Studio-N

thanks ray. It's just been great to find something that I enjoy doing so much. I simply haven't had a single bad day since leaving the evil empire. -Nick

I got a new 3d laser scanner for model making and thought it would be good for reverse engineering a vintage stamp. A 3d scanner differs from a regular scanner/copier which just gives a visual copy in that the 3d scanner gives back height and depth info. At first I tried scanning the stamp it self but it was worn enough that every imperfection showed up in the model and was going to take a LONG time to clean up. Not to mention the preparation that goes into preparing the object for scanning (a whole other story). Then it occurred to me to scan the leather stamping instead. The stains on the piece didn't matter since I'm not scanning for color rather for depth. It turns out leather scans VERY well with little or no prep. The first picture is what I started with. The 2nd is the result of the scan and a little smoothing and clean up. As you can see it is a very good representation of the stamp. The picture would result in a good copy of the stamp after I cut it. The 3rd pict is the same stamp inverted so the figure would result being UP for more of a 3d look. I can't wait to try a larger piece with some fancy tooling on it. Cheers!

thank you. here is the same design on a wood lighter case with the original mustache.

3" tall sugar skull stamp done for a customer. It had a mustache originally but he had me remove it. I still think it works. I love doing day of the dead stuff.

If you're looking to use one stamp on both tannage, you'll have to go the branding route. Soft leathers (i.e chrome) will simply bounce back up. leathers like a latigo can sometimes be stamped under pressure. You can however stamp a small piece of veg and use it as label you sew in for the softer stuff. Cheers!

I've been wanting to make a big rig stamp for a long time. I could just never get it to work out until now. This one is 3" long for either a wallet, flask, or oval belt buckles. This one isn't a full 3d, more like 2.5D.

Full Spectrum Lasers (Las Vegas, NV) has a model at $3500. Here is the link: http://fslaser.com/products/lasers/newhobby I can't speak about the quality but I invite those interested to check the engravers section of Sawmill Creek and pay close attention to the posts of of problems people have with their xyz lasers. I have a ULS model that has been a workhorse for 14 years but it wasn't cheap.

Here's a couple of new plates I made for a customer of mine. The long train is 8" long for a wallet back. The short train is 3". Once agian, they are made on delrin plastic and were done on the CNC machine. I sure did learn thing about cutting thru the double face tape I use to hold these down - the bit was gunked up big time when done. Cheers!

I LIKE it. The industry definitely needs some competition to keep things at a good price. They didn't mention power but engraving leather only needs about 20 watts. Cutting thru does require more. Cutting chrome-tanned leather requires even more so.

thank you.

my ONLY dependency on the evil empire is on the hefty handles since I had to cut the back of my stamps to use some type of handle. If I could find a better handle I'd definitely change to that. Anyone have any suggestions? See the pict. My original handle was a 6" pipe with 2 brass caps with flat tops. I would attach the stamp with double face tape. Of course that was for me and was a bit too 'ugly' for public release. I still have it btw. I did have someone making me some handles at an affordable price but unfortunately they went under. cheers!

If the evil empire is out of stock, it will stay that way for at least a month or more. Remember - it's Chinese New Year! Celebrations last 2 weeks, so the docks will be mostly shut down and there will be quite a backlog when the workers return. And where does Tandy stuff come from? China. They will fly in some of their most critical items, but murphies law usually has it not being the one thing you need. so sit and wait a while.

Experimenting is fun, but two factors come into play when mixing colors - too much black, and no white. Each dye has black as a base pigment. so when you mix red and yellow (for instance) you're mixing red, black and yellow. so you'll most likely need more yellow than you thought. The thing about getting brighter colors is you need white. since black is the base pigment, you can't get there. dilution with alcohol is just that - a dilution. It makes the color more transparent but not brighter. Lord only knows what that feibings White stuff is, but it's not a spirit dye. Cheers!

