Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Charles Spencer]

Yesterday turned out to be machine maintenance day.  I replaced the 3450 RPM motor on my little Garvin horizontal mill with a 1725 RPM.  This produced more usable speeds.  I also swapped out the motor spindle pulley.

A couple of weeks ago I made my first leather belt for this mill.  A while back I bought a belt lacer like this one:

   


  belt lacer 2.jpg (Size: 22.38 KB / Downloads: 216)

I paid $12 for it and apparently that was a pretty good deal.  I had seen Keith Rucker use one in a video.  They are not at all difficult to use.  You put the clips in the narrow slots, put it in the bench vise, insert the end of the belt, and tighten the vise.  The skewer looking thing attached by a chain holds the clips in place by means of a narrow hole that runs through the bottom of the slots.  I bought the clips and I also got some coated wire they use as a pin to hold them together.

http://www.sloanex.com/hay-parts/belt-lacers.html

They work pretty well but you could probably use any stiff gauge coated wire that fits.  I mention this because I replaced the cotter pins in the belts on my two South Bend lathes with them.  They run smoother now.