Flat belts

Drop it into Linsead oil and let it soak for a while.

Mart> Hi folks, i was given 30 feet of flat belt today, it's been hung in a

Cheers martin i'll give it a go

Gary M

According to books on the subject Linseed is a drying oil so will tend to form a hard skin on the surface. Said books recommend "Cod oil" or "turpentine and tallow". !! Personally I suggest repeated light applications of Neatsfoot oil to the outside of the belt (not the inside as it will increase slip. Soaking is hard to control and it could easily become so soft it simply stretches. If you can arrange to sling it between a pair of large pulleys it will help straighten it and make treating easier. hth Roland

Roland's correct Gary, I could not remember name so made an uneducated guess, as usual :-))

Mart> According to books on the subject Linseed is a drying oil so will

Saddle soap (any horse shop) - the block stuff is cheaper than the liquid, and you'll be using a fair bit.

Then when it softens up a bit, you can use neatsfoot. Neatsfoot on its own won't touch really dry leather as there's no emulsifier in it. Don't use linseed, as that dries on the surface and seals it.

You might need to take an old belt dressing off the belt, maybe even by scraping, before you get to bare leather and something remotedly absorbent.

For fine work and appearance (i.e. belts you might wear) I'd use British Museum leather dressing (home made) rather than neatsfoot. This is beeswax in cyclohexane, with some lanolin and cedar oil added.

Erm, I've just come in after two days away, read my way through this thread, gone back & checked the opener - & Gary didn't say it's leather. It could easily be a canvas or a rubberised canvas belt. Before you do anything to it Gary, it IS leather, isn't it?

In general, IMHO, you shouldn't use linseed oil, raw or boiled on leather. It is a fine wood treatment, but it decomposes into acidic compounds in leather & these will attack the collagens & rot them away.

On the theme of leather flat belts, I have some twenty meters of unused belting & mine too is as dry as toast but otherwise in perfect condition. Anyone know how they made 60 feet of one piece leather belt without recourse to a whale? ;o))

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

Big cows :-))

If you look closely it will be glued together some where.

Mart> Erm, I've just come in after two days away, read my way through this

Not necessarily. Cut in a wavy pattern and then stretched straight during the tanning process. ttfn Roland

So if you throw water over it it should return to wavy pettern :-))

Mart> Not necessarily. Cut in a wavy pattern and then stretched straight

Gary didn't say it's leather. It could easily be a canvas or a rubberised canvas belt. Before you do anything to it Gary, it IS leather, isn't it?

Kim, its a canvas belt, Regards. Gary M

Worth askin' then ;o))

Run it onto a couple of the biggest pulleys (perhaps a couple of car wheels with the tyres on) you can find & rotate it slowly for hours. Repeat until supple.

If it is rubberised canvas, don't treat it with anything except soap & water to get any old dressing off.

If just canvas - dunno - ask a maritime museum & BTW, it is OLD!

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

Thanks for the advice fellas. I've soaked it in cold water for a day that seemed to help, i'm planning to use the belt at the weekend to saw some logs on the saw bench. I'll run it light on the pulleys first and see how it performs. Cheers, Regards, Gary M

Skived joints, made with the aid of the "now useless belting plane" (harumph!)

While we're on the leather belt topic. I have an old West Bend tool room lathe that uses a 2" wide, ~5/16" thick leather drive belt. If the belt tensioner lever is engaged the weight of the entire electric motor assembly is hung on the belt. If the lathe is stored for long periods with the tension on, the belt stretches and the problem now is that it slips at rather low torque. I was wondering what the best procedure might be for shrinking the belt. I was thinking of removing it and soaking it for a day or two in clear water and then drying it, possibly in the sun. Any suggestions?

Thanx, Rob

OOPS! Brain fart. :( My mind must be like an electrical insulator. Once it arcs over in a certain way leaving a carbon track it is more susceptible to making the same arc pattern over again. I have mistakenly called my lathe a West Bend before too. Isn't West Bend a type of kitchen blender? The lathe is a classic vintage South Bend, as in Indianna. 36" bed, 16" swing. I'd be totally helpless without it.

plain cold water will not shrink the leather. However, very hot, still water with a little washing up liquid in it might do the trick.

The hot water will cause the collagens to contract, the washing up liquid lowers the surface tension & will get some of the crap off the belt, too. allow to dry flat in the Indiana sunshine.

Hot does not mean boiling! DON'T OVERDO THE HEAT!!

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,