How do you make a perfect skive?

c310pilot · Aug 5, 2011

I know this has been gone over but I still have yet to read about any tricks. The joint on the belt I removed from my machine before the complete tear down was perfect. I still can't find the joint. All the methods, examples I have seen thus far have a visible joint. After all the hard work I don't want the belt to be the weak point in the rebuild. I don't want to hear that tick as the seam passes over the pullys. I have ruinned two serpentine belts thus far and am frustrated at my inepptitude.

How can I make the perfect joint? :willy_nilly:

jockofthelowveld · Aug 6, 2011

c310pilot said:
I know this has been gone over but I still have yet to read about any tricks. The joint on the belt I removed from my machine before the complete tear down was perfect. I still can't find the joint. All the methods, examples I have seen thus far have a visible joint. After all the hard work I don't want the belt to be the weak point in the rebuild. I don't want to hear that tick as the seam passes over the pullys. I have ruinned two serpentine belts thus far and am frustrated at my inepptitude.

How can I make the perfect joint?

To skive a serpentine belt I lightly super glue each end (about 3 inches of end) of it to the wide side of a piece of 8 inch long by 1" x 2" soft pine. I place the piece of soft pine (edge up) in a milling vice, set the vice to about 2 degrees in the mill and use the side of a end mill to cut the skive (about 2 1/2 inches long) making several cuts instead of one. One cut will rip the belt apart sometimes. I then take a putty knife and scrape the glued portion of the belt from the soft pine.

One end of the belt glued to the soft pine will of course be the back of the belt--which comes away from the pine board after gluing easy. The other end of the belt being the inside has to be handled quite carefully when removing it from the glued surface of the pine in order not to rip it apart.

johnoder · Aug 6, 2011

Isn't the term is SCARF joint?

J.O.

jockofthelowveld · Aug 6, 2011

Here is a photo the joint skived, cut, sliced, milled, skarfed, or whatever by the milling machine method. Whatever you "call it" it works.

NewtonSquare · Aug 6, 2011

These two links may be of some help on the joint preparation......

9" South Bend Belt Replacement - The Home Shop Machinist & Machinist's Workshop Magazine's BBS

Bandsaw Blade Soldering - OWWM Knowledge Base (Wiki)

DMF_TomB · Aug 6, 2011

belt skiving / scarfing

in industry Habasit sells many tools for belt fabrication
Welcome to Habasit - Power transmission and conveyor belts
.
the Swiss call it belt skiving. I have enough respect for Swiss / German Engineering that they can call it anything they want to.
.
picture show a hand crank abrasive disc (sandpaper) skiver which a electric drill can be attached to and or use on a drill press.

jim rozen · Aug 6, 2011

shaggy · Aug 6, 2011

This was a Mitsubishi generator belt. I used a belt sander with an 80 grit belt and just eyeballed the angles. Clamped and glued overnight in a jig with regular super glue. It worked OK and looked like holding up, but since then I've fitted a continuous belt.
Shag

Petersontools · Aug 6, 2011

Or...

you could use one of these...

A Stanley #11 belt makers plane

Joe

TimW(PA) · Aug 6, 2011

You are correct. Skive is the word describing the method of slicing off the thin layers of material. The words are often used interchangably though.

c310pilot · Aug 7, 2011

Thanks for all the pictures and posts. I had a pretty good idea on most of these but pictures are worth a thousand words. All of these methods from what I can tell will leave a visible joint. The other thing to consider is when the skive goes around the pully the od is longer than the id streching the joint or producing a small gap on the exterior side of the belt. The belt I took off had no visible joint, I mean none! How'd they do that??? :skep:

locoguy · Aug 7, 2011

Hell, with a Billy Mays perfect skiving tool.

jimwallis · Aug 8, 2011

johnoder said:
Isn't the term is SCARF joint?

J.O.

Well that's certainly the term used in woodworking here in the UK for this kind of joint, but I'm sure regional variations are acceptable.

Other terms have multiple names - for example the terms rabbet and rebate mean the same thing, which you use just depends where you were taught woodwork

Only thing is, that in the UK 'skiving' means shirking or dodging out of work etc.

bigmac · Aug 8, 2011

'Skive' is the term I've read about. In woodworking it refers to a type of joint used to make very long boards out of short ones, as in a mast for a tall ship. The angle is a ratio of either 10 or 12 to 1 meaning length of taper to board thickness.

jimwallis · Aug 8, 2011

Come to think of it, it might even be spelt scarph? Just to throw another word for the same thing into the pot!

TimW(PA) · Aug 8, 2011

jimwallis said:
Come to think of it, it might even be spelt scarph? Just to throw another word for the same thing into the pot!

-Skive is a verb meaning to cut off thin layers.

-Scarf is a noun denoting a type of joint.

As in this sentence... "A scarf joint is produced by skiving and angle on opposite ends of the belt and gluing them together."

of course you can turn both words into adjectives and use them to describe the process etc. etc.

I know that this is not a forum on grammar and such but I hope that clears up the issue a little.

crossthread · Aug 11, 2011

Pilot, if you still have the thing apart do yourself a favor and use a serpentine belt from the auto supply store. Much much better then anything else.

crossthread · Aug 11, 2011

Pilot, if you still have the thing apart do yourself a favor and use a serpentine belt from the auto supply store. Much much better then anything else.

TDegenhart · Aug 11, 2011

c310pilot said:
Thanks for all the pictures and posts. I had a pretty good idea on most of these but pictures are worth a thousand words. All of these methods from what I can tell will leave a visible joint. The other thing to consider is when the skive goes around the pully the od is longer than the id streching the joint or producing a small gap on the exterior side of the belt. The belt I took off had no visible joint, I mean none! How'd they do that???

Did it ever occur to you that maybe the belt is not spliced? Perhaps the belt was installed with the spindle out of the machine.
Tom

paulsomlo · Aug 11, 2011

If you've still got those serpentine belts, try a butt joint.

I laced my serpentine belt a while back. Drill 1/32" holes in between the ribs on each side about 3/8" back from the edge and butt them together. I used solid copper telephone wire, about #26 or so, insulation and all. Use a single piece, on the non-rib side give the two ends three tight twists, cut off the excess and put a drop of crazy glue on the "knot". Very smooth and seems to be holding. When using the serpentine belts, you can back the tension way off. This prevents the lacing from pulling through.

Paul

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