Modular Belt Prototypes

At TeslaCon I saw a vendor selling modular belts - sections of belts with various steampunky bits attached, and/or pouches permanently mounted on belts. The sections have a ring at one end and a buckled loop at the other.

After thinking about it a while, I decided to do my own version, and ordered hardware. My plan was to have swivels at each end of a section, which can either connect to the dee on the back of a pouch (which I started adding to them a while back for use as sporrans), or to a small ring.  I was originally planning to have some done for ACen, but that didn't work out.

Today we finally got around to working on the project. We made prototypes from inexpensive leather, which will likely be taken apart in the long run to serve as patterns. The sections are 1-1/2" wide (standard man's dress belt width). 

On the top are the buckle and billet sections. The other vendor sells them separately, but I can't think of any situation where you'd want one and not the other. They also make the billet very long, we made the prototype 5 holes long. 

Under that are short and long plain sections, connected to a ring. Ron also pointed out that you can attach the swivels to each other directly. 

The buckle/billet section is 16-1/2" long (center hole), plus or minus 2". The short section is 7-3/4" long, the long section is 10-3/4" long. Adding a ring adds 1".

On Tuesday I'll be ordering some dark brown leather to make the actual parts that will be for sale. I'm starting out with brown with brass hardware. The parts are assembled with Chicago screws, so they're reasonably easy to shorten, and I'll get brass Chicago screws to assemble them (prototypes have black screws). I'll also have some leather strips available, to make semi-custom sections. I'm starting out with plain sections, we'll see about making sections with loops, gears, etc. later on. 

I chose swivels, buckles, and rings are also available with a nickel finish, which I'll do with black, with black Chicago screws. 

Of course, the obvious way to display these is hanging. Good thing we got more gridwall and hooks . . .