Flat Belt

The "easy way" is a machine set up to cut the belt to width, which a belt shop dealing in leather belting has. You might clamp the belt between two boards (leaving just the excess width sticking out)and use a plane to remove the excess width.

Mold (and cracks, if you have them) are not good signs - grease is par for the course. New belting 11-1/2 feet long is likely to be spendy, but is the right thing if this "working machine" is going to cost you money in lost production when it kills the belt - if it will just impact your hobby use in a negative fashion, it's up to your budget.

You'd probably do well to get a new belt. McMaster-Carr carried them last time I checked.

GTO(John)

I've trimmed heavy conveyor belting on a vertical bandsaw with a makeshift guide clamped to the table to control the width. It works fine.

Ned Simmons

Like others have mentioned, McMaster-Carr has new belt. But if you can get the used stuff for cheap, go ahead and use it. Just cut it by hand with a sharp utility knife. If your cut isn't perfectly straight, don't sweat it. It's likely that the belt you're cutting from is already bent and distorted from age.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Rob Skinner

snipped-for-privacy@netzero.net (MikeM) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Do a web search for "strap cutter", that will give you the basic idea...

--Glenn Lyford

Table saw with a rip guide. Though Id use a synthetic belt unless you are going for a restoration rather than a repair.

Either way..a simple fixture on a table saw would cut the belt to width as you pull it through

Gunner

"As physicists now know, there is some nonzero probability that any object will, through quantum effects, tunnel from the workbench in your shop to Floyds Knobs, Indiana (unless your shop is already in Indiana, in which case the object will tunnel to Trotters, North Dakota). The smaller mass of the object, the higher the probability. Therefore, disassembled parts, particularly small ones, of machines disappear much faster than assembled machines." Greg Dermer: rec.crafts.metalworking

Compare the dealer's price for used, oil belts, with the price for new from McMaster Carr. Factor in your time to cut the older one down, and also factor in the unfortunate reality that used oil belts neither work as well nor last as long as new.

Then make your choice accordingly. Unless the dealer were willing to sell you the belt for about five bucks, I would buy new. You could also try to find out where he got them, and see if that source had any used ones the correct width.

Jim

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I have cut belts to width using both utility knife with a clamped straight edge, or a bandsaw freehand.

RJ

Hudson belt in MA made a belt for my SB $13.00 at my door step. (508) 756-0090 They will take a phone order make and ship to you.

the belt came with the pin

Cincinnati Belting and Transmission. 513-621-9050 They can make any belt out of anything ever used for belting from leather to the latest synthetics, link belts, round belts, v belts, and varidrive belts also. Paul `

Weed wacker line is better then the original wire. It lasts just as long and you get the added benefit of not having your hand ripped to shreds when you get it too close to where it ought not be.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Rob Skinner

Remember - grease kills mold. Martin

I've cut leather strips and straps before, but nothing that long. As one other poster said, there's an item called a strap cutter used for making leather strips accurate in width, the one I have uses an injector razor blade(getting hard to find) and is from Tandy. It wouldn't be hard to make a copy given some woodworking tools and experience. It has an adjustable wooden block for a fence, the leather strip passes through a wooden fork and the blade is located at the open end of the fork. You might have to use a good-quality utility knife blade if you can't find the injector razor blades. These are nice because they're really thin and really sharp and pass through the leather easily. Anything thicker would take a lot more force.

Stan