Canuck

I Have a Fortuna Bell skiver clone for sale. It is in good working condition. The bell knife is a Fortuna 96 with a lot of life left. It has the desired metal dog feed instead of the ceramic wheel. The self sharpener works well. I've had the machine for a year and has done me good service. I have made sure that it was well lubricated. This is the head only, you will need a table and motor. I am asking $450 plus shipping and handling. The reason I'm selling it is that I just acquired a new Consew bell knife skiver. I am located in Southern Ontario. The skiver weighs approx. 95lbs. PM me for more details

I made clicker dies using the backside of bandsaw blades This was done by using scrap plywood as a base, scrap 1/4" plywood to make a template and wrapping the blade around the template. Foam rubber from packaging is used inside the die to make sure the leather comes out of the die. I use scarp pieces of leather for other projects like wallets and the like. I use solar panels to provide electricity to run my lights and computer in the shop. Surplus stores will sell plastic cutting boards by the pound. Old railway rails for anvils I've made jigs out of scrap pieces of wood. Goodwill stores for old leather coats, and furs, as well as belts for the hardware. I use the file folders for patterns too as mentioned before. Great thread thanks for the ideas

Hi Andy. The machin is OK, I've put a lot of work into it and soon it will be operational. Simards don't have any, or carry this size of blade. If you have any spares that would be great.

Update, Dan at Randalls Machinery was very helpfull. He has some refurbished blades that may work. He can also re-sharpen the blades I currently have for a decent price and I may just go ahead and go that route. I will update this later

Thanks for the links. Unfortunately Randall number only works in the States. I have a call in with a Texas dealer but haven't heard back. Both Artisan and Hoffman Brothers were helpful but they don't carry the size I require. The standard appears to be 80mm OD and 40 ID mine are 64mm OD and 39mm ID. It might be possible to have the 80mm machined down to 65mm I would have to check that out. Specialty blades would make me a set but the initial set-up fee would be $1200-1500. then the cost of machining. I nixed them. I will keep plugging away. In the meantime I'll have a look at dressing the blades I do have.

Thanks, I have a call into them. They didn't have parts for the Randall strap cutter on the web page.

I purchased a manual strap cutter late last year. As always, one is told that it can do more and is in better condition then it actually is. I have refurbished it and had spacers made so that I can cut multiple straps in numerous widths. It has been modified so that it can be taken apart quickly and easily to change out the bushing spacers. The top roller is one solid piece. It has more grooves cut into it to facilitate the different positions of blades. I now need cutting blades that look like this. I have contacted a Disston head office but they don't make this item. Wondering if anyone has a source for these. Thanks Robert

I now live in Stratford, Ontario. I grew up in Northern Ontario. My former career was a stager manager of opera (Hurtin' songs done in Italian)....This allowed me to travel to many communities in Canada and abroad. I also have MS and this has slowed my involvement in theatre. I now build kilts and work out of my home. This is a full time venture. A number of years ago I was asked if I would make a kilt out of leather. I took on the project and am now reputed to be one of the best leather kilt makers in the world...who wouda tunk.... Cheers Robert

I have the 105-25RM. It is meant for sewing moccasins. I don't use it for that. I use it to top stitch my kilt straps and belts. It has a lever to disengage the feed dog. My machine works extremly well. I have eased up the tension on the presser foot as it tends to mark the leather.

Gladiator style kilts? lots of hardware and hours of setting the studs..... Thanks for the compliments.

Continuing on the theme of leftovers (on another post) I did this one as a joke. I was bored at a Highland games this past summer. Another vendor was sporting a new line of sporrans. I made this up in my solar powered shop. Upon it's completion I ventured over to his display and set it amongst his Traditional sporrans. I caught his attention and asked "John since when did you start selling pink sporrans?" He Answered in a thick Scot's brogue "aye dinnae sell pink sporrans! What ya on about?" I pointed at his display and he noticed my creation... We howled with laughter. The thing is, I ended up selling four of these that weekend! who woulda thunk?

I had another request for a leather kilt that was a bit off the wall. The company colours were black and pink. Apparently pole dancing is all the rage out west in lotus land and I made a pink and black leather kilt. She was extremely happy...it was a big hit. Put on your sunglasses!

Over a year ago I was asked what I did with my scraps. Well I have a number of projects and generally I have about 3% waste, so I really don't have leftovers. Which is OK. The fellow asked if I would build a multicolour leather kilt. I said sure, should be a piece of cake! WRONG! It took me a year to assemble the scraps that were big enough to make pleats. So here is the end result. Sorry the last pic is out of focus. Took me about three times as long to build. Not doing that again

Thanks for getting us back online. I will repost some of the photos that I have on file. Cheers Robert

In a products catolouge I found this http://www.aaronmartin.com/product.php?cat...amp;submit=View and this http://www.aaronmartin.com/product.php?cat...amp;submit=View Now the wholesale price is cheaper but even that was out of my range. Tandy has the crafttool press on sale for $94 Canadian but the throat is too narrow to handle some punches. So I cut off the foot and built a new base. I adapted a hand punch to fit in the press. I made a parrallel centering guide and used bungy cords for tension to hold the work in place. In the end I spent in total about $150 and a day in the shop to come up with something similar for a fraction of the cost. The hand press will be converted to a foot press and a guage will be added for spacing but here are the photos for reference.

