Ideas wanted

[KillDevilBill]

This is a personal project, not a customer. I'm "restoring" my old tractor. It's almost mandatory that it has a leather seat, but I also thought it would be cool to wrap the belt wheel in leather also.

My first thought was to stack rings on so the edges face out and burnish the heck out of them. That's gonna take A TON of leather, wheel is 6" diameter.

Next thought was flesh side out and burnish, but I'm not sold on that.

Right now I'm thinking tooled with the "IH" logo facing out.

Just wondering what the talent here comes up with. Looking for ideas! Thanks!

[Dwight]

I would cut a piece of 3.4 inch pine to fill the hole . . . nice tight fit . . . that would be screwed to a piece of 3/8 inch plywood . . . that would be  the size of the outside diameter of the pulley.

Tool a really nice little Farmall "M" . . . sitting atop a small plowed field . . . with clouds on the left and right . . . and the IH in the middle above the tractor.

Contact cement the tooled image to the plywood . . . get nails used for attaching cloth to a wood project from Hobby Lobby . . . ring the outside of the tooled image with them.

Start the tractor . . . sand the pulley real well . . . paint it bright high polish fire engine red . . . call it all done

May God bless,

Dwight

[Samalan]

What's on the wheel now? Does that have to come off first? If you remove what's on the wheel, then you would have flanges on the two ends that the leather would need to be proud of, so it might not be 8 to 9 oz, but 10 to 11 oz. I would put that on with barge cement with a minimum of a 3/4 " scarf. Laid with the lap in the correct direction.

Sorry had that wrong thought

[KillDevilBill]

1 hour ago, Samalan said:

What's on the wheel now? Does that have to come off first? If you remove what's on the wheel, then you would have flanges on the two ends that the leather would need to be proud of, so it might not be 8 to 9 oz, but 10 to 11 oz. I would put that on with barge cement with a minimum of a 3/4 " scarf. Laid with the lap in the correct direction.

Sorry had that wrong thought

The wheel is staying as is. Taking it apart would leave a HUGE mess.

It's actually made from paper! It acts and feels like wood, it's nailed together at the factory (79 years ago). 

1 hour ago, Dwight said:

I would cut a piece of 3.4 inch pine to fill the hole . . . nice tight fit . . . that would be screwed to a piece of 3/8 inch plywood . . . that would be  the size of the outside diameter of the pulley.

Tool a really nice little Farmall "M" . . . sitting atop a small plowed field . . . with clouds on the left and right . . . and the IH in the middle above the tractor.

Contact cement the tooled image to the plywood . . . get nails used for attaching cloth to a wood project from Hobby Lobby . . . ring the outside of the tooled image with them.

Start the tractor . . . sand the pulley real well . . . paint it bright high polish fire engine red . . . call it all done

May God bless,

Dwight

I'm liking this Dwight! Got the brain wheels turning.

[chuck123wapati]

i would leave it alone until i knew how to take it apart and do it correctly with the proper materials, and I doubt most leather workers know how to do that lol.. Those things were dangerous enough without unforeseen problems. and someone may use it at some point in time. Take your time on your awesome rebuild, it's a very cool project indeed.

[Handstitched]

I would  approach that with extreme caution ⚠️  PTO's can be dangerous.   I have 3 vintage  tractors,2 with pto pulleys ( and hard metal seats, and i end up with sore back and a  sore a...se)

Perhaps  leave it well alone if it's still in tact and functional?

But all the very best with the restoration  , you're preserving  history👍

HS