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.