For those of you with tools that are belt (o-ring) driven, this may be of interest. Loctite Corp. and APG make o-ring splicing kits that consist of buna N o-ring material, CA adhesive, and a cutting/glueing tool (for making straight cuts and bonding surfaces allowing for better adhesion. These typically cost less than twenty dollars.

I know that o-rings are available from dozens of sources, but in the wee hours, they may avert a catastrophy.

You can check them out on their web sites. and find a local distributor.

[www.henkelna.com]

[www.callapg.com]

Who knows, Backlash may end up carrying them.

For those who may be concerned about their holding capabilites, over the years, I have used them succesfully in fluid power systems up to 600 psi and 300 degrees F.

On the second web site, click on o-rings and scroll to page 82.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2008 03:37PM by C. Royce Harrelson.

Royce,
Great advice.
However, another good thing to do is to go to your favorite neighborhood hardware store and bring along your current O rind drive belts.
Pick up a good selection of several extra O rings so that you don't have to worry about a replacement in the middle of the night when it is not possible to get an inexpensive replacement.

Generally speaking a good hardware store will have an appropriate O ring available in their plumbing department for a very inexpensive amount.

Take care
Roger

As we were always taught in Boy Scouts - Be Prepared.
i.e. for any critical part that might stop production of doing anything - KEEP SPARES on hand.
It is very frustrating to be out on an outing with someone who is not prepared. If that person has a malfunction with equipment, with no spares, it is not fun to have the outing ruined, because the spares are not on hand to minimize the down time of the outing.
I realize that it isn't practical to "spare" out everything, bue it is practical to spare out the item that have a history of problems and or an item that would be a "showstopper" so to speak.

Roger,

You are right that ideally having spares on hand is the best way to go, and as I mentioned, there are dozens of sources for 0-rings.

I mention these because of the horror stories that are sometimes posted on the various forums. I supposed that they choose not to do so.

A broken one can succesfully be glued with CA, but it can be hard to get good alignment of the two ends. That is where these kits help.