This is something different from my usual wallet back plates. This was cut to fit in the oval rope edge belt buckles like the evil empire sells. It would also fit on a larger oval where you lace the leather around an oval buckle back. I went the first route for the sample 'cause I've just been to busy to lace. As usual, the plate is cut into 1/2 thick delrin plastic so it should hold up pretty well. Cheers!

Thanks NV, I was just about to take on a project using the water stains and was wondering about the resists. Now I can go straight to work and not have to run the same test. cheers!

generally a 1 ton arbor press works fine. however at 7cm even a 1 ton does not necessarily work great if you're trying to press it all at once and expect good results. All the pressure is in the center. So the way to work that is to press in one corner. Move over 1 inch (2.5 cm or the size of the ram) and press again. Rinse and repeat until you cover the whole stamp. with a vise it may just be an issue of it not being able spread out the pressure.

Hello Everyone, many of you know I've been making these wallet back plates for sale. I've been thinking of just offering some embossed leather wallet backs pressed with the same dies for people that want to make their own wallet but don't want to buy a plate, press, etc. The problem then becomes what size to make the wallet back. In the end it depends on the wallet guts. I know many people make their own insides so the sizes vary. The evil empire sells wallet guts that are 10" x 4 1/4". Springfield sells a prepunched wallet back that is 9 1/2 x 3 5/8" but they also sell insides that are larger. So what do you think? An easy answer would be so simply make them oversized so someone can cut them down but I still have to have a base size (and so I can have a clicker die made). The basic size of the impression would be roughly 3" in the largest dimension and probably 5" for a roper wallet. Any and all advise is welcome. Thanks in advance!

Sorry, but I hope you realize I make these kinds of things. Those are impressions, not cuts. so it is fact like a craft aid, except that it has been made to be pressed or stamped. You yourself say it's mashed down. That's not saying it's not useful for something done over and over, but don't say something it's not. It's a stamp or press plate as you have said. It makes deeper impressions than a craft aid for where the swivel knife CUTS would be. But it is not parting the leather. Cost on those should be in the $6-$8 square inch from those of us that make these kinds of things. So $100 would be correct for a retail price.

Basically it is a craftaid equivalent. Just lays out your pattern so you can get to work. Cheers!

Hi Ray and thanks. I think it just an evolution. I still do mostly laser work. I just don't get to show those as lots of them are proprietary works for other clients. I'm enjoying the CNC since it is the 'new toy' and there is just so much new stuff to learn. And in this case I am pesonally enjoying the more realistic look it has and for me - the laser is the business, the CNC is still my personal hobby. These new idea are keeping me fresh. Pretty soon I'll be mixing the two and my head will explode until some new technology comes out (and in fact I have some new technolgy coming which is going to pretty cool). Many regards, Nick

hello. Yes it is an embossing not a carving. Unable to edit the original post to that effect. -nick

thank you Bob. This is for show and tell at my CNC group next week. they've seen my models and plates, but I haven't shown a finished product that uses them. I think they'll like it. Nick

After Michelangelothe painter, not the ninja turtle.

Finally completed this wallet using a couple of my 3d embossing plates. Masked the aliens with supersheen, applied Saddle tan antique gel and then used Leather Balm to pull the black out and seal the leather. I haven't laced anything in about a year. Once I got my rythm I was ok, but it still took a good 6 hours to finish it up. Cheers!

Fully got the jist WW. I know the limitations. I've only been at it about 5 month now, so everything is an experiment. You should see the one's that didn't work out. If it was wood, 1/16 would be too small to do it all at once. Normally you do a 'rough out' pass to remove a lot of excess material. Delrin (and most plastics) are pretty forgiving so you can go straight to the finishing work. as it is - using this gives off a whole lot of tiny plastic 'dust'. Static cling being what it is, that stuff sticks to everything!! I built a simple cardboard box to catch most of it. I actually works very well. going straight to a finish cut is reducing the cut time down by about 50% (only 3 hours now). cheers! -Nick