bruce johnson

That is a Gomph “vizzard” edger. It is not all that common to find an Vizzard in any size. Finding a #0? I may have one in my set but likely have had one other if that in 15 years.

Graeme Quisenberry is in that area I believe

I have cleaned up 3 or 4 of these, so not big numbers and take that for what it is worth. I'm supposed to be picking one up next week. No solid ideas on #1 and 2 #3 - you can lightly oil them but you may get some oil transfer to your leather. #4 - those grooves in the rollers actually help to make more complete cuts through the leather and generally not a problem if you have the flesh side toward the roller. With a fresh roller sometimes you may not get a 100% complete cut until the roller has worn a bit of a groove and the cutters penetrate slightly. #5 - Here is what I did - Had someone handwheel the pulley and held abrasive sticks against the edges of the cutting wheels as they turned up. Starting with a medium stick and finished up to a pretty fine grit ceramic. Once I was satisfied I went to some leather wrapped around the stick with some black compound applied, then up to purple compound to clean off the burr and polish them. I was a little gun shy to do them under power and much speed. #6 - painting the infeed - There is always a chance of rub off onto the leather but most crank splitters have the infeed area painted.

Yes, for the most part these from tanneries or large distributors and are overstocks, over runs, cancelled/reduced orders. Chrome tans are more common because of the shifting whims of fashion and upholstery trends in colors and textures. Once in a while veg tans show up too. They can be directly from the tannery or from primary distributors. Most of the time they are sold to the secondary marketers as "odd-lots" in quantity - anywhere from a pallet stack to a load with no sorting or minimal sorting.

I have not seen a diagram or parts list for the crank skivers, and Landis had two versions. If you have this particular one that is the hardest of the two to break down. It is pretty intuitive how to break it down until you get to the wheels. The big connecting gears and wheels are attached together with tapered pins. You can sometimes get lucky and drive them out with pin punches. Sometimes you have to partially drill them out. When they drive out, it's a good day. When you have to drill - not a good day. If you just want a cleaning and not a tear down inspection/rebuild then your penetrating oil of choice is your friend. I like PB Blaster, Kroil, or the old homemade mix of automatic transmission fluid and acetone for penetrating oil. Spray - a few cranks, spray and crank, leave it sit an hour, repat until it runs out clean. For solvents on petrified grease - probably several choices from Krud Kutter, Simple Green, Dawn, Engine Degreaser to mineral spirits. Get everything freed up. Then go with something like Degreaser spray (blue can) or Brake Cleaner (green can) to remove residue and excess penetrating oil. Follow that up with oil at oil points (basically anywhere that moves or has bearing surfaces) and grease the gears. The oil I use is about a 20:1 mix of hydraulic jack oil and Prolong engine treatment. This mix was suggested to me by Ferdco for sewing machines 20 years or more ago, makes a great oil for everything in my hands. Crank a minute or so and reapply oil and grease - repeat as necessary until cranking is a one finger operation.

Shaq, At the time I was doing as much semi-production work as possible with a full time job. My leather work had to pay actually more than my job at that time. Some weeks it was 40-60 belts, some weeks 20-30 bags, purses, and shaving kits. The bags were chrome tan, sometimes Veg tan and often a mix of tooled vegtan on chrome tan bodies. There were saddle repairs and other stuff wedged in there too. At that time I had a Tippmann Boss and an Adler 205-370 for sewing machines. My skiver was a bottom feed but had a milled steel feed wheel and roller feet, so it would do most vegtan too. Once I got the debt paid off, I got a 1245 and then Ferdco 2000 for sewing machines. Once my leather tool business took off later I drifted more to that and cut back leather orders. My wife does a lot of bags and purses now for fun - she got a Cobra 26 that she dearly loves. She got the Skiver from them in January and simple to run for her.

Shaq, The dust and grime doesn't bother me. does it run smoothly? motor seem solid? no rattling or vibration anywhere? No play in the pulleys? adjustments all smooth and full range? If those are OK then there are a few other considerations. Some parts are universal and some are machine or maker specific. Are there other presser feet still available for the FAV? It is missing a knob or handle here and there. The fitting is there but the plastic knob is gone. Would not be a deal breaker but a consideration for previous use, care, and age. Your question about on a budget. If you buy this, then use it and it goes upside in 3 months, can you fix it or is that time to buy another? Something I think about with my own machinery purchases for sure. I am not going to address pricing because these machines are not something I have layers of experience with. I have had a couple through here that came with shops - newer, cleaner, and solid. Personally I had an older one like this I used a lot. When I got away from making a lot of bags I sold it. My wife decided late last fall she wanted one and we went with a new one from Leather Machine Co. I like dealing with David and the people there, plus we could pick it up at a show in January we were both at. She is not particularly mechanical and gets along great with it.

I know this is just semantics for most people but...some people reserve the term "stitcher" like saddle stitcher or harness stitcher for the old needle and awl machines like the Landis 3 and 16, Champion, Union Lock, and Randall. If a machine uses a closed eye needle then it is a "sewing machine". These older makers had their terminology and stuck to it. I talked with an old maker this past week I hadn't visited with before. "I've got a Landis 3 for my saddle stitcher and an Adler 205-370 and Pfaff 1245 for sewing machines".

