Northmount

Or look for another grinder/buffer. I see a number of them with fine thread. If they are double shafted, one end may have left hand threads. All 1750 and 3450 RPM motors are induction motors. They are for practical purposes nearly constant speed. Series wound have windings on the rotor, connected in series with stator windings, hence the need for brushes to connect with the armature (rotor) windings through a commutator. These are the typical motors used for power tools like drils, routers, benchtop planers and many high speed kitchen appliances. They run high speed with no load. As they are loaded, they slow down and draw more current. They are not constant speed motors. There's your electric motor lesson for today! Tom

The links aren't working for me, but a 3450 RPM motor is not a series wound brush type motor. It is a standard 2 pole induction motor. Depending on the methods used in the speed control, it may give you some control of the speed on an induction motor, at the risk of overheating the motor. If it isn't working hard, and shouldn't be for burnishing, you could be okay. The threaded jacobs chucks are fine thread. You need to determine if it is 3/8 or 1/2". Tom

http://www.walnuthollow.com/hottoolsandaccessories.aspx has several woodburning / pyrography tools. The 38283 Creative Versa-tool set at $29.99 has had good reviews in pyrography magazines. It has an adjustable temperature setting. Tom

Never did get a good handle on shaving with my axe. My trim knife works pretty good, but I look a lot better if I use my 'lectric razor. Tom

Good way to do the dye job. Else you would need a vat or something like it, plus a lot more dye. I've often kept tabs on the Aussie fires. My wife's family emigrated to southern Alberta, Canada in 1951. From Adelaide and Melbourne. She has really curly hair so I tease her about being an abo, even though all her ancestors hail from England. Tom

There are a number of purses in the show off section. Do a search for purse and limit it to show off. do the same for the gallery. You could look at what Tandy has simply for examples. Tom

And back to topic, great job rebuilding the binder canvas. Used to see quite a few when I was a kid. People often stored the canvas in a shed or barn over winter, to the next harvest season. Saw lots of mouse holes and nests! So getting them ready for use often required patching if the holes were to big, and treating the leather with neatsfoot oil.

There is a lot of confusion over what is hay and what is straw and the implements used for each. Hay is cut green, usually while the plant is in bloom, or just before, while there is lots of tender leafy green foliage. The plant most commonly used today is alphalfa. Some ranches/growers will use blends of grass, sweet clover and alphalfa. Soil and moisture conditions influence the grasses that may be selected. In the old days, the hay is cut, raked into windrows, allowed to dry, then forked onto a hay rack, then moved to a location to be stacked. The hay was then rolled off the hay rack onto the stack. Binders could be used in this process but was not typical in the North American west. Today, self propelled swathers are used to cut and windrow the hay in a single operation. A conditioner may be tagged onto the swather to help condition the hay so it dries better. Then it is baled and stacked. The binder was used to cut and bind grain crops. The wheat, barley, oats, rye ... field is cut when the grain seeds are nearly or fully mature. Cut too late and the grain falls from the heads and gets left on the ground. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaper-binder provides a few of the details of the binding process. The binder cuts the standing grain, bundles it into sheaves about 8" in diameter and ties the sheave with one loop of binder twine. Binder twine is maybe 1/8 the diameter of baler twine since it does't have to hold any amount of tensile stress. Some binders had a small platform on the back or the side to collect a number of sheaves. The binder operator would trip the platform to dump a pile of sheaves when the platform was full enough. That would leave a pile of sheaves askew on the ground. A farm hand would follow the binder, and set the sheaves up in a stoke so it could dry, and if there were rain or snow storms, the heads would not be on the ground and could dry out again. On threshing day, teams of horses and wagons and farm hands would pitch the sheaves onto the wagon and take it to the threshing machine, usually located near the center of the field. The sheaves are the pitched into the threshing machine where the grain is separated from the straw and chaff. Hay is cut green and has lots of protein. Straw is the stalks left over after threshing or combining a grain crop. Straw is golden yellow and ages to a lighter yellow. Hay ages to a dark nearly brown. Straw has no protein and is nearly useless as an animal feed. It is usually used for bedding. During droughts, straw may be mixed with hay to make the hay go further, but you won't fatten your cattle this way. They will survive, hopefully long enough to get back to better climate conditions. Anyway, whether you wanted to know or not, that's how a binder was used, and the difference between hay and straw. Tom

Staples has them. I'd give you a web address for it, except the Canadian/US postal codes will foul up getting to it. Search for [GBC 15" AccuCut Heavy-Duty A510pro Trimmer] or for [rotary paper trimmer] on your Staples site. It works like the rotary leather knife, except it is mounted on a guide rail so you just pull or push it across. Cuts in either direction. Tom

A paper cutter with a rotary blade would do a more reliable job than a guillotine. I've had the guillotine type slip to the side on a batch of paper and really mess up the cut. Tom

