billymac814

I figured if share my method of burnishing edges. I used to spend a ridiculous amount of time doing it with a bunch of different steps using saddle soap, water, dye, wax etc. now I do them much quicker and the results are pretty good. First I sand the edges smooth using about an 80 grit that's worn down a bit so its probably finer. I then bevel the edges. At this point I sometimes will hit the edge lightly with a sponge sanding pad, rarely though for most things. If its a black item Ill apply the die right now using Pro oil dye using a thick piece of felt(scraps from my ankle holsters). If its lighter colors ill usually apply a bit of water and hit it with the burnishing wheel for a little bit, this helps get a nice clean line. Next I use my wood burnisher that's mounted to a motor on the side of my bench, I have this controlled with a foot pedal. Ill usually use two different grooves, the first pass is a narrow one that does the edges, the next a wider one that hits the center, sometimes I get lucky and one groove fits perfect enough to do both. After that my edge is pretty good. Ill rub a little beeswax/paraffin wax mixture on it very lightly and now hit it on the felt pad wheel that's mounted below my cuck in the motor. This is simply about 3/4" of felt sandwiched in between two washers. This does a foot job at heating up the wax allowing it to penetrate a bit. If its a belt ill usually take a tee shirt and wipe down the edge to remove any residual wax which also polished it to a nice shine. I don't always bother to do this on certain things, it really depends on how much wax is on there, ideally if I put the right amount on I won't have to do this. That's it, later during the process I'll finish it off with some resolene. The pictures show a test piece. This was done in far less than a minute, I wasn't too worried about a crisp line here as you can tell since it was scrap. The other foot pedal you see in the picture controls my flex shaft grinder. As you can also see I watch directv while doing this. I was able to make a deal with a local company that sells directv to have a sign up in my shop and in return they out in Directv in my shop.

Its pretty cold right now in Altoona. Freezing cold actually. Luckily my shop is a balmy 70. Here's a picture of my set up. I cut the ram off and attached a 1/2" plate. It serves double duty as I use it for clicking and molding, I just replace the gum rubber with another 1/2" thick piece of steel. A foot control would be nice, unfortunately my hose isn't long enough so I'd have to switch that. Otherwise the control could easily be modified. I have a foot control for my burnisher and my grinder(dremal type but bigger with a flex shaft) As you can see a pair of vise grips makes releasing the pressure quite easy. I also have the button clamped to where its convenient.

Thanks, ill check them out.

You'll also spend less on the dies. If you need one die the mallet type might be a good choice. Otherwise you can get a small bench top press and use it, they are cheap at harbor freight.

That obviously went way over my head, that sometimes happens, especially late at night.

I looked at the picture again today a little better than I did last night, the holes do spear to be the really large holes that they do on the smaller kits. These are about the same size holes I use to lace items together. I do agree with what someone else said though that it depends on the OPs skill level, if you're very new you may have a better outcome with the kit despite the large holes and usually inferior leather.

That's a big project! Where are you getting the Kevlar thread and can you buy it in smaller amounts if I don't need a ton of it? I repair a lot of boots for welder a who literally burned all their stitching out of their boots, that would be good to use for those repairs.

That's a pricey kit.... I've recently did a few kits with my son trying to find something he can do on his own and haven't been happy with any of them, mainly due to the gigantic holes for stitching. I never did any prior to that as I've always made my own patterns. I would hope for a kit that much money that it would be of higher quality than a change purse kit. I would definitely check it out in person before dropping that kind of wad, even with the sale price. You could always buy the kit and do that as practice and save the pattern for the next one. I haven't yet seen a pattern from Tandy that I'd want to keep however I will give them credit as it seems they are trying to go with some higher quality stuff lately and that brief case looks like a nice design in the pictures. If you plan on just making one briefcase and not much more the kit would probably be a good choice, by the time you spend money and time on leather, then source all of the thread, hardware, and whatever else you may need, then spend time designing it you'll have more money than in the kit and a lot more time. If you plan on continuing to make them or at least similar items in case you end up with a bunch of hardware and leather I would make it yourself. And you can deal directly with Wickett and Craig too, I buy all my leather from them. I usually get 3-5 sides at a time but they'll sell just one. Good luck and shoe is whichever way you go.

I have a similar setup but with a harbor freight press, I too swapped out the jack for the air version. Its by no means quick but it sure saves pumping. The key is to only release it enough to get the die and leather out and insert the next piece then it only takes a few seconds. Sure beats cutting.

You might be ok with very small items going through light leather but much bigger I think would take a lot of pounding. I think Texas dies are probably the cheapest, I can't speak of thier quality but there was recently a discussion on that topic. I use a shop press and it takes quite a bit of force to get even fairly small dies through medium weight leather.