Yes it can, and so can vegtan if you leave them. With my own punches I got to where I never left punchings inside. Last thing of the day or night was to clean them out. I clear petrified leather out of punches to sharpen almost daily. If they jam up then hitting harder is rarely the answer. It is surprising to me how many round drive punches have splits from being jammed up. Corrosion inside can make the punchings stick more. To prevent it, run some wax through every so often (paraffin, not beeswax). To clean them out I do a few things - run my blaster nozzle aimed from the top, then a flexible wire brush, or soak in Evaporust if bad. If I soak in Evaporust then I blast and brush afterwards. I finish with wax or treat the inside with a rust preventative.

If my truck had belts like that, I'd end up along the road somewhere between Barstow and Needles. I've got three machines here with the two belt reducers. They all line up squarely. I ordered them with speed reducers or that was part of the package so I am guessing that Ferdco and Leather Machine Co both allowed for the speed reducer when they mounted the motor. If it was me, like a few other suggestions, I would move the motor. I also agree with AlZilla that the lower part of the speed reducer looks tilted. That may from excess belt tension from the reducer to the machine and end up to be more of an issue than just misalignment down the road. Check that tension because machine bearing failure is no fun. Another question - Is there supposed to be a grease zerk in that hole near the bottom or does your reducer have sealed bearings?

Yes, this was part of Tippmann's jump into stitchers and clicker presses. Denny Tippmann also came out with a pneumatic post driver. One of their big things was pneumatic paint ball guns in Ft Wayne. AlZilla, I would curb my enthusiasm. The Aerostitch had problems - as KGG said - you needed a pretty good sized compressor. The speed control was a bleeder as I recall. The originals did not have a reverse but later ones did I think. The foot pedal controlled valves and prone to bleeding air. I had one for a very short time (like a week) and it was not for me. I don't remember if the Boss came out at the same time as the Aerostitch. I bought a Boss in about 2000 and it was $1600 with the basic package. At that time Ferdco sold their new 440 about the same as KGG said. I got one of those in 2002 when I got kicked into some production work and needed power. It chewed up the backs of projects. I had it two days, called Ron and said what else ya got? He traded me a used Adler 205-64 for the 440 head coming back and $1000. That Adler was a really good machine. At that time anything else that was powered and sewed leather was about $6000. Later on I got a Ferdco Pro 2000 and it was $6500 with the full package of feet. A few years later Artisan Jerry came out with the short arm 441 clone with motor and stand and was under $2000. That set the whole deal going that a cylinder arm machine with some capacity became a lot more affordable. Tippmann came out at some point in there with the aluminum frame Boss to cheapen them up a bit.

I am going to take this thread a little down a rabbit hole, sorry. Yeah when you are on fire that "Stop, Drop, and Roll" deal we all learned in elementary school may not apply. Some of you may have heard this before. This is pretty close to 10 years ago. The late Elliot Hampton was a really interesting insightful and funny guy that enjoyed contributing here to the forum. He and I had some good phone conversations and traded a lot. He was having a lot of respiratory issues his last few months and conversations got harder. He'd tell me every so often that he was dropping a special something or another into a box for his friends to mail me after he died. He never said what and I didn't ask. He messaged me one night and said we need to say our goodbyes - call me. He was running out of air and some sentences took him a minute to get out. At the end he said "We've said it all, no need to talk again. Think of me when the smoke rises, love you man", then he asked what I was working on that night. Told him I had one little thing to grind the tip off and I was done for the night. I went back to working. The end of the piece flew off and I didn't see where it landed. A few seconds later I smelled it and a half second later realized my hair was on fire. I smacked it out and scraped that hot chunk out of my scalp. Next morning I called Elliot and told him he didn't need to say anything but here's what happened. He starts laughing and then wheezing really bad - the phone goes silent for about 30 seconds. I mean nothing. Sh*t, I just killed Elliot. He comes around and says I'm dropping one more thing in your box. A couple weeks later the box comes - on top is Elliot's fez. Sooo, think about head protection too!

My farrier and hay aprons - pearl apron - split or unsplit. The unsplit was softer and then knee patches with the splits. My leather guy told me the unsplit was lighter weight latigo crust. i am not sure how available it is anymore. My spark catching apron - Chap leather split from the bargain bin. It gets ugly fast enough to not matter much for color or brands. Once in a while I see little pin holes all over my T-shirts to remind me to wear it more often.

I believe Shane Deeter in UT sells them.

I buy neolite shoe sole material from Montana Leather. It appears to be the same as poundo. The problem I found on a quick search is your size needs. Suppliers are selling it in more easily shipped and handle sizes smaller than 4x8 feet. My sheets are 36x18. Horse stall mats are on option but not as a clean of a material. I have stall mats covering the floors in the working shops and most of the leather shop. There is some imbedded metal strands and occasional sparks and metal fibers when you saw it. Probably recycled tires as some part of the material.