Shafting, Pulleys, Belting and Rope Transmission

by Hubert E. Collins

IX

THE CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF
LEATHER BELTS[6]

Outside of the direct care and management of high-pressure boilers and the steam lines pertaining thereto, there is no other part of a power or lighting plant, mill or factory in which a large number of indirect connected machines are used that is of such vital importance as leather belting and rope drives. The subject under discussion in this chapter will be the former, and the selection, care and management thereof.

[6] Contributed to Power by Walter E. Dixon. M. E.

The first thing in order will be the selection of a leather belt, and when we consider that all makers make good belts, that there are no particular secrets in the belt-making business, and that in order to get the very best we must take every advantage of all small details in construction, it stands every engineer and belt user in hand to get all the information available; for we must remember that the percentage of good hides does not run very high, that all that are bought go into belt stock of some kind or other, and that some one must buy the goods that are not quite up to the standard of belt excellence. It is very evident that no man wants anything but the best when he is paying for the best, and it is also evident that no maker is going to say that he makes inferior goods; so therefore we must read the quality by what is in sight, and in the judging of leather that is already made up, the proposition resolves itself into a very hard one.

The two principal things left for an opinion to be based upon as to quality are the relation the pieces that constitute the laps bear to the hide from which they were cut. They should, in belts running from 18 to 36 inches, be cut from the center of the hides, or should be what is known as "center stock." Of course all belts should be "center stock," but where they are very narrow or so wide that one hide will not be wide enough to make a lap, then there is always a lot of narrow stock worked in that cannot always be strictly center. The next thing to look out for is brands that are so deep that they destroy the life of the leather and will cause it to break after being used. Then look out for the length of lap. If this is too long, you will know that it runs into the neck, for about all that it is possible to get out of average hides and still leave nothing in that is not first class is 54 or 56 inches. Ordinarily, you can tell if a lap is "center stock" by the marks that run down either side of the back bone; they will be usually a little darker than the rest of the belt. These marks or streaks should be in the center of the belt. The principal objection to neck leather is that it is liable to stretch excessively, and on this account it will put too much load on the piece immediately opposite it in a double-ply belt; for the point of one side is in the middle of the lap on the other side. Next look out for holes, which will usually be found so nicely plugged as to escape detection unless subjected to the most careful examination.

Next in importance is to buy a belt that has already been filled with some good waterproof dressing. It is quite likely that to buy a belt that has been filled means to buy one that perhaps has some bad leather in it that would be seen in a dry oak tan belt, and also that the adhesive power of the filled belt is not quite equal to the dry one; but the points that the filled one possesses over the one not filled are, first and mainly, "it is filled when you buy it with a preparation that does not injure the leather in the least," and the preparation you will fill it with, for it will be filled, will be engine oil and water, a combination that will ruin any belt made and also get it in six months into a condition that will make a permanent repair with glue impossible, for machine oil and moisture are strangers to glue and will ever be. More good belts are ruined by being soaked with engine oil until the points come loose and then pulled out of shape than from any other cause. Of course you may be able to keep a main engine belt that runs through a damp wheel pit and basement, and through a long damp tunnel to a main driven pulley that has two big boxes that are just as close to the pulley as a first-class machine designer could put them, and never get a drop of oil or water on it. But this is not likely.

One very common cause of trouble with engine belts is the fact that such belts usually run under the floor, where there is considerable moisture. Then the oil table under the average large Corliss engine will leak around dash-pots and rocker-arm shafts, and some oil will fly from the eccentric oil cups, get into the wheel, run around the rim and get to the belt; if the belt is not filled a very few drops of oil will make a large spot on it. Then, if an engine does not run the whole twenty-four hours, while it is off, watch. A few drops of water from a leaky valve stem whose bonnet drain is stopped up, as it will sometimes be, has a way of getting through the floor and falling on to the belt and running down the inclined inside of it until it finally comes to the flywheel, which, with the assistance of its crowning face, very kindly makes a nice pocket for said water and proceeds to drink it up. Result: the glue is loosened and the belt may come apart in consequence. Should there chance to be a point just at the bottom of this pocket, it will get the glue soft enough to slip but may not open up, which is much worse than if it did open up; for it may slip away from the shoulder of the splice for half an inch, and when the engine is put to work it may close down by running under the wheel and stick. If it does, the result is that at no very distant day you will find a break at that particular place, right across the face of the belt. The reason is that the load was all taken off the inside half of the belt by point slipping, thereby making the inside of the belt too long and putting all the load on the outside. The outside will continue to do all the work until it stretches enough to bring the inside back into service again. During this week or month you have been pulling your load with a single belt, not a double one, and after a short time you will find the break referred to above in the shape of a clean, well-defined crack extending across the belt parallel with the points of the laps. Now of course you are going to send for the man who sold you the belt and ask him to fix it. If he is a wise man and understands his business, he won't do a thing but show you right under that crack a point that does not come up to where it should come. Then the thing for you to do is to say to him that the belt is examined every time it is put into service and that you have noticed that the points he refers to all come loose during a "run," that any one knows that a few drops of water would not take any belt to pieces while it was running, and if it was water, why did it not take it apart everywhere, etc? And finally crush him completely by telling him that your men have no time to put a pair of clamps on a belt in order to pull back into its proper position every point that comes loose; that if they did do it they would have no time for anything else, especially in the present case, and that if his people had made the belt right the glue would have held, anyway.

After he has given you a new belt or repaired your old one, just take my advice and box that flywheel up above the top of the eccentric oil cup, at least 12 inches, and get some good, heavy tin or zinc and put a tight roof over the belt, under the floor.