Have anyone replace VPI SSM belt with string?

Just thought I would give you a suggestion.
I had a VPI mk4 and found if I did not level the Sama Motor
at the exact same level of the TT I would also here the belt movement at 33 but even worse at 45. You can look at the tt as it spins and if the belt moves up & down at all level the motor till it stops.

I've experienced the up and down movement on the belt. Here's what I found out, and did to solve it.

- No change by levelling the motor, but it SHOULD probably be level anyway, so no loss in making it so.
- Take a toothpick and make sure the motor fly wheel doesn't have any caked on talc buildup. Mine did and this solved my problem for a while, initially.
- Make sure the platter edge is clean. VPI used to recommend cleaning the platter with Windex and a paper towel (but not with the belt spinning.

I recently did all these again when the problem resurfaced and it didn't work. I then boiled the belt for about 1 minute, re-talc'ed it and put it back on. Dead even now.

Enjoy,
Bob

I just remembered, when I had my VPI I heard they had made a new TT belt. It's made from one piece of rubber and not sliced as yours is.
You might want to check into it. That noise drove me crazy.
And is why am this way today. My wife says no though.

Yes, I have replaced the rubber belt with a string on my Aries 2. Belt tension is of course critical since you'll not have the 'gription' of the stock belt. Easily done with SAMA. I don't have the dual-flywheel motor, but I can certainly see the difficulty in setting up string drive for the two flywheels. (However, the old style, separate flywheel should be relatively easy)

Tried dental floss, but it was too slippery-platter would not turn at a constant speed.

I use a carpet thread, and I believe the SDS (or equivalent) would be necessary to dial in the speed.

Benefits-increased sense of 'pace' and 'immediacy'.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have cleaned my platter with Windex and my VPI SSM does have those one piece black nitrile belt, but those small belts still make some noises from time to time. Wouldn't boiling the belts make them brittle and crack easily? My VPI SSM belts do not seem to have any talcs on them when I first used them unlike the older VPI TNT Jr that I used to own.

So dental floss will not have enough friction to drive the flywheel or platter? My friend who has a Micro Seiki replaced his string with dental floss and that's what Micro Seiki forum suggested as well. Maybe I have to experiment with different floss materials. One of the advantage of using floss or string is to reduce speed variation since belts stretch, but some floss are too slippery for this application apparently. So no wax, no nylon type if I want to experiment with floss?

Fortunately, my SSM does come with SDS so I can dial in the speed easily.