See #45 of this thread http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3345&hl=%20pattern%20%20copyright&st=30 And, you are selling a belt, not selling a pattern. Note that copyright law is not identical in all countries, but most subscribe to an international copyright convention. Tom

What about using a spring to keep the jaws clamped together, and a foot release to counter the spring pressure while you reposition the work piece? Tom

Fantastic! What more can I say? At a loss for words to describe its impact. Tom

And the kids really like to take them home to show off rather than have to wait until the next pack meeting. As you have learned, you need to be early to get control and to be able to keep control. That's one of the most important things I learned being an instructor for 19 years. Also applies to leading meetings with adults in the work place. When you come in late, you are rushing and get flustered. Then it's nearly impossible to get control and back on track. The next one will be more fun for you so you will enjoy it a lot more. Keep up the good work. Tom

I've found the green self-healing cutting mats, all nicely ruled off, help me keep the leather and rule or straight edge lined up and square. I've been known to clamp a 4' long aluminum rule like wall boarders use over top the mat, to the edge of the bench to keep that edge locked in position. Then it is easier to keep that edge of the leather lined up and in place against the rule. Cut the piece a little oversize, then you can line up a straight edge with the grid on the mat (parallel to the clamped rule) and make trim cuts. For 90 degree cuts, I use a steel square butted against the clamped rule. Before tooling an item, start with your piece cut oversize, then square up and trim to size after tooling. I've used this on a three piece 3 ring binder for cutting and for assembly to to keep the long edge of the binder straight during glue up. Did both the outside of the binder and the inside lining this way. Binder folds correctly and sits perfectly square standing in a shelf. Was a huge relief! Heavy rule and large drafting triangles help for doing layout marks before cutting. Still cut oversize and trim later, especially when gluing multiple layers together. In this case, trim after gluing. Hope this helps give you some ideas to adapt to your projects. Tom

The heavier the leather you are going to sew, the smaller you want the motor pulley. Machine heads that only have a 4" pulley will need a pulley speed reducer set when sewing leather 1/4" thick, else needs hand wheeled to start, and might be a little fast to control on short runs and intracate curves. Tom

Try searching for fabric leather cement. One of the results will be this one http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=42898&hl=+fabric%20+leather%20+cement#entry266945. See #3. Tom

Tandy has tips and accessories

CustomDoug, the old grump has some of the best input, including previous comments. One of the previous comments he made was to mount the shaft with the burnisher vertical so you can see more easily exactly what you are doing. There are short arbor extensions that can be added to any 1/2 or 5/8" motor shaft so you don't need all the extra bearings and shaft like you found on Grizzly. Take a look at https://www.swmetal.... and Extensions and you will see lots of choices, even for dremels. The typical one you would use is https://www.swmetal....em?itemID=11989. They used to be available in a lot of hardware stores, so you might find one locally. This combination with a 1725 rpm motor (or slower furnace fan motor) could be mounted so it hangs off the side or end of your bench with the shaft vertical. It would give you lots of working clearance around it for larger items and allow you to see exactly what is happening as you burnish. Depending on the type of burnisher you are going to use, you could use a tapered spin-on like https://www.swmetal....em?itemID=11973. With it, you can use a stepped burnisher, stepped right down to a small point for belt holes. Alternatively, you can drill and tap the burnisher to fit the item 11989 and just screw it on. Watch your motor rotation direction, or you may launch the burnisher! I've used my own burnisher on a lathe. Gives me variable speed, but not very convenient. I think I'll build a dedicated machine using a stepped burnisher, motor shaft vertical with fan motor speed control like the Grump says. Tom I seel Lee Valley has arbor mounts too. http://www.leevalley...072,45939,41743

http://www.classicbells.com/verlane/verlane.html scroll down to projects Tom

Some pictures might help with visualizing the pieces you are describing. Then you'll probably get tons of answers in no time. If there is any iron containing metal behind any of this, magnetic tape might hold it in place. The tape is not strong so some friction fit would help. Note to that the double sided tape used on magnetic tape dries out and falls off. So gluing the tape to the leather should last longer. Tom

Another thread said they should have used wider plates because some of the cutting dies were too long so they had to do part, then move over for the next bite. I'm thinking of something like 12 x 18" wide. There is lots of bottom support. Might need something to stiffen the top plate somewhat. It will be good to hear your feedback too. Tom

I know this is an old thread, but is there any chance of getting the pictures replaced or links fixed? Thanks, Tom

Great work. Since I have never built a saddle, I'm following this closely and really looking forward to the next post. Keep it up. Tom

See http://shop.raphaelsewing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=402 for an example. Depends a lot on the style of your machine table. I made attachment that is wider and deeper. Has three legs on hinges so folds up for storage. I like the larger flat surface vs the smaller commercial table. Small table is fine for many things, but a 3" 3 ring binder needs more support Tom