Originally Posted by
J Miller
vintagemotif,
Thanks for the video. I watched most of it last night. She answered my questions about the belt in the first minute or so of the video. At over 9 minutes it took well over an hour to download maybe 3/4th of it. I watched about that much then clicked off.
I don't think I'd go for a metal belt unless I could get one for cheep. I can see it would come in handy for a "one size fits all" treadle base. One base with a belt that would stretch and contract for use on a variety of machines.
Leather doesn't work too good for that.
But I'd still be concerned about excessive wear on the drive wheel and hand wheel.
Joe
I have to agree with Joe on this issue. I'd never put a metal belt on any of my treadles - they were not intended to be used with a metal belt. They have survived a hundred years, but I am not so sure putting a metal belt on them would give them another hundred years. I will stick to the leather belts they were intended to use. I also think the aquarium tubing would be a good choice, but all my treadles have regular leather treadle belts. I am too much of a traditionalist I guess, but I feel we should put on those old machines things that were intended to be used on them. I just don't like the idea of metal - for the noise, or the wear and tear on the machine hand wheel or treadle wheel.
Nancy