My vacuum cleaner has an attachment that has a small beater brush. The brush is driven by the airflow from the vacuum itself, turning a wheel that pulls a small rubber drive belt, that turns the beater brush.
The brush hasn't been turning lately, even after I disassembled the attachment and cleaned and lubed the friction points.
When I started analyzing things, it turns out that the belt has stretched out to the point of uselessness.
I'm sure that Sears would sell me a new attachment for $50. I'm sure that with a lot of homework, I could find a replacement belt, but I'm not really in the mood to do that homework.
So my quick and dirty cut at making this work is built around the hope that I can somehow shrink the belt. It's maybe six inches in circumference and fairly thin. Is there something I can soak it in, or heat it or cool it to reduce the size? I'm thinking that a quarter to half-inch reduction in circumference will more than adequately do the trick.