" fired this volley in news:965b46a0-
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So does anyone have experience with making leather drive belts with
relatively short skived joints? Is making the skive 10 times the belt
thickness reasonable?

Dan, that seems really short. I had an old F.E. Reed lathe for years,
one that powered off an overhead line shaft. I have made several belts
for it, both for the main drive and for the longitudinal feed.

The belting manufacturer recommended something around 5-6" for a 3/16"
thick belt, but some of the old texts I read had you making the skive of
a length such that it would pass half-way around the largest pulley in
the system, regardless of what length that was. I tried both at one time
or another, and both always worked; so I presume the shorter skive is
satisfactory.

But my 'shorter' skive was a whole lot longer than your longest 10X
figure.

I also used alligator clip unions, and they worked just as good, but of
course with the repeated clickity-click (which some old machinists told
me sounded like a mother's lullaby to them! G)

LLoyd


LLoyd