Thanks for the information.  I'm interested to find the results of your comparison of the belts.  I've had mine for almost 16 years and used it quite a lot with no real problems.

Recently, after planning a lot of pine, it became difficult to crank in up and down.  When I looked inside, I was surprised that it moved at all.



I cleaned it and replaced the blades (long overdue) and it's working like new.

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