hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1879.txt

Episode: 1879
Title: HPR1879: Hacking a Belt to Make it Fit
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1879/hpr1879.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 10:42:46

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This is HPR episode 1879 entitled Hacking Abelt to Make It Fit.
It is hosted by John Colp and is about 15 minutes long.
The summary is, I record a show while Hacking Abelt to Make It Fit.
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Hey everybody, this is John Colp and Lafayette Louisiana and I'm recording another Hacker Public Radio episode.
Today it's kind of a household hack going to talk about how to shorten a belt.
I've already done this on one of my son's belts that I bought for him at a thrift store.
I found a belt that I thought would be perfect for him for about a dollar maybe.
But it was too long by about four or five inches.
When I took a close look at it, I discovered that the buckle was one of a type where it could be easily detached
so that you could shorten the belt and then reattach it.
Some people might have the mistaken impression that what you should do with a belt when it's too long is add more holes.
I guess that's one thing you could do but then you get too much belt sticking around the side of your waist
and it doesn't look good.
Also, you should not cut it off at the end where the holes are.
You cut it off at the end where the buckle is and then leave the holes alone.
I bought another belt.
Today when I was a goodwill, I found one that's suitable for me.
Much too long for me. This belt is maybe 42 inches and I've got about a 34 waist.
I'm going to cut it.
This buckle is exactly like the one that was on the one for my son.
I'm going to put a few pictures as I go along in the show notes here.
The buckle is attached by two very small slot screws.
The first thing I'm going to do is try to take those screws off.
I've got my little micro screwdriver here and it looks like this one's coming off fine.
One screw is out. It's very small.
I'm going to be careful not to knock it off the table or else I might never see it again.
The second screw is out.
Now I can detach the belt from the buckle.
I'm just going to slide it out of there.
Looks like there's some kind of... I'm going to take a picture of it.
Now I took a picture while it was still assembled and now I'm going to take another picture with it apart.
That way you can see what it looks like.
My camera, I don't think it takes very good pictures.
That's going to be blurry. Man, it's so irritating.
I think I can figure out why my camera takes bad pictures.
Maybe it has trouble focusing or something.
There we go.
That looks a little better.
In the picture, if you look at it, you'll be able to see that the end of the belt has two holes for one for each of the screws.
Then there's also a rectangular notch that allows access to this other little thing in there.
This is a crazy buckle.
This belt is not that nice of a belt, I guess.
It's got a leather outer and I think it's got some kind of synthetic inside thing.
But on one side it's black and on the other side it's brown.
You can turn this buckle around by pulling it out and then just flipping it around.
You can turn your belt from brown to black, which is very handy.
I wouldn't go as far as to say this is any kind of high quality belt.
I've already measured it against one of my favorite belt.
I know that I need to cut off six and one quarter inches.
I'm going to mark it around about there.
Now I'm going to have to go outside to my shed where I've got tools to cut it.
The tricky part here is cutting the notch.
I need my drill also.
Let's see what size drill bit to you.
Looks like that one.
Maybe the smaller one.
I'm going to use a three 30 seconds inch drill bit.
Yeah, that's the right size.
I'm going to drill the holes and cut the notch.
I did this yesterday, I was surprised it actually worked perfectly on the first try.
I don't really have any leather working tools.
If I had those, it would be a little bit easier to do the notch.
I could use a little thing to punch the hole.
It's easy to cut the two sides of the rectangular notch.
But what's hard is cutting the other part because you can't get the snips in there.
What I do is I just cut the two sides of it.
Then I use a screwdriver to just pop the end of it out there.
I need the snips.
The first thing I do is cut off right at the part where I marked.
That's done.
Now I will take the other part.
The part that I just cut off, I'm going to use that as a template to show exactly where I want to cut the notch and then drill the holes.
I'm going to hold that together with a little clamp and take a picture of this.
I should have brought my camera out here with me.
Sorry if there's a little bit of wind noise in the microphone.
