crocee

How should I measure for a treadle belt? and is there anything I can sub for the immediate future?

amcatanzaro

Leather shoe lace?
All treadle belts come in the same length, you cut them to size when you put it on. There's some info around but I think the idea is using a piece of twine or something.

amcatanzaro

http://www.sew-classic.com/uploads/treadle_belt.pdf

crocee

Thank you. The machine I have didn't have a belt when I bought it but everything appears to move smoothly. I wanted to use a sub belt to make sure all was well while waiting for the new belt to come in. What is the preferred belt to use so I know what to order?

singerguy

i buy THIS BELT FOR MY TREADLE

Rodney

I've seen posts where people have made temporary belts out of clear vinyl tubing. You can buy it at any half way decent hardware store. I haven't tried it so can't say how well it works.
Rodney

amcatanzaro

I think there are two replacement belts out there. They are both 3/16 from what I have read. They are two different shades of leather but I don't think they are really different other than that.

Unless there was something I missed.

ThayerRags

I don’t think that you missed anything. The difference in belts now refers mostly to the difference in quality between artificial leather and real leather belts, or sometimes just differences between artificial leathers. I stock what I think is real leather belting, but I’m not sure if I could tell it from artificial leather or not. They’re getting pretty good at making artificial leather.

As a side note, did you know that the original “leather treadle belts” were made of raw cattle skin? They would take a raw hide freshly butchered, shave the hair off of the fuzzy side with a knife, cut the green hide into thin strips, and let them “cure” into a treadle belt. As the hide cured, the portion with the shaved hair on it would shrivel up, while the flesh side (opposite of the hair) would roll out and around the hair side as it cured. If you ever get to see an old treadle belt, you’ll be able to open it and peek inside to see the hair stubble inside.

CD in Oklahoma

crocee

I have access to a lot of raw cattle skin but I wonder if I could handle the smell as it was curing..ewwwwww

amcatanzaro

If one is real leather and the other is faux that would explain the price difference. I know they stretch as time goes on, is there a difference in the two with stretching?