vintagemotif

Joe, I can answer your question this morning. Sorry, I had too many other projects/chats going last night to explain why I'm using a different material for a belt.


The leather belt that I was using hits my machine, Singer 328k, as it exits the machine (front by bobbin winder area). This rubbing caused wearing down of the belt. When I recently switch the machine from the straight-leg treadle to the standard cabinet/treadle there was a mark difference in the amount of wear. The belt was wearing down faster and lots of little bits of torn up leather were flying all over. I have another steel belt that I can use, but that would most likely make a groove into the machine and lots of little bits of steel would be all over the place too. (It may just be a good idea to run the steel belt just long enough to make a smooth semi-circular groove, talking out loud).

I have the very cheap aquarium hose which is soft enough to bend and give in that spot of contact; so, I went with that in hopes that the rubber will not break.

I also realized that I needed to around out and smooth the surface area of the contact spot with a file, which I did. As I stated before, why I didn't think of this filing before-I have no clue.

The very few folks that do treadle a Singer 328k, most of them have just cut out that area of metal on their machine where the belt hits. I don't like defacing the machine; plus, it was design that way in the first place, to be treadled or be e-machine ( poor design though).

So, I hope that answers your question on why I wanted something different than leather.