What about it? It gets measured in with the belt so if the customer has a buckle that is 3" long and his measurement from the end of the buckle is 38" and if I'm using a 2" long buckle I still make it from the end of my buckle to the center hole 38". If I'd have him measure from the fold his new belt would be an inch short. I usually sell about 10 belts a week and never had one mistake doing it that way. Measuring it from the fold only works if you're only providing the belt and the customer is providing the buckle and even then it can be sketchy unless you know for a fact he's using in the buckle that he intends to use with the belt that he's measuring. I also have a belt made that's about 6' long with holes running most of the length of it each numbered in inches so when a customer comes in I have them put on the belt and I take down the number which is the measurement. This of course only works for people who come into my store though and even then ill usually just take the belt they are wearing and use that for my measurement but in some cases they don't always have a belt on and then I use my long belt. My long belt also has part of it border stitched, part of it is creased around the edge and part of it has some boarder stamping on it which are all additions that they can see and add to their belt and it has the prices for these additions written on it as well. I sell more single layer belts than I do concealed carry belts but they all get measured the same, I do tell people that get gun belts to make sure they measure the hole that they are using with the holster in place.

That phone case would look pretty classy with a loop that the tab slides into to close it instead of the Velcro. Looks good as is too. The horse carving looks great. What is a stubby holder?

Thanks, that looks like it works well, I love the bungee cord. If you just got a different sized belt you could just use the motor adjustment right? Just out of curiosity how much money and time do you have in that? I can see it being worthwhile if you have some of the parts laying around or have the free time but for someone like me who has neither its probably more cost effective to spend the 85.00 for a speed reducer from Bob. Although your bearings would be far superior but that's probably not a huge concern for most. (The 85.00 version doesn't have ball bearings, 125.00 one does). I'm not knocking DIY or anything just comparing cost effectiveness.

Very good start. One other thing is to round off any sharp edges as they will get dogged up rather quickly. A nice small tooling COULD accent the piece nicely however it could also do more bad than good if its not executed well or if it doesn't jive right with the design, I'm certainly not saying that you couldn't execute it well or choose a good design I just don't believe tooling is always necessary to have a nice custom piece.

Looks great. Very clean looking.

That's really cool, not at all what I was expecting to see when I opened the thread.

If it goes bad just sitting out what happens to it when its on the leather? I have no experience with soy milk, just wondering. If enough people started trying it and said it was way easier I may give it a go, otherwise I'm sticking to my current method which works well for me.

I read that wrong, I thought you were using 1/4" plates, I didn't see that you doubled it up. I still would bet that you're getting flex from somewhere and that's what's causing it. I cut the ram off of my press and mounted a 1/2" thick solid piece of steel on top and bottom and even doing all that I get some flex and sometimes one part of the die will sink pretty far in the cutting surface. Your die is also pretty large. It may solve your problem by shoertening the punch however its possible that if you ever use a regular clicker it may not punch right if shortened, that may not be a concern though.

I read that wrong, I thought you were using 1/4" plates, I didn't see that you doubled it up. I still would bet that you're getting flex from somewhere and that's what's causing it. I cut the ram off of my press and mounted a 1/2" thick solid piece of steel on top and bottom and even doing all that I get some flex and sometimes one part of the die will sink pretty far in the cutting surface. Your die is also pretty large. It may solve your problem by shoertening the punch however its possible that if you ever use a regular clicker it may not punch right if shortened, that may not be a concern though.

That's what I used to to. It works well. I do much less tooling these days though so the anvil takes up less bench space and I keep my granite slab on the floor until I need it.

Does the die sit flat on a flat surface or is the punch too long. It could be that the center of the press is more sturdy and the outsides of your plate are flexing some. I have 1/4" plates that I use in the same press for molding holsters and they are bent from the pressure.

Tom, I'd love to see pictures of your speed reducer set up.

That's always been my way too, sometimes I even remember to take a peek in if I think I'm getting low. The red is a good idea, the only problem is how will you see it if its on the bobbin side? And then you'll have to pull out the red thread if you didn't catch it right away.

Nice post, its good to show newer people that you don't need to spend a fortune to turn out good clean work. Sure nice tools are nicer to use but in the end practice goes a lot farther than expensive tools. Now start raising your prices so you can buy better stuff!!

Leather for shoe soles, its usually over 1/4" thick and very hard. You can get large pieces or pre cut pieces(shaped like a shoe or half sole). If you have a shoe repair shop in town you could probably buy one off of them, they may have some that are old or not good enough to use but would be perfect for punching.