In article FG0Yc.8260$tI.7906@trndny04,
"William R. Hopcraft" wrote:

I've got to replace the leather drive belt on my old South Bend lathe. I
want to use a skived glue joint for the splice, but am not sure what type of
glue to use. Any suggestions?

Speaking as a part-time leatherworker...

Waxed cotton thread. Seriously. A glued joint is likely to be too
brittle to hold for long - I wouldn't be overly surprised if it exploded
the first time the joint crosses a radius smaller than about twice the
length of the lapped section.

Avoid synthetics, as they'll tend to be "slippy", particularly if they
manage to stop on a small pulley. And as an added bonus, if that pulley
happens to be the drive, you'll be re-stitching your splice in no time
'cause of the thread melting and letting go. Stick with waxed cotton.

Skive it down to a good long taper (at least 2-3 times the width of the
belt long) on each end on both sides of the joint - one side skived on
the "inside", the other on the "outside" surface - lay 'em up as a lap
joint, and put in at least two, more if you've got the width for it,
lines of stitching that run parallel to the edges, and at least the full
length of the spliced zone plus a couple inches on either end. "Sink"
each stitch (Try to pull it below the belt's surface, and/or stitch into
a shallow groove you've pre-cut on the inside of the loop) and when
you're done, if you've got the room to get the loop open far enough (or
turn it "inside out"), open it up, inside facing you, lay it across your
anvil (I presume you've got one... if not find/use a similar surface) on
top of a *wrung almost dry* piece of cloth, and use a fairly light
rawhide, wood, or plastic mallet to pound the bejeebers out of it. Not
so hard you thin out or split the leather, but hard enough to "seat" the
lap against itself.

*SLIGHTLY* loose stitiching is a good thing in this case, as it will
give the lap a bit more flexibility to pass the pulleys without
"thumping" - A super-tight stitch will produce a lap with less ability
to conform to the shape of the pulley, so instead of travelling smoothly
around, it will tend to either "stick" or "slip", depending on how rigid
it ends up being. Both cases will give you a "thump" and/or erratic
"grab-slip" misbehavior as the joint crosses a pulley.

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