NLA belt for my old chop saw.. Or Harbor Freight compound sliding miter saw?

Can't find a replacement drive belt for for my old Porter Cable chop saw. The motor is strong and it worked great until the belt stretched. Part is "no longer available". That bugs me, since it's just a belt but I'm lost for how to select and find a suitable replacement.

Since shiny tools are always interesting... I looked at upgrading to a 12" sliding compound saw. But they seem to be $450 and up at the big box stores. For a known brand.

I will use the saw.. but not for a living... so that's quite a lot of $$.

Looking at HF black Friday ad. They have one for $136.

http://m.harborfreight.com/12-in-double-bevel-sliding-compound-miter-saw-with-laser-guide-system-61969.html?utm_referrer=direct%2Fnot%20provided

Anybody have one? Thoughts?

I do. I use it professionally, but not for really fine work. It has a little slop in the miter settings so i do not use it for crown or wood that will not get painted. It is awesome for deck and flooring work, and we even use it for vinyl siding because the slide can accommodate double 4.5

For fine work i still get out the dewalt non slider, but it has a bearing going out so it gets used sparingly until i can pull it apart to repair

I get nla belts all the time. Flaps, Amazon, or harbor freight link belt.

I've used the harbour freight sliding compound miter. berkeleying hated it.

My first miter saw was the HF unit, worked well enough to tell me that i needed to invest in a good one. It's a typical HF power tool, it works, but it's poorly built, inaccurate, loud, and generally cheap-feeling.

Give me the specs on the nla belts and I'll find them.

Dusterbd13 wrote: I get nla belts all the time. Flaps, Amazon, or harbor freight link belt.

Months ago.. I searched Porter Cable parts, they said NLA.

Inspired (thanks) and frustrated, I started over and looked it up again just now.. actually found a part number thru Sears.. and was able to order via Amazon.

Still leaves me with a 10" chop saw. But it'll do what I need for now, fairly well. All except for crosscutting oak stair treads. I may have to use the skilsaw and a straight edge (or jigsaw, by the Mazdeuce method)

Dusterbd13 wrote: Give me the specs on the nla belts and I'll find them.

Thanks for the offer. Found it.

No problem. Industrial equipment from the 50s is where I got good at it. I dig ressurecting old tools. Hence the newest tool in my shop is my 80s belt driven porter cable 10 inch chop saw. That belt crossed over to a local sourced vacuum cleaner belt.

Oldest tool is my great grandparents 30s craftsman lathe.

Porter Cable 7700 10" belt driven chop saw. 1994-1997 vintage.

Belt was fifty bucks

I bought the Kobalt sliding mitre and it's been ok. It was around $200 less 10%

I don't understand the need for 12" miter saws.

I have done high end trim work for over 30 years, and was perfectly capable of doing everything I needed on an 8 1/4" sliding compound. I've cut 12" crown molding on it with no problem. I eventually switched to a 10" sliding compound, only because the smaller saws were no longer available.

I think the reason people need the bigger saw is because they never learned to cut the material flat. They do what is called "vertically nested cuts", that is, they set the crown upside down and backwards in the saw at an angle (not laying flat on the table). But that takes a 12" saw and reduces it's capacity to about 5" crown, while making a much more inaccurate cut (it's easy to shift mid-cut).

Crown can also be cut flat on a compound miter saw, but instead of setting the saw at 45 , you set the bevel at 33.85 , and the miter at 31.62* . There are usually marks on the saw. It's faster, and much more accurate. It's a little hard to describe in writing, but there are plenty of YouTube videos.

HF is good for cheap tools that don't need to be accurate, or last for very long. That's all I can say about HF.

I'd buy a better quality, smaller saw, and learn a few tricks to make it more versatile.