THE PULLEYS AND BELTING Of A SEPARATOR 211 



The separator tender should look over the belts once 

 each day and re-lace any doubtful ones outside of thresh- 

 ing hours so as to prevent the necessity of stopping to 

 repair a belt when the machine should be running. Some 

 threshermen, realizing the expense of delays, carry an 

 extra set, so that in case anything happens to any belt in 

 use, the extra one may be put on and the work immediately 

 continued. If it starts to rain while threshing, the sepa- 

 rator should be stopped at once, and the belts, especially 

 the leather ones, put under cover before they get wet. The 

 machine will run only a few minutes in the rain before the 

 belts begin to slip and come off, and it is best to stop in time 

 and keep them in good condition to start again. 



Leather Belts. All leather belts should be run hair 

 side to the pulley. Some years ago mechanics and engineers 

 disagreed as to which side of the leather should be next to 

 the pulley, but it has been shown that belts last longer and 

 transmit more power when run hair side to the pulley. The 

 reason is that the flesh side is more flexible and will more 

 readily accommodate itself to the curve of the pulley. If 

 the more rigid hair side be obliged to stretch every time it 

 goes around a pulley, it will crack, in time. When leather 

 belts become hard, they should be softened with neatsfoot 

 oil, or some other suitable dressing for a flexible belt will 

 transmit more power than a hard, stiff one. The mineral 

 oils used for lubricating purposes rot leather and conse- 

 quently, belts should be kept as free from them as possible. 



A Rubber Belt should always be put on with the seam 



