Is this Leather Belting for a sewing machine?

[RWL2]

Is this Leather Belting for a sewing machine?  It's about 7/16" wide by about 1/4" thick.  I picked it up at a yard sale.  If it is belting, what can I substitute for a link to join the two ends.  I picked it up at a yard sale thinking it might be belting and I'm in the process of making a speed reducer for my machine.

[Kcstott]

Yes it is belting, and the ends can be joined by skiving down the ends and gluing over a 1-2" long section or how we use to do it in the screw machine shop. two very small steel plates with holes drilled for clearance and drilled and tapped. 4-40 screws to hold it together. 

[Wizcrafts]

What you want is a leather belt hook, like this one.

[RWL2]

Thanks to both of you.  I'm surprised by the things I turn up at yard sales.  I got a Consew 226 in July, a sewing machine table in August and the belt for a speed reducer I've built in September.  The roll of belting cost me 25 cents.

What glue did you use to attach the belt ends to each other?  I have some Sil-Bond RTV-4500 (primarily used for boats I think) that seems to bond anything to anything.  OK to use a belt sander to skive 2" of belt?  How much does leather belting stretch, if any? There's a certain amount of adjustment built into the clutch motor, but if the belt stretched, I'd have to cut the belt and rejoin it, which I'd like to avoid.  I'll be using this on a Consew 226, mostly doing things in canvas and denim, but might move into leather at some point.  Will a leather belt do the job or should I just go with a standard rubber belt from the beginning?

 

[Kcstott]

the glue I use is weld wood contact adhesive. 
yes leather stretches especially if wet or oil contaminated. how much is not really a standard as it's a natural product. it will depend on how much tension you need to drive what you are running. I like the hog ring hook though. 

[dikman]

The usual way to join the ends is like Wiz said, basically a metal staple. Makes it easy to re-size the belt.

[RWL2]

We've got a pretty good old school sewing machine shop (Sunbury Sewing Center) near us and I stopped in there this morning because he said he had clips for leather belts.  65 cents.  I showed him the belting and he felt his clips (which were for 3/8" belting) were too big for the belt I had.  He also found the belt curious because it was a flattened oval rather than round.  He reinforced what a couple of you have said about the clips being a good system because if you need to shorten a belt that has stretched, it's pretty easy to do.  He advised just getting some heavy wire and making my own now that I've seen what they look like.  I have some 16 or 18 Ga steel wire in the shop, so I'll try that.  I would have liked to have talked to him more but time is money for a solo shop, so I didn't linger too long.  He mentioned that he's getting people from several hours away coming to the shop to get their old Singers rebuilt.  Other than tinkerers like those of us who populate this forum, there aren't too many people who work on sewing machines.

[Cascabel]

The metal staple thingy is called a "hog ring", commonly used in upholstering automobile seats.  If you stopped by an auto upholstery shop, I think they would probably give you a few for free.

[MikeRock]

Somewhere here in the 'stuff' is a little pliers/punch combination tool for punching the holes in round belting, very specific to that.  It has a pliers gizmo for bending the wire clip to final shape too.  Got it off fleabay with a bunch of leather tools out of an old shop.  I used it once making up round belting for my old sock knitting machine bobbin winder and it worked great.

[Pintodeluxe]

Why on earth are you using a leather belt on a Consew 226?  I only see leather belts on the old machines that take a round profile belt.  Just get a 3/8" V-belt and live a happy life.  No need to invite the misery of a leather belt into your world.  

Good luck getting the machine set up.

[RWL2]

2 hours ago, Pintodeluxe said:

Why on earth are you using a leather belt on a Consew 226? 

A legitimate question.  Because the leather belting is what I had around and the machine isn't something I'm going to make a living with.  The spare rubber belts I had laying around the shop didn't fit.  I'm making a speed reducer so belt sizes were not calculated.  It will be trial and error.  I just happened to run across what looked like leather sewing machine belting at a yard sale last weekend for 25 cents so I bought it as a flyer.  Since I'd never seen a leather belt before I wasn't sure what it looked like, but for 25 cents I couldn't go wrong.  At a minimum it's worked to give me the length measurement I need for the belt from the clutch motor pulley to the 8" reducer pulley.  If it doesn't perform like it should, I will replace it with a rubber belt - but by then I'll have had an adjustable leather belt to confirm the dimensions I need.  I will probably have to buy one belt to go from the speed reducer to the handwheel pulley.  When I get the speed reducer installed (hopefully today now that the paint's dry) my next task is to find a pair of inexpensive 1.5" diameter hinge plates so I don't have to fabricate them.  The machine came with the hinge pins.

Cascabel - thanks for the information about the staples / hog rings being common at automotive upholstery shops.

[Pintodeluxe]

I've had a number of older machines with leather belts, and the tick-tick-tick of the hog ring hitting metal drove me crazy.  I tossed them in the bin immediately.  But you're right, the leather would be useful to size a new belt.  I use extra-long v belts for that same purpose.

By the way, I'd love to see pictures of your homemade speed reducer.

[RWL2]

2 hours ago, Pintodeluxe said:

By the way, I'd love to see pictures of your homemade speed reducer.

I've been taking photos as I built it and will post them as a tutorial since this forum has become the internet's de facto place for information on industrial sewing machines regardless of whether or not the intent is to sew leather.

[RWL2]

I installed the speed reducer and made belts today.  I tried using the skived method and contact cement for the one belt.  I used the band saw to create the bevel, belt sanded it to make it even, and used Weldwood contact cement to glue it together.  It held up until I put some real tension on it on the speed reducer.  After that I spliced it with wire like normal leather belts.  I started with 14 Ga wire.  I made the staple / hog ring ok with that, but it was too hard to work with.  I switched to 16 Ga wire and that was easier to work with and did the job just as well.

 

[Pintodeluxe]

Nice speed reducer.  That one looks about as good as my commercial box-style reducer.  Well done.