Lil Doodler

Thanks! Great input/ideas

Howdy! I'm curious . . . Does anyone use a tension gauge to measure tension from the needle or bobbin? I think it might be handy, especially when switching to different material thickness involving changing needle sizes and thread weights. I've seen some bobbin thread tension testing devices from TOWA that handle bigger bobbins, but nothing for a bobbin for a Juki 441 clone. I guess in the end, no matter what, you'd have to fine tune according to how you see the stitches in the material you are using.

Great jig for sharpening the round knife! If I may suggest, there's always different ways to sharpen round knifes. I saw on a holster making video by Bianchi that he uses a grinder with a polishing\buffing wheel with white polishing compound (not the polishing compound that Tandy sells). When he works on a full rig holster project, he has a couple of sharpened round knifes handy, so when one begins to go dull, he picks up another one. He says that you can tell when a round knife is getting dull when you can hear it cutting the leather. It's true

It looks like things might have changed from when I bought my Premier Ranch Tuff Sheds. At the time . . . . What I did with my 12 x 16 Tuff Shed was to order it with a roof ridge ventilation option. So hot air will easily escape out the top of the shed. I also added an inlet vent, low, close to the floor between the studs. That allowed cooler air in so that when the hot air exits out the top, there will be cooler air drawn in. Rather than buy theirs, I bought my own, something like this https://www.amazon.com/Duraflo-621218REC-Recessed-12-Inch-18-Inch/dp/B00HF5UCWE/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=Duraflo&qid=1601505200&sr=8-19 Another option I took was to get the better roof material with lifetime warranty with light color shingles to reflect the sun's heat. I live in Austin Texas, and it can get really really hot here during the summer and fall. But inside my Tuff Shed, it's actually a tad cooler inside than outside in hot weather.

If I may suggest an answer to a closely related question . . . After deciding which ones to make holsters for, what gun are you going to use to make the holster? To make a holster, you need a gun to figure dimensions, to use to mold the leather to the gun. It could be your gun, or a friend's gun. If it's a holster for a customer's gun, they probably won't want to part with it. You could buy one of each gun you wish to make holsters for, but it would be costly. Some people use a "dummy" or replica of real firearms. They're less expensive than the real thing, don't have to worry about damage to the dummy when handling it or using it to mold the leather. One source of cast aluminum replicas is Duncan's Customs in Michigan. https://duncansoutdoor.com/duncans-customs/ Good Luck to you

Thanks for the information! Much appreciated

Hi, May I ask? Could these embossing plates work on chrome tan leather as well? I'm interested in art nouveau. There was a lot of leather items made commercially a century ago using that style of design. I've been wondering if they did (they must have?) use embossing plates. Most of the items were fairly small - under 8" x 8", and all seemed to use chrome tan leather. To give you an idea of the type of finished product, Here's a couple examples of purses If they didn't use an embossing plate, how do you think these were made. They don't look carved. Thanks in advance for your help

Thanks chrisash dikman - Thanks! I didn't happen to think of those ideas The weight I'm using (1 1/4 lbs) is from a set of dumbells and has a 1" hole in the center. Putting the weight on the very end of the lever, where there's a plastic cap on my 1/2 ton arbor press is not very stable, in fact it's a precarious position and can/did fall off. Luckily not on my toes hehehe. Resting this weight against the rubber band wrapped around the lever does make it a bit safer for me. I did think if I didn't have this weight, that I could use a string tied to a can of soup or veggies on one end and a loop on the other end of the string to go around the lever. Using the lever locking screw to adjust the length and downward pressure at the ram is a great idea! Using a weight on top of the ram would work, but you would lose 2 things I think. a) the mechanical advantage of the gearing and the lever is something like 18:1 (or is it 1:18? or maybe 1:12? Does that depend on the length of the lever? Some arbor presses have different gearing ratios). For each pound of pressure on the lever, there's somewhere between 12 to 18 lbs downward pressure on the ram I think. I'm pretty ignorant about the mechanical engineering of arbor presses. b) Because you aren't using the lever, it would be harder to make easy adjustments to the downward pressure. You would have to experiment with how much weight would be needed. You'd keep adding weights on top of the ram until you get the best results. Depending on your arbor press, if there is room under the ram, maybe you could use a scale under the ram, measure the pressure needed using the lever, then use that amount of weight on top of the ram. The ram on my 1/2 ton arbor press is pretty small - 3/4". So putting weights on top of the ram would be impractical for me.

