Easy flat belt replacement

I have been meaning to change the flat leather belt on my 10 inch Logan lathe but never got aroung to it. The belt broke when I needed the lathe. I went to the auto parts store and bought a one inch wide serpentine belt for a car approximatley the length of the leather belt. I cut the belt to size and glued a piece of thin reinforced rubber to the top side with instant glue. I then made two staples out of two wire nails with sharpened ends. I inserted the staples from the groove side in a groove so the staple was flush with the underside of the belt. I then crimped the end of the staples over the reinforced strip of rubber and the belt works like a dream. The belt tension is lower than the leather belt because of the rubber surface on the grooved side and the belt is very quiet..

Too bad they don't make them 4" wide and 8ft long.

More on this in the South Bend section

For the benefit of others reading this post, there are a lot of posts about this exact substitution in the South Bend discussion section. Use the search feature to seek out the threads. There are various approaches discussed for making the splice that may be useful for different users.

We cut sleeves from any width down from 18", length depends on tooth size. 8' long would be mighty big tooth probably good for 20 hp per inch or so.

I have a rubber belt on it I got cheap here in town ($30), but it's noisy as hell. Not just the slapping of the gator clips, but the actual belt noise (like tire noise on the road). I want to go to glued-joint 2-ply 5/16" leather when I win the lottery. Cheapest I have found so far is just under $300.

Belt

Hi Mike C
I have used a rubber conveyor belt on my SB 9A and my SB 10L with good results and find it equal to the serpentine belts which I consider expensive belts. Conveyor belts are available in wide widths, very long lengths, many choices of fiber reinforcement, sawable easy with a table saw, and much cheaper than most belts. Check McMaster and MSC.
I use alagater clips but am sure tapering and gluing will work.
Walt

Time to make belt

The method I used to make the belt took all of about 20 minutes and the price of the belt was around $20 If the staples are recessed into a groove then there is no noise. It's good that there are people that try different methods and make them known since flat leather belts have disappeared or are expensive. This was an emergency situation and it works. The gluing method requires that the ends of the belt must be tapered to match. n this method the ends are square.

4"x8ft

local farm implement store will sell it,maybe not local but next town over or so,it is used on round hay balers.I ordered mine over the phone.They installed the staple type clip gizmo hinge as well.
good luck
GW

Does anyone know what length serpentine belt I need for a Logan wards 64TLC 2164?
I plan on pulling the spindle and jack shaft not splicing the belt.
Thank you.

We have nothing flat belt driven in our shops any more, but as a kid I remember a bunch of line shaft driven machines around the plant.I still remember the clack, clack of the belt clips running over the pullys, brings back memories of my early youth, kind of like grandmothers hot chocolate chip cookies.