Logan 815 Flat Belt

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BarnyardEngineering

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Hi, I recently purchased a Logan 815 lathe.

The flat belt is so loose that the spindle stalls out if you breathe on the work piece. I am aware that the belt guard tightens the flat belt, and it is fully lowered.

The belt is a standard 1" wide leather belt, with the metal lacing and catgut pin. The tool to re-lace the belt after shortening costs is more than I paid for the whole lathe! For a one-time use, it doesn't make sense. Nobody I know has this tool or the lacing.

I had a wide serpentine belt from my old truck in the garage, so I attempted to do a serpentine belt conversion. I can't make it work. First off I don't know what kind of grinder they used to scarf the belt, but mine won't even make a mark on the belt. Second off I could not make any glue hold. The belt just pulls apart when I lower the belt guard.

So, any advice anyone could give me on this would be much appreciated. I want to make chips, but day after day I find nothing but failure and frustration.
 
There are a few members that have done the serpentine belt conversion and can help you with that.

I have shortened leather belts by carefully opening up the lacing with a screwdriver and pliers, leaving the pin in place to maintain the spacing. Wrap some tape around the joint to help hold things. Then cut the belt, and then carefully use pliers or a vice to re-crimp the lace.
 
The only flat belt I have ever worked on (outside of automotive applications) was running off of the PTO on a Farmall Cub driving a sugar cane press. And I haven't paid close attention to threads dealing with replacing leather flat belts with rubber ones. But in the latter context, I don't actually recall anyone ever mentioning cutting the belt. I strongly doubt that any adhesive is capable of successfully doing a butt splice that will survive long enough to get the belt tight. In other words, I think you have to buy the right length belt and pull the spindle to install it. I could be wrong, of course. :(
 
Not a butt joint on the serpentine belt conversion. The belt is overlapped a few inches. Bottom surface on one part is ground to a bevel. Top surface on the other part is ground to a bevel. Then they are glued together along the overlap. It's called a "scarf joint" and was commonly used on flat belts. People report having success with various glues but none of them work for me, probably because I can't seem to prepare the surface of the belt. I've tried my belt sander, bench grinder, and angle grinders. They barely make a mark.

The problem with these online belt places is they want a length. I have no idea on the length. You can't measure unless the belt guard is down so the pulleys are tensioned, but you can't measure with the belt guard down because it completely blocks access to the area.
 
Beats me. All I know is they start to cut and then abruptly stop. No matter how much pressure I apply, no more material will abrade away. The sanding belt/ grinder wheel doesn't seem to be clogged with rubber nuggets or anything like that and feel rough, but they just won't cut into the belt.
 
Two things I forgot:

1) great user name! :encourage:

2) if the existing belt is in good shape, just stretched a little long, you could consider taking up slack with an additional idler, it does not need to be high-tech or expensive.....

-brino
 
use a automotive serpentine than your problems are over, and pull the spindle. Or another possible way to do it on the leather belt, shorten it and use a hog ring pliers to re lace it.

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