/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Planning to make my own dipping belt like picrel. I have this very old leather transmission belt laying around (~1.5cm thick), which I'm planning to use for this. Only problem is, its too rigid to fold over for the rings. Was thinking about just drilling a huge hole on both ends in place of the rings, but I fear that it will fray and wear out too quickly under heavy loads.
Got any tips? Been using an iron chain up until now, but it hurts too much under heavy weights. I have a home-gym so looks don't matter at all.