Northmount

Looks quite nice. Combined new technology with some traditional leather work. I think there are lots of opportunities to combine new tech and traditional. Some for mass production, and some for customized designs like your word cloud. Though I would tend towards what I think are more artistic designs. Each of us has a different opinion as to what we think of as being artistic. Tom

There is another post somewhere here where the poster said he rigged up a domestic sewing machine motor to drive a bobbin winder. He kept the foot speed control and locked it at the speed he wanted. Another good reason to wind the bobbins separately is so you can observe and control how the thread is laying in the bobbin. Hard to observe this while sewing. I imagine some bobbin winders do a better job than others, so not necessarily needed for all cases. Tom

Setup a winder using a variable speed electric drill. Tom

Here is some info that may help a little http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/infoandservices/leatherguide/leatherguide.aspx Some people swear at Tandy, but I'll take their info anytime. There was another post here a couple weeks ago with a link to more leather terms and definitions. Try a search for it. Tom

When I'm talking about a bent shaft, I'm talking about the complete assembly. It functions as one rotating element. Tom

It is always better to start out with a straight rotor rather than a bent rotor. So straightening should be done as far as possible first. (It is possible to balance a bent shaft, and is usually done as a temporary repair in order to get back into production on large expensive equipment where it takes 2 years to get a new rotor.) The adapter nut should have been made on a lathe so should be straight ... but depends who and where. You might consider returning it and having it replaced to see if you can get a better one. Yes you can cut things shorter to reduce the overhang, but the offset will still be there. Shorter will reduce the unbalanced centrifugal force. Just make sure you have enough length to make a solid connection. For 5/8", I would say no shorter than 5/8" long. For 1/2", same rule of thumb. Something sticking out unsupported 10" or more that is out of balance spinning at 1750 RPM is dangerous and scares the heck out of me. I did some diagnostics on a steam turbine pump shaft one day, running 5000 RPM. The vibration on one bearing (supporting a bent shaft) was over 100 inches/second. 0.5 ips is shutdown level. I got out of there in a hurry! Tom

You only need the left hex fitting displayed in the photo at toolfetch, plus a short 1/2 x 20tpi threaded stud. This still gives you a longer extension than you would like, but probably the shortest conversion you will come up with. The bench grinder probably isn't balanced all that well. You may be able to keep the grindstone on, use the adapter to lock it on tight, to help with the balance problem. You can play with attempting to balance it by adding a couple pieces of about 18 AWG sheet metal, cut in a strip about 2" wide and about 5" long. Round both ends. Drill a 5/8" hole in one end of each. Mount directly against the stone, or if there is not enough space, drop the stone and make a circular disk 8" in diameter, what ever thickness will fit with the two layers of 18 AWG. When the two strips are opposite to each other, they balance each other out. As you swing one around, it will produce a centrifugal force vector point halfway between the two free ends. Keep a guard of some sort around these so you don't get chopped up. Think of a meat slicer. You will have to do many attempts, but you should be able to experiment positions of the adjustabel weights (the two strips) until you find a position that reduces the unbalance. (There are blancing kits you can buy for grinders. They work the same.) If the bearings are really nice and free, you can do a static balance by adjusting positions until the rotor doesn't turn heavy side down by itself. If you were a lot closer to me, I could balance it for you. That's just another of my past jobs, balancing rotating equipment. Good luck. Tom

Try Bob Kovar http://www.tolindsewmach.com/thread.html Has some stock that he doesn't list and may have sources. Tom

Looks like you've done a great job. Watched part, need to go back later to watch the rest. Tom

Turn the top edges over and stitch them to help provide more rigidity. Might even put a wire inside the folded over edge, or a thin flat piece of metal. Probably worth doing a little experiment to see how it goes, and how much is needed to keep it straight. Tom

The speed reducer is always active, so even at the highest speed setting, it's going to take three times as long to wind. Tom

Simple! Good job, great idea. Tom

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