Please do not apologize for "talking too much" during your videos. You are literally a walking encyclopedia of knowledge on this information, and I would gladly listen to anything and everything you have to say. I cannot imagine how anyone who cares to learn this stuff would EVER think that you over-comment your videos. For the price of this knowledge, it's simply invaluable. So thank you VERY much for these videos--and please keep talking! By the way...if you ever get your Logan lathe series done, put me down for a copy. In fact maybe there's enough similarity to the South Bend (or Atlas) series, so that one of those would be worthwhile to own/watch? I haven't used a lathe seriously since high school over 30 years ago--so these videos are priceless to me. Thanks again Mr. P. Guys like yourself, ShopDogSam, Keith Fenner (et al) are real treasures on RU-vid.
now a days in the plant I work in we use a plastic coated wire for connecting the lacing instead of cat gut. and also the little piece you used for squaring up the belt can be used to further push the metal clips farther into the belt material to help cut down on the clicking noise.
Today I was given a Powr-Kraft 84tlc 2130 Lathe. It needs a good cleaning, and your videos are a God-send. I am quite handy with tools, but not familiar with lathes at all, so your videos provided answers to all the questions I had. Your lessons not only go into depth and detail, but you also explain why things are as they are, plus you offer alternatives to procedures and methods. Extremely well done and appreciated. Thank you!
Just a few days before this came out I skimmed through the belt lacing section of "How to run a lathe." Very nice to see, even if I will probably never have to do it. As other people mentioned, "catgut" is usually from sheep and I think never from cats, which don't have much length of gut anyway.
FYI From Wiki: The word catgut may have been an abbreviation of the word "cattlegut". Alternatively, it may have derived by folk etymology from kitgut or kitstring-the word kit, meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word kit for a young cat. Great Video, I really appreciate the effort you put into your teaching, I have very fond memories of what I learned from my HS shop teacher. He was a Polish machinist that could do anything, make anything and could solve any problem.
I think Jordan makes a fine addition to your show. Teaching a grandson is a fine old tradition and what better way to demonstrate the elegance and logic of old technology. Let's see more of Jordan helping his grandpa.
I want to thank you for all of your hard work ion making these videos. You have such a talent for teaching and explaining the science of machining and metrology.
I learned so much form both of grandfathers in Ohio; one lived in Columbus and the other in a small rural town known as Reese Station Ohio. I’m now 56 and to this day this with my dad I enjoy working with my hands. And so true were their life lessons. As always, thanks’ for taking the time to make this video! And I support this site. ~M~ so keep-it up mrpete; you are still teaching many generations’.
Two thumbs up! Its Great to see your Grand kids with you that's something they will remember for the rest of there life, also I don't feel that you talk to much at all everything you say is worth listening to at least to me I can't speak for anyone else Great job!
Always great to go back to your video reference library to refresh my memory on doing a job such as this tip on how to lace up a belt seeing I am going to make a new belt for my 11" 1939 South Bend Lathe tomorrow. Just finished watching all your videos on belt lacing and the clipper tool, which I have a vice model of. Thank you, Ed K. Cleve. Oh.
Love that your grandson gets this time with you ! It is as important as the task of making the belt . Great job on both . I know this is older but react as I can trying to cover all your videos .
I replaced my belt Homelite Model A and I use that fabric belt had a hard time putting their stitching on it was about a year ago and it slips so I've gotta a leather belt I'm going to put on and I appreciate how you showed me how to get it on there I had several attempts on the last one, I approve how you take your time to get it right and talking this through it
Another nice video Mr. Pete. The metal piece that is attached to the chain that you used to square up the belt is actually used to set the lacing teeth deeper into the belt. Not really useful on a narrow belt like you were using, but on the 6 inch wide hay baler belts I lace it is a necessity.
Nice overview, Mr.Pete. I have two antique W.F.&John Barnes lathes and have been contemplating options to restore the flat belts. Luckily, I can choose scarfed and glued for the pedal lathe drive because it fits over the spindle without necessitating disassembly. The motorized one will require a splice similar to yours, however, because the flat belt threads through the headstock. Love your videos - I just wish RU-vid would make it easier to navigate multi-parts in sequence.
