Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I’ve been fine tuning my belt splicing method. The most recent was a redo of a belt failure when using my mini wood lathe, powered by a sewing machine engine. I had it hauling along at about 2500 guesstimated rpms, and the belt parted, slithered out of the machine and whacked me in the face, lol.

Did I mention I’m legally blind? Sewing 1:4 inch wide belts end to end is a bit of a challenge with my very limited vision and complex eyeglass prescription allowing a very critical focal length.

So I have cobbled together a bit of technology to do things like the belts, scroll saw, critical operations with a milling machine, lathe, etc.

I’m able to do a running lock stitch, five or six stitches across an end to end seam, with 40-0 (about .006”” nylon surgical sutures, now that I can accurately see what I’m doing. Then the seam gets coated with thick CA.

The secret weapon is a 6mp borescope With a 3-16 inch focus range,  set up with an iPad monitor so I can see what I’m doing.