Whew! That was a mouthful, but I wanted to get in as much info as possible as a headline.
Let me explain.
Putting on a new leather drive belt on my ca. 1911 The Free No. 5 treadle sewing machine has been like having a tooth pulled without anaesthesia – a painful, dreaded experience.
The Free No. 5 is a clone of the classic vibrating shuttle machine, the Singer 27 /28 and 127 /128 machines. On the right side of the machine is the leather drive band which is used to drive the machine with the help of your own two feet.
To begin with, a leather drive band must be purchased, and they can be found online – Amazon, Ebay, a great online shop called “Sewing Parts Online” (which also has a great YouTube presence, and which you can watch further down the line).
The drive band is usually 3/8″ in diameter, 6 feet long, cylindrical in shape, and comes with a metal C-shaped wire inserted into a hole at one end – you have to make your own hole at the other end. You can also get a stretchy band, as used on many spinning wheels, and that is also great – and a nuisance to install, too. It is melted together instead of spliced together using a bit of metal wire.
So, back to the leather band.
Before you can get the band to work on the machine, you have to remove the old band and then measure the new band. My machine’s drive band is about 5’5″ long, but to get the correct measurement, I have to insert the new band and track it around the pulley on the sewing machine, into the back opening of the table and into the wheel by the treadle and keep it in the groove that the drive band rests in, and then up out of the sewing cabinet to the front of the machine. This involves crawling around on the floor, poking here and there, and cussing from time to time.
From there, even up the ends of the drive band and then cut. And cut off less than may be needed because you can shorten the drive band, but not lengthen it. While the band is about $10, unless you have an extra band, you could just regret that first cut. As they say, measure twice, cut once. Very true!
So, once the drive band is the right length, you have to make a hole on the cut end of the band to take the end of the C-shaped wire. How to do that?
First, punching a hole in a round piece of leather evenly on both sides is a pain. Doing it without removing the threaded drive band is also a pain. If you don’t remove it, how do you hold the leather still when it wants to roll all over the place? Josh made me a jig which sort of worked – a v-shaped thingy to let the leather band rest in. I would lay the band in the jig and take a hammer and fine nail to the leather to make the hole for the wire. Taping the band in place was useful to keep things from rolling around, but if my nail wasn’t perpendicular to the band, disaster often awaited. Even an awl was no guarantee of a good hole.
And this is when the cool tool shows up and saves the day! It is like a pair of pliers in size and weight, but consists of 3 parts – a part to pierce the leather band, a part to cut the band, and a part to crimp the C-wire into place. Below is the tool closed, with safety lock on.
And below is the tool opened up.
Using this tool and the preceding steps, I installed my new drive band in under 5 minutes, and that included cutting the belt twice. Now everything is working like a champ! I can sew on my machine, wind my cylindrical long bobbins, and enjoy it all. Here is the machine, up and running!
I bought my cool tool off a seller on eBay – I ordered it, saw it was packed and ready to ship in a couple of hours, and received it 2 days later via priority mail. The company is “Lovebug Sew N Go” – 100% rating with thousand of sales. Very impressed!
The video below, from Sewing Parts Online, shows the tool in action, as well as installing a new belt. You can purchase pliers from Sewing Parts Online, and a belt as well. The YouTube video includes direct links for each.
I cannot recommend this leather drive band tool enough. It is a bit pricey, but the lack of stress and decrease in time involved to get the belt installed is more than worth it. If you have never replaced your leather drive band, of course you will find some great videos on YouTube.
My own experience, besides using this tool, is to stretch the new belt a bit, and then work the belt into the machine by inserting into the pulley, work it into the back hole of the table, into the groove of the wheel and around to the front. Pull it up onto the surface of the table and then measure, mark it with a pen. Cut the belt. If the belt wants to flop around a bit, use some tape to keep it under control The belt is then measured in length, and cut; you want a small gap between the ends of the belt – no overlapping. Insert the C-pin and then crimp it together. Test it out and adjust as necessary.
Every sewing machine and cabinet is different – some seem poorly designed and the belt may catch on the entrance and exit holes of the table. If your table and belt are at war with each other, wrap some tape over where the ends of the belt join to make for a smoother transition.
But – look at some videos first!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 