Zonker

I have worked with pvc shaping it before and that has possibilities. Slots could be cut in the pvc and tabs in the brim to fit in them then trimmed after drying. Very cool idea. Thanks a lot!

Thank you Tree Reaper. Hmm I am wondering if I could get stick on velcro to work instead of clipping. Hmm..

Good morn friends, I am having a hard time figuring out the best way to get a certain shape on a hat brim. What I am trying to do is get the look on of the John Bull type tophats where the brim does the curve from front to back(I can do that easy enough that shape is in the crown and just stitch to it) but the edge of the brim gets rolled up in almost a half pipe(perhaps 3/8) but is in the first pic I am posting. I am thinking of possibly cutting a wooden form with the cnc machine but would then have to do one for each size I want to do. I was able to roll it a little on one I did for my daughter but couldnt figure out a way to attach it so it could dry good with a real good roll. Do I need to use a wire for it? Do I need to dry some 5-8 lb in a crescent then stitch it in where it cant be seen? How would you all do this? The other pics are the one I made for my daughter

A type of ornamental lathe capable of some pretty cool stuff. Rose engine

Thank you for the compliment but I would be hard pressed to believe it. Maybe if I ever finish the engineering degree(hopefully soon, teaching high school is killing me) I'll work out my own 5 axis, but first I'm building me a rose engine.

Bard this beastie is a homemade/homedesigned beast and 3 axis is where I am at right now. It does awesome work considering its creator. Thanks for the info on aluminum

50 years, I was afraid it might be like that. The fuzzy edge issue kind of eliminates the benefit of saving time if it has to go back and be fixed. The double sided tape idea is good I have cut a few shapes that way but unfortunatle I need really clean edges. Thanks guys I figured it might be worth a try. 50years: evre cut aluminum on the wood machine? A friend of mine insists if you can cut oak you can cut aluminum but wanted to get an opinion from someone who knows(it did cut soapstone beautifully I made a reusable mold for casting aluminum). Oh well at least its useful for making stamps from wood.

I have a homebuilt cnc router/carver and have some rather intricate filligree I would like to cut into some leather for a project. Doues anyone have any idea of a type of cutter or blade I might be able to use with the cnc machine to do this? The spiral saw blade for dremel was kind of successful but too large of a diameter and left alot of fuzz on the edges of the cuts.

Also interestingly they have the same birthday.

Excellent work there

You do the most amazing work. That just kicks ass

And this week I am doing a top hat for the Alice Madness Returns game which Athena and I just finished playing. I will be using the homemade CNC router to make the stamps I use: I used a hydraulic press on this the other day and got an impression so clean you could see the grain of the wood in it. Any way here are pictures from V-carve for what i plan to put on it. Alice on the front, Cat on one side shrooms on the other and gears on the top. I plan to do the hat in a mottled antique black fade to dark red for a creepy and organic feel like the game had. I am not sure yet how best to finish the images to their best potential

Thank you Wishful I almost forgot this one. My daughter is named Athena for the godess of wisdom and defensive warfare. How could she not need a winged helm? This one is not finished it needs more copperwork. i wish I had a better picture of the copperleaf on the wings. I had to copperplate some nickle rivets for the right look. I will be galvanicall etching a couple of copper inserts for it. Last week I made the leather kepi and another pirate hat

Then: I want to offer to make tophats and gamblers hats and maybe leather baseball caps with traditional hot rod flames for bikers and hotrodders and make the hat match their cars or bikes(or guitars or whatever) then maybe leather inserts for the backs of denim jackets. This one has a smaller brim than i normally do on a top hat but my wife and my daughter wanted this hat and wanted it that way.

Since an unfortunate incident gave me much free time from teaching I have been keeping myself busy with taking care of the kids, job hunting, learning autocad, studying to become an engineer, remodelling a few rooms in the house, studying flamenco guitar and working in leather. The first is my first leather top hat done without any pattern(I now have the tabndy one but havent used it yet) Next I realized that I had a piece of leather and my poor daughter did not have a pirating tricorn, how negligent of me.

BigGun I would think a nice lightweight one could be done in canvas with a bit of facing inside around the back.But might not need the facing. Maybe do the top in 5 ounce tooling then the top of your head would keep it up and the material itself would support itself. Just have to either cover the top or paint it to match. If I have enough canvas around I might try it this weekend.

Mines roughly 24 inches circumference. 6 inch diameter top circle

Ahh yes I most certainly do. How goes?

Hey Steve this place could contribute immensley to my inability to focus on what I am supposed to be doing. Its already produced extra work for me because i showed a few things to the wife and daughter.

Big Gun I like that alot. I havent worked with suede(it looks like suede, is it?) It seems like it would be easier and I should give it a whirl.

Sorry radar but GW doesnt ring a bell. My facebook is http://www.facebook.com/brian.abercrombie and anybody here is welcome to add me, This is my only rule on adding people: I am not interested in going to your web cam, nor in learning how to win a free ipod, nor adding bling to any aspect of my life. So if I do not know who you are and your picture looks like a stripper, or gangsta, or snake oil salesman you might outa message me with what we might have in common before adding me. I have stripper/gangsta/snake oil salesman friends but refer back to the first thing before adding me.

I was reading on some re-enactment forums where people had asked for patterns for kepis and they always got these pompous answers about study, read tons of books , visit museums, spend a billion hours perfecting it, buy one dissect it copy it, then my od thats stealing other people's work blah blah blah . Now while I understand all of that honestly, the person usually just asked if a pattern was available. there are many reasons why they may not have been able to do all of that but anyway. I thought how hard can it be? Especially if you are going for the general style not an accurate historical copy. So I set down with some paper and scissors and tape while the rest of the family was watching tv about 20 minutes later to the garage for leather acouple of hours later boom! i am going to be doing a tutorial/pattern thread on my forum on facebook but if anyone wants i can post here as well.

IWhere do you get the gum rubber from? How is it sold?