Thanks fredk. That's a good idea, to move the embossing wheel so that it's not directly under the ram Ooops - the reason for the rubber band on the lever is to hold the weight in place and so that it won't slide down the lever

Hi, Thought I'd share another use for the arbor press. I had bought a set of Tandy embossing wheels to use with the Tandy Spacer tool (SKU 8091-00 ), but I found it very difficult to emboss as deep as I had hoped for. I wanted to use the very small embossing wheel as part of a border around the edges of a project. Even if I pushed on the spacer tool hard, I wasn't able to make a deep enough impression and it was hard to keep the embossing line straight. So I modified the Tandy spacer tool. I cut most of the handle off, drilled a 1" deep 1/4" hole and inserted a 1/4" brass rod. From there, I was able to put it into the smaller hole in the ram on the arbor press I dampened the leather and was able to pull the leather under the embossing wheel. However, it was difficult because I had to put a little pressure on the press lever and pull the leather through at the same time. It took very very little pressure on the lever. Next I took a 1 1/4 lb weight and put it on the end of the lever for the pressure on the embossing wheel. That way I would have both hands free to pull the leather. But even that was too much pressure. The embossing looked a little too heavy, and it was difficult to pull the leather through with that amount of weight on the end of the lever. So I put a rubber band around the lever, closer to the fulcrum so there would be less weight on the lever. The closer the weight is to the rotating shaft, the easier it gets to pull the leather through, but also a lighter impression is made. After a couple of adjustments, I was able to find a position for the weight were it made a decent impression and the leather wasn't too hard to pull under the wheel I've just starting fine tuning. I think once I get a fence/guide set up, it'll be easy to use these as a border. I found it is possible to make 90 degree turns, but not sharp turns. I think it's better to have the shaft for the spacer tool locked in place rather than able to spin freely. What do you think?

Right, right . . . I'd be lucky if that's all that happened. For me, it'd be - Boing! - Ouch! - Where did the bloody thing go? Probably disappear down the same deep mysterious rabbit hole and never to be seen again like churchkey/bottle openers hehehe

from the web . . . Inserting or removing bearings, seals, studs, and bushings – probably the most common use Installing dowels, alignments pins, threaded (key) inserts, t-nuts, and roll pins, Bending, joggling, and forming small sheet metal parts in combination with custom made dies Die cutting ***Embossing or punching holes in leather, cloth, plastic, gaskets, and thin sheet metal – this is a cool and underutilized use Broaching (keyways and other misc.) Flattening or straightening out small bumps in metal Pressing inlays Pressing guitar frets – this is another cool one Light riveting Inserting and removing gears and pulleys Compressing springs – careful here Tie rod ends and Ball joints Crimping cables and wires into a die u-joints Some use a pointed die in the arbor press to destroy hard drives Blacksmith work in forging cracking nuts has been noted lol In the jewelry industry, the arbor press is also commonly used as a cutting, punching, and pattern embossing tool. The force an arbor press provides has the ability to punch through some metals without damaging the surface, unlike other pressing options. In the automobile industry, the arbor press also features as a mandril press. Here, the arbor press is used for press-fitting bearings and embossing metal objects that fit in its throat. The arbor press is also used in woodworking for creating patterns and metalwork that enhance the functions or aesthetics of a woodworker’s piece. And I found this in a different thread on using an arbor for leather work On 1/15/2018 at 2:13 PM, Double Daddy said: I used a bench top drill press for a long time for lots of pressing and setting functions...as well as spinning my sanding drums and my cocobolo burnisher. It worked well right up until all of the pressing/setting stress finally weakened the knuckle arm where the table connected to the vertical post and it cracked and failed...now I just use the press as a sander and burnisher (no sense in tossing it when the motor still works great). I have a 1-ton arbor press and a keyless chuck adapter with powerful magnet built into it...it just grabs right onto the ram and I can use the short/cheap line20/24 snap setters or take it off and use the ram face to press my brass maker's mark. Here's the link to the keyless chuck that I have: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Arbor-Press-Magnetic-Pin-Press-1-2-Chuck-Tool-APMT0-5/252843022376?hash=item3ade9e5828:g:PJoAAOSwc-tY4oNz ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` It looks like there's a lot of stress on the table that it wasn't intended to have But using the old drill press without a motor that wouldn't matter I guess

I've been thinking . . . As Spyros pointed out, a real advantage of the drill press is the throat and table size. Using a basket weave stamp on the arbor press with a guide/fence I was able to quickly put down an accurate, almost flawless pattern on a leather project. However, because my arbor press is small and the work area is small between the ram (where the tool was being held) and the supporting arm, I was limited in how large an area I could work. If I had a floor drill press with a large table that had a material guide and a "pinned"/stationary chuck that couldn't rotate, putting basket weave on a larger project would be quick and easy. Set up a stool, so the table is a foot or so below eye level, add good lighting and work the handle! I'd case the leather so the drill press doesn't have to apply much pressure.

