miriam

I would like to see a photo of your belt where you joined it

irishrose

That is truly a 'golden girl!' She's the right age and right color. How cool!

vintagemotif

Here ya go!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]312339[/ATTACH]

miriam

Now THAT'S a 'golden girl'!

Up North

Just how did you join it?

vintagemotif

Before sewing the two ends together, I took a small piece of packing tape to hold the ends in place. The tubing bends and doesn't hold its shape when sewing. So, to reinforce the material before sewing (and make it easier to sew), I wrapped a small piece of packing tape around the section I would be sewing. Then I took the dental floss, doubled it and made a quilting knot at end, went through the tubing a couple of times, and ended with a double half hitch knot. Some of the edges of the packing tape are showing the signs of wear from where the tape hit the machine, (which was before I filed down the machine areas where the belt hits).
Hope that makes sense.

Up North

Thanks, I use dental floss a lot to sew things like that

miriam

I guess my worry would be the tape gooing up the wheel.

Bennett

Thanks for showing that. It's always the little details I wonder about. I'm not familiar with aquarium tubing. Is it a stiffer plastic or more of a squishy, floppy plastic? Does it have much stretch to it?

miriam

The tube I found is too thick to go through the channels in the Singer 401A. Some spinning wheel belt might do the trick. Someone here is experimenting with it. I saw that you can fuse clothes line but I think it might be just as thick as the aquarium tube - at least now I have some idea how to hold it together. I have wondered if an extension cord would do - it is the right size but holding it together might be a trick.