Dear Sir, I have discovered your videos only just a short while ago and, once more, I observe how the best discoveries are pure serendipity - I know this is an oxymoron but very apt in the circumstances. I do not seem capable of wrenching myself away but with the greatest of efforts and only for what is absolutely necessary. I feel that, thanks to you, my early boyhood has returned, when my most beloved pastime was to while away the after school freedom, inside the workshop of some very kind and patient local artisan, to gape and wonder as I witnessed the creation of something. The prowess, the skills, the dedication of those people was enough to transform some otherwise banal object into pure beauty. I has been the same ever since and I have endeavoured to imbue the very same thing into my own children and grandchildren. I am trying to tell you how MUCH I enjoy all that you do and the way you do it. Also I find the occasional visits of your grandsons a lovely, welcome addition to the common routine. They look and sound very charming indeed and I offer you my most heartfelt compliments for them. Please DO NOT HEED the negative remarks of those who fail to appreciate your presentations: here I join Mr John Ingardia and many others in saying how your words are not only most enjoyable, but absolutely essential to the whole thing. Anyone who finds himself in the mood to disagree can well do the obvious thing, to which I should like to add besides : go and take a very long walk on the shortest pier available ! Cheers! Most cordially, Carlo A Martinelli, Sydney, Australia.
Interestingly in UK farming, often with wider belts, these joiners are often known as crocodile teething / clips and are all joined along the longest side (underneath) of the clip. You snap off the length you need, fit to the belt using a joiner to set distance use a hammer on the anvil to close the teeth. Joiners were either nylon rod or two special rods inserted back to back shaped with curved surfaces where they touched. The opposite faces are shaped to lodge in each set of teeth.
I make conveyor belts for a living and we call the splice in the leather belt a "skive splice" where I work. what you have there is a piece of 4 ply transmission belt, which is pretty grippy stuff so you might not need the belt dressing just yet. you can cut that belt with a razor knife and a square just fine. they don't use catgut anymore for lace pins anymore, nowadays its a nylon covered steel pin/cable depending on the size of your lacing.
Thanks for the tip! I've recently acquired a Logan model 200 and just have to lace the belt to get her up and running. I'm not planning to use clips as you have, but just wanted to drop a line and give my thanks for all the videos you've made on using/restoring/fixing these old beauties. Maybe I'll have a video or two on my channel showing the ole' girl in action, but I mainly stick to woodworking until I have to make a tool or part for one of my machines. Thanks again!
Thank you for the wonderful vid. very informative, Good on you for acquiring both the nice Logan and the old repair parts. Not sure what it is about the sound of the metal hooks slapping against the pulleys every time the belt comes around but for some reason it's very comforting to hear that. Like the old LP's and the pops and clicks. You have great talent for educating us about these tools.
If my memory serves me, "catgut" was actually made from the intestines of sheep... Britannica online seems to back this up... It was used to string tennis rackets, and for surgical sutures as well - but, had mostly been replaced with nylon by the time I was a kid...
Great Video, I can see and hear your grandson Jordan has your sense of humor. I been watching most of your videos and enjoyed every one. This is my first comment.
I scarf my leather belt ends for my Logan Lathe on my belt sander between the sander and a 1x2x6” wooden board then mount it to the lathe glued up with epoxy between two of the same boards and pinch spring clamps. After it’s dry and run-in the glue cracks then becomes quite flexible.Lasts and lasts…😳🤗
Jordan is a smart kiddo. When you said you weren't sure if it was from a wild cat, he quickly finished your sentance and said "or domestic". Good to see your grandchildren working with you!
after l got my lathe, a week later l found the belts,crimper and a bunch of metal lacing at a yard sale for 5 bucks, made a new belt and l was off and running, funny how some things just work out,
Clipper...those have been around a very long time, still used often. I've worked these belts up to 36" for Almond sorting, and Lumber. Those clips at 9:45 will break quickly on a crowned pulley. Most of these conveyor belts cut easily with the 'razor' type utility knife.
Thanks for the video. I picked up a really cool Clipper Belt Lacer exactly like yours at a garage sale yesterday. It took me a long time to figure out what it was, and then I found your video. On your video, I saw where the name was right on the device. Sure enough, it was right there and I just hadn't put enough light on it. Also got a Goodell-Pratt speed indicator. I have to see if you did a video on that.
Nice job. The sheet metal "square" is what Clipper called a pressure plate, used to embed the lacing flush with the surface of the belt. Your lacer originally came with a tag that explained the operation, and emphasized the importance doing so.
Oops. Great video, but I believe the hair side goes against the pulleys. I just made a new belt today after seeing your video and my belting said this side towards pulley. That was the hair side. Also I searched google and found the same convention.
