Have anyone replace VPI SSM belt with string?

Having recently added Mark Kelly's speed controller, I've been experimenting with Stren braided fish line as an alternative to carpet thread on my TNT with flywheel. Braided fish line offers the theoretical advantage of very low elasticity. I chose 20 lb. Stren because its diameter is about the same as carpet thread & the knot is small.

The experiment was a failure. The exotic coating on the line grips poorly relative to cotton thread. Poor grip together with zero elasticity means that the fish line must be tightly tensioned to the point that the motor will not start without a push. Even with a helping hand to get started, there is audible slippage.

Cotton/poly thread works much better and its elacticity somewhere between rubber and fish line appears to be an asset.

I have a VPI HMW19 and am in the process of building a DIY SAMA. I want to have it out board of the plinth/frame so it can be really massive. It seems to me that if the pulleys are the same size as stock then no matter how long the string is, the speed will be correct.
Am I correct?

Also, my friend that has a beautiful Teres, uses silk thread that a very nice lady at a fabric store sold him.He swears by it.

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I am running a VPI SSM w/HRX & SDS with special bavarian linen thread. Works nice. Good grip, small knot (made the way Micro Seiki suggested), very quiet, very dynamic and stable sound. Much more presence and low level dynamics as compared to the stock belt as well as a premium industrial precision belt of german origin.
The super low elasticity linen thread wins in all parameters in this set-up.

Just did a experiment with some ordinary poly-cotton thread on the HMW 19. I got it working which was the main thing,but it is a hair slow (checked with a strobe and by ear).
I imagine some better thread and with more adjustment I can make it right. Therefore outboard here I come!

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I have a Ludlum turntable and the platter is driven by dental floss. This is very easy to do as the platter drive capstan is remote from the turntable and you can move it as far or near to the platter as practical.

Just take a length of unwaxed dental floss, join with a reef knot, put around the platter and the capstan and adjust motor speed as per a strobe platter.

The dental floss is terrific as it seems to last and last and because it is so thin and light it doesn't transfer any vibrations from the motor. I did use 2lb weight fishing line initially but sometimes I would forget to turn it off at night and it had parted by morning. I think it was the heat.

Great turntable. Silent as the grave. No rumble, nothing.