Spyros, Yep, you are right, it should work fine and I did say . . .. Personally, I've never seen any drill press with a bad motor, much less a big floor drill press model with a bad motor. I was thinking more about the much smaller bench drill presses that are much lighter duty and much less expensive. Heck yeah, if I had an old floor model drill press with a bad motor, I wouldn't hesitate to use it as much as I could as an arbor for leather work

Here is a much longer / deeper clamp, over 300mm / 12 ". You would be hard pressed (pun intended) to find a drill press that would give you that kind of clearance It's very cheap compared to the price of a drill press or an arbor press.

Close up of lower Close up of upper You could use a drill on the torque setting to close it quickly This is how I use it, with a longer lever. I did also modify the back of the lower end to get into a small place. I wouldn't be too afraid to trim more off of the bottom if I needed to. It doesn't take that much pressure to set most rivets or eyelets.

Spyros, That sounds like a good idea if it works. For an eyelet or rivet it might work very well. But have you seen the teeth on a drill press quill, or the spines on the shaft that rotates to pull the quill down? For the inexpensive drill presses anyway, they are quite shallow and light duty compared to an arbor press. If they should break under stress, it might be very difficult to find cheap replacement parts Might I suggest another way, without a hammer or a press, much cheaper to set / press eyelets or rivets? This is off subject a bit for this thread . . . I have used a deep throat "C" or "U" clamp very successfully. Use the inclined plane of the screw to tighten/close exactly the eyelet or rivet where you want. Of course it's not as fast as using a hammer Of course you would have to adapt the closing ends of the clamp for what you wanted to squeeze together. Here is a picture of a modified deep throat C clamp I use for rivets

Thanks dikman, Good to share ideas, learn from each other

I also cut short the handles of a 1 1/2" and 1" oblong punches to use in the press. After cutting them, I drilled and inserted a 1/4" shaft to be held in the ram. No more hammering! Because the bag cutters do leave a mark in the bottom support, I use a scrap piece of cutting board or a piece of pine as a backstop. Because I have very limited space, I mounted the 1/2 ton arbor press on the backside of my Artisan Toro-4000 sewing machine.

I use a piece of steel over the top if using a rivet setting tool or for snaps. I use stamps in the arbor press too. With the pressure of the press, there's no need to case the leather first. For the smallest diameter stamps, I put a vinyl tubing as a sleeve over the stamp, then tighten in the ram. For big 3D stamps and letters, used a lathe to reduce the diameter of the holder so it fit

The guide is for a sewing machine. I drilled a hole for the screw and the screw self-tapped into the softish material. Cutting the side of the arm for the guide might cause a little loss of strength, but there's lots of other material in the arm and on the other side. I don't think there's been very much loss of strength in the arm.

The round anvil that came with the press was thick, so there wasn't as much clearance as I wanted. I made this little table out of cutting board material. I added some wood below to support the cutting board material and put in a little dowel rod that fit in the anvil's center hole to hold it in place.

I went the way of buying a Harbor Freight 1/2 ton press. I found that the 1/2" square ram is reversible, you can turn the ram upside down and it will work just fine. I went the way of drilling holes in the ram. 1/4" on one end, 3/8" on the other end. I drilled and tapped for a small set screw with a hex/allen to tighten the tool on each end. Because the 1/2 ton press doesn't have a lot of clearance, I shortened the set screws so that they would be beneath the front of the ram so you could have a bit/tool still tightened up while the ram is up in the gear area. I also removed the locking ring holding the toothed shaft that rotates. It makes it easier to remove the ram and more importantly to me, lets me pull the shaft out quickly, move the ram to the approximate height I want it, then reinsert the shaft. I figure if I need a little more pressure, I could put a piece of longer pipe over the lever and get get more leverage.

So, it looks like the sharpening angle is wider, more of a V shape causing a "low cutting angle"? Most swivel knife blades are 30 degrees, on each side. So a wider, less deeper cut would be 35 or 40 degrees? And the bottom of the knife edge is not square, but angled. But not as sharp an angle as the bottom edge of a filigree blade? VS a filigree blade The video from the previous post was from Immiketoo. Great work! Great video! Thanks Mike for the description you gave above. Using a digital caliper, I see that most of my swivel blades have a thickness of 0.080" to 0.100" I did find just one angled one that was 0.067" thick. I'm going to reshape the blade and see what happens

Here's a video of Mike Dale, using a Peter Main "Low Angle" blade and the concept of "Cut less, Bevel more" It looks like the Peter Main swivel knife blade has a wider angle, so it doesn't cut as deep and makes it easier to bevel I think this has been covered in another thread on Leatherworker. I'm experimenting with a 35 degree blade, might try a 40 degree and go from there