VIII
SPLICING LEATHER BELTS[5]
The first thing is the tools for the different kinds of work. These may be usually changed somewhat to suit the taste of the user, but in the main the style and kind herein shown in attached drawings cannot be very much improved upon.
[5] Contributed to Power by Walter E. Dixon, M. E.
Fig. 65........Fig. 66.
Figs. 65 and 66 show a splice opener for heavy belts. It is made of ½-inch tool steel with the point spread out about 2 inches wide and well tempered, after which it is ground to a good sharp edge, and then an oil stone run over the edge until it has been dulled so that it will not cut. The right kind of an edge can only be secured by trying; it is one of the tools that is very hard to get just right. You will notice that the manner in which this splitter is built may seem to be rather too much work to bestow on such a simple tool, but the reasons for so doing are as follows: in opening a 36-inch belt an old splice opener that was driven into the handle like an ordinary file was used and the handle split; that sharp point came back through the handle, and when it finally stopped it had gone about 2 inches into the palm of the operator's hand. Some ½-inch hexagon steel was turned down 6 inches, just enough to round it up; then a solid brass washer was turned out 1¼ inches in diameter and 1 inch thick, a hole bored through it that was a driving fit on the piece of steel and was driven down to the shoulder. Washers were cut out of old pieces of belt and put on with a liberal coat of glue on both sides; when the handle was filled, a steel washer which was 1/2 inch thick was screwed down hard on the leather washers, and when it had dried well the whole was turned down to size shown in the sketch. Two of these tools were made, one for belts up to 18 inches, and another that will reach through a 40-inch belt. The tool shown in Fig. 67 is an ordinary heavy screwdriver with the point rounded nicely, and it is used to raise the thin points that the larger tool will sometimes tear.
