Sprint has gone out of business eons ago.

I have no idea how to take a raw piece of that toothed, flexible, material and make a loop out of it, probably some sort of heat welding, but would like to see the old thing work once again, and have serious reservations about tossing it when functional otherwise.  Just the way it is, and I'm wondering if anyone knows a source for that kind of drive belt material?

Dale

Bushman:
You could try here: https://www.mcmaster.com/timing-belts/

vreihen:
If you get lucky, the DIY 3D printer parts houses (and probably Amazon) have bulk belt material in widths/pitches that may match what's on there.

As for joining it, many designs have both ends meet on opposite ends of the print carriage.  You may have luck stitching it together.  On 3D printers where a section of the belt does not roll over pulleys or sprockets, I have folded each belt end back itself (meshing teeth to teeth) to make a small loop on the end, using a small tie wrap to hold the loops closed.  Then, I looped a third tie wrap between the belt loops to join them together.  That third tie wrap works great as a belt tensioner as well.....

DaleReid:
Thanks for the source for a possible belt and the hints on how to make it work.

The amount of engineering in these things is remarkable. 

Here's to hoping I can get it working once again.

Dale

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