Thanks for the lesson, this is something I will need to do sometime in the near future as I believe my Logan lathe is still sporting the original.. As a side note the Clipper Belt Lacing Co. is still in business but under went a name change at their 100 year anniversary which was in 2008 they are located fairly close to me. they are now called Flexco. Thanks for the videos.
I have never once said "will you get on with it" to a Tubalcain video. And I've watched nearly all 700 of them. Plus the courses. Many I've watched 2 or 3 times.
The item you identified as a square I believe may be for going back over the laces after you have crimped them into the belt and setting them tighter. I have laced many a round baler belt (6" width)and that is what I use it for. I go back over the laces an inch at a time to make sure they are all firmly set. Mine is a little different in that it is permanently attached and slides up and down the row.
Try this idea it just came to me, Get a strip of flexibility strip of stainless steel like the one feeler gage made of, as wide as the belt and twice as long, make four holes on each end the size of rivet nails you are going to use and transfer the holes to the belt then assemble everything on the lathe with rivet gun. Make sure the steel strip is on the outside surface of the belt and the smooth cap of nails are on belt side. I think this would make very flexible belt drive all the way with no clicking sound. The down side is it is permanent.
I don't think you ever have to apologize for talking too much. Nice vid. By the way, a two foot piece of steel pipe placed over the vice handle is a nice lever for closing it up tight without straining. Don't over do it though.
Thanks I have a very old Cincinnati horizontal mill. At one time it was powered by a line shaft. It has a huge turn of the century three faze motor that ends up turning a four inch flat belt. Have worried what I would do if the belt failed. I have a belt machine but had no idea how to work it. Thanks to you I do now.
That's the type I last used. Didn't have a machine so the hammer was the magic tool. More often then not I messed up the offset due to some Spacial Dyslexia I have. The link was a crinkled pin that was a pain to get in and out if there was any tension on the belt. The real bugger was that the machine used 12 four inch belts in parallel and had to be exact in length or the belts would wander into its neighbor.
In my younger days, I ran a very large vertical boring mill that ran off of a line shaft. Had to lace anew belt once. Had to do it by the seat of my pants. They just handed me the tool and lacing. That machine was something. Victorian era engineered quick change speed change, a 1x4x8' pine board. In one of your vids,I think you said something about "every man for himself. No OSHA
The stick type belt dressing,if heated up to liquefy,dissolves well in isopropyl alcohol.one way to have a liquid belt dressing you can apply by brush.
I got it for 500 bucks out of a guys basement. Took me and 3 buddies to lift the main ways casting up the stairs...gotta be at least 600 lbs alone. When I get it all together ill make my first you tube video.
I read that South Bend booklet and it mentions to use the hair side on the pulley = the shiny side grips better, but our OEM belt had the flesh side down. I went flesh side down, just to keep it the same and used the thread stitching instructions. I have a lacing machine, but can't find where the staples went.
As always I enjoyed the video Grandpappy, best regards to you and the boys form your neighbors down south in the Shawnee National Forest ;) come by and see us some bright pretty morning...
Very informative as usual, don't appologise for talking, you get the message across extremely well. I am amazed though how much stuff you have in stock, do you have a warehouse out the back ? :-)
Nice video. At least gives me some ideas if I ever have to replace the belt on my Barnes lathe which somebody previously modified to use a motor. Unfortunately, they used v-belts instead of flat belts (the lathe itself uses flat belts). If I have to change, I might have to find some of that glue you mentioned and hand cut a v belt to avoid having remove the spindle...or check out the v-belt splicers.
Great video as usual Mr Pete..always entertaining. I was kind of expecting you to leave the cat gut pin a little long and mushroom the ends over so it can't walk out...seems I've seen that done in the past but I suppose it's unnecessary.
i have bought my first lathe and i need to make a belt! im thinking of leather with a scarf joint, though i wondered if i should treat the leather to help it keep from cracking?
I love your videos and hope I don't annoy you too much with some of my comments ?... .When I need to replace the belt I may just go ahead and try the old fashioned belt lacing and see about difficulty/functionality of this method ? The clippity clop sound of the belt wire is annoying if you ask me ?....I would think some "purist" would prefer the "lacing method" ? I Think I may to try it myself ?
I once saw a butcher take the end of his middle finger off cutting frozen meat he didn't feel it because his fingers were very cold plus NO blood was evident I was a fitter at the time I found the finger end but by that time he was already at the hospital. I didn't see him again after that incident.
I hate to be pedantic Mr. Pete but catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys. Despite the name, catgut manufacturers do not use cat intestines. Oh, and less talking? I vote no. And so does everybody else it seems.
