DIYbanter - View Single Post - Length of skive for leather belt to drive grinder

Steve W.[_4_]

wrote:
I am about to make a leather drive belt for an old universal grinder
and think it ought to be a glued joint so as to run smoothly. It
seems reasonable to me that the length of the skive depends on the
thickness of the belt and I was thinking that 5 to 10 times the belt
thickness would be good. But I looked on the internet and found
everyone talking about the length in inches and more inches than I
thought was necessary. The belt is about 3/16 's thick so 5 times
that would be about an inch and ten times it would be just under 2
inches.

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?

I happen to have some kevlar roving and was thinking of laying in a
little of that in the glue joint. Not a whole lot, but maybe enough
so that about 50% of the joint is covered with kevlar. I seriously
doubt that anyone has experience with doing that, but would appreciate
comments on why that is a good idea or why it is a bad idea. The
kevlar would be oriented so the strands are running the length of the
belt , not across the belt. My thought is that the kevlar would
prevent stretching which might make the glued joint stronger.

Now there has been a lot of discussion about asking questions in RCM,
so if you do not want to spend any time in answering these questions,
feel free to not reply.

In searching the internet, I found some stuff the Tee-Nut had written,
but did not find his web page on flat belt drives.

Which reminds me. Tee-Nut used to drink New Castle Brown. i recently
had some Brooklyn Brown which I enjoyed even more than the New Castle
Brown. But both are good stuff in my book.

Dan

3/16" thick leather should have a skive closer to 6"

--
Steve W.