Sewing machine for horse blankets?

[Hakim]

Hi,

My wife has had several machines almost identical to yours.

Yes, it is "normal" for the belt to be made of leather, and to be cut to size, and to be held together with a crimped piece of heavy wire. I agree, seems a little hokey, but that's the way these industrial machines work, especially old ones like yours appears to be.

She looked at your photos and believes you have the leather belt on the wrong pulley. She says in this photo, it needs to go on the larger cam, not the smaller one. You need to move it round the pulley wheel that is about one inch to the left of where it is now, on the smaller one.

That will tighten the belt considerably, and it should run okay, and not jump off the cam every few seconds. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

She says you can't know for sure untill you get it rigged right, and sit down and see how it runs. She once had problems with one of her machines for almost a year, until it was discovered that one of the pieces was put in upside down by an incompetent repair person. You need to make sure th person really knows INDUSTRIAL machines. They are an item all their own.

It is a good idea to let the guy who sold it come out and look at it where it will be used. I am sure he can tweak it for you.

You will get a lot of service out of this machine, My wife has had them for almost 30 years, and sewed up enoug clothes to outfit half an army (well, us anyway!). [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Just out of curiosity, would you care to share how much you paid for it?

Good luck with it. Keep us posted. I am interested in how you make out.

[egon]

Just for interest:

Many of the older farm impliments required belts. These were held together using a flexible metal connector that acted as a hinge. Both sides of the hinge were so designed that they had teeth and opened up. The belt end would be inserted, one end on each side, and then the jaws were clamped together. The teeth would be bent over with a special tool or using a hammer.

Most belts were made of a canvas type material and varied in width and thickness depending on the use. Usually the largest and longest were used to drive thrashing machines. These were purchased complete as an exact length was not required.

The odd time you would see a belt spliced [laced ] using a flat leather strip threaded through both belt ends and then tucked under.
Egon

[weedsportpete]

Thanks Hakim, It is comforting to hear that this is not an unusual situation. We paid $250 for it, including matching stand.

I moved it to the pully wheel on the left, as you (your wife) suggested (I think that is what she said). Thats where it was slipping 'to' before and I thought that was wrong, plus it seemed too loose, and the running motor would not turn the belt. But I just put it on the left pully and tightened up the wire fastening the two ends of the belt, and this time it worked. With it tighter, the belt turned just fine. It takes about 1 or two seconds for the belt to turn, and another 1 or two seconds to get it up to full speed but it seems to working fine.

I will ask the salesman to install the new belt, to make sure everything is working..

My wife has about three horseblankets to repair and she will probably start that this week.. I will let you know how it goes! Thank you for your assistance.

[weedsportpete]

Thanks Egon,

I like that fastening method you described - good tool for for the job. I'll keep my eyes open for one.. should be easier to use.

[egon]

You should also be able to get belt dressing to help reduce slip without undue tension.

Egon

[hay331]

I just received one of these machines courtesy of Freecycle in Edinburgh, Scotland. I was able to download a free instruction manual in PDF form if this is any help. It doesn't tell you about the underneath bits, just about the machine itself. This is a huge list of free downloadable manuals, the 188KI is in here




There is also a UK seller of belts for this.

Sewing Machine parts

Sewing machine parts

Hope this helps. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]