I'm using my microphone that does not have a wind screen on it.
Now I'll get a picture of the end of the belt that I took off.
Now I'm going to clamp it on there.
I'll go out and take a picture in the light.
Light in the house is not great for that kind of picture.
Now I'm going to show you how the two bits are clamped together so I can cut it.
I got that picture.
The first thing I can do is deal with the knot.
Maybe I'll do the drilling first.
My workbench is an absolute mess.
It's a good thing I'm not taking a picture of that.
It's clear enough for me to find the space to put this down.
Tighten the chuck up enough to put the little drill bit in there.
Okay.
Time for a whole number one.
Looks a little bit off the center.
That's where it is.
Use it back and forth a little bit there to clean the hole out.
Okay.
Now the other one.
Hope that's not too loud in the microphone.
Okay.
Two holes are drilled.
Now I've got to do the notch.
I'm going to first cut the left side of the notch like that.
Then the right side of the notch.
I'm going to do the clamp.
Then get my little screwdriver and a hammer.
This is going to be loud.
I'm probably going to distort in the recording.
I position my screwdriver at the point where I want to make a cut all the way through it.
I just punch it by hammering it.
And I think I should do it.
Actually, that's a little bit.
I didn't quite get it all the way.
Okay.
There.
All right.
We've got a notch.
We've got two holes.
We'll see if it reassembles.
Grab my drill.
Anything else I need to bring in.
Well, it's not the cleanest looking notch.
I'll take a picture of it so you can see it's actually.
It doesn't look that great.
But I think it will work nonetheless.
Okay.
I'm going to get a picture before I go back inside.
Okay.
The picture is taken.
Let's go reassemble.
I wanted to get this belt because it's a little bit thinner by about, I don't know,
a quarter of an inch than my favorite belt.
And I figured this would be more appropriate to wear with a suit.
I haven't mentioned on HPR yet, but excuse me.
I've got kind of a promotion at work where I starting in the spring,
I'm going to be the acting director of the School of Music, where I work,
where I've been just rank and file faculty for the last 14 years.
I'm going to be the boss.
And as the boss, I figured I needed something nice to wear.
So I bought a suit.
I ordered a suit online and it's at the tailor right now getting the pants
hemmed up and the jacket taken in a little bit.
But with the suit, I didn't think I wanted to wear my big wide black belt.
I want to wear a thinner one because I think it'll look dressier.
Hopefully I won't have to wear the thing all that much.
But every once in a while, you've got to look presentable.
Here's the hard bit.
I'm old enough where it's hard for me to see these little pieces.
I'm going to try to screw the screws in.
I've stuck the end of the belt in there.
It looks like the hole's not going to line up right, but maybe it will.
Maybe I can force it through there.
I don't know.
This must be really fun to listen to.
Not really talking.
The screws, it doesn't have a head on it either.
It's like a screw that's got no head, but the slot is where the head ought to be.
So it's very hard to get it to stay put.
I'm long enough to start screwing it in.
Let's see if I can get it this time.
Okay, there it goes.
I've got that one started.
I'm just going to start the screw.
Then start the other one and then tighten them down.
Man, this is a pain.
I haven't lost the little screws, but I'm having a really hard time getting them to go in.
Let's try one more time here.
Okay, I've got it started.
Now I've just got to position the buckle so that the screw will go through that little hole I made in the belt.
That screw looks like it's going in.
Try the other one.
All right, these slot screws also are hard because the screwdriver just keeps slipping right out of it.
Okay, that one is tightened down.
Go to the other one.
Get that tightened.
And voila, the belt is done.
Okay, so now I'm going to slide it around myself and looky there.
That's exactly the right length.
Ta-da.
I have hacked my belt, which was originally way too long and that was perfect.
So that is it for me.
This has been John Culp and Lafayette Louisiana with a little household hacking tip.
Make your wardrobe fit better by hacking your belt.
Okay, talk to you guys later.
Bye.
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