Over the Christmas break my dad and I converted a crafttool press to punch and bag punch leather straps. The jig will centre the strap to allow the press to punch a hole or oblong hole in the centre of the strap. I cut off the base of the press to allow me to use a tandy mini punch set and a series of punches that require a 4" throat. I ground down the end of the punch holder so it would fit in the press. I made a parrallel device that will centre the strap under the punch. It's spring loaded (using bungy cord). I can go from 1/2" wide strap to 3 1/4"wide Costs. craftool press $100 mini punch $10 3/4" oblong punch $45 hardware $4 plywood, oak strips and maple base on hand. The unit will be mounted on a bench. I will attach a cable to the handle to convert it to a foot press. I will mount a ruler and use L shaped wire as a guage for the holes. I also need to mount the press on a metal base instead of the hardwood as there is a lot of torque. At the moment it works really well.

Thanks Johanna, The set-up attracts a lot of attention at the festivals, and I even manage to sell a kilt or two. I tell folks they can get a kilt made out of hemp and it was sewn using solar energy! cheers Robert

I have a pfaff 463 with the same computer motor set-up as in that picture. I can top stitch 8 oz latigo leather no problem. joining the two pieces that thick is a challenge feed wise. AS mentioned before sewing garment leather not too bad. Teflon foot might help. You will be limited to thread size, 69-90 max If you have the same set-up as in the photo, if you back pedal the needle will come up and if it's equiped with the thread cutter it will nip the threads for you as well. You can easily go one stitch at a time.

I've had a few requests for my set-up so I will give some details. This came about as festivals and events were charging up to $50 for hydro. I wanted to be self suffcient and carbon nuetral Here is my set-up for the Highland games. I have a Pfaff 1245 in the trailer. The trailer opens up, I have a cutting table and display area. I use solar panels to generate electricity. I can run the machine for 30 hours on a charge. Details follow the photos. I have two 80 watt sanyo solar panels that generates in total 160watts of power at peak sun. This is hooked up to a battery charger controler. I have two 75 amp/hour 12volt deep cell batteries hooked up in parallel. Giving me 150 amp hours of power(Gell batteries is an option but not worth the extra cost for this application) There is a 1000watt inverter/charger. This converts the 12volts DC into 110 volts AC. I can also use this unit to charge the batteries by plugging into a regular 110volt outlet. At first I ran a clutch motor to run the sewing machine. The odd time I would have to pulse the motor to get the flywheel spinning so I wouldn't tripp the internal breaker on the inverter. This year I purchased a DC motor. (These are the ones we can now run industrial machines with. they plug into 110AC and convert to DC) This motor works great. The trailer is a (Bear Trailer) Utility trailer 4.5'x8'. I have extended the sides and split and hinged them so they open up into work tables. The tailgates drop down to give me a floor of 4.5'x12'. I have also attached swing arms with pipes to hang my kilts off of. I drive the trailer into two 10x10 Caravan Canopies and that's the booth. Set-up is less than an hour and strike is about 45 min.

I"ll create a new thread. on solar Solar panel http://www.leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3194

Here is my set-up for the Highland games. I have a Pfaff 1245 in the trailer. The trailer opens up, I have a cutting table and display area. I use solar panels to generate electricity. I can run the machine for 30 hours on a charge.

I have an Adler 105-25RM It's Ok will probably sew through plywood. No reverse. It has a lever to stop the feeding of material. Sounds like a tractor. It takes some getting used to. I find it a challenge to sew without the guide as the feed is crazy as Art said. hang onto your work. When I got mine the tension on the presser foot was really heavy and marked the leather something awful. I backed it off by about 15 full turns and the machine runs quieter and barely marks. I purchased it hoping that it would help me sew the waistbands on the leather kilts. In order to do that I need to make a box to convert the cylinder bed to a flat bed.

I've had success with this company www.amefirdca.com as well as www.coats.com However there are minimum orders, unless they have it readily in stock you can negotiate.

I have received the dies today and tried them out. I am very pleased with them. The second batch I received, my Dad pinned the blades into the template for added security. The one die is large 12"x8" so I have to move it around and press it a few times but it sure beats cutting it out by hand. Total cost is hard to say because the base plate and templates were made from scrap pieces of plywood. Box of screws. scrap pieces of foam rubber a couple of worn out bandsaw Blades. Labour....my dad made 10 dies for me in about 20 hours. I will post again regarding how durable they are. Cheers Robert

Staetdtler Mars (Drafting supplies) Gel pens work the best so far . Available at Staples. 0.4mm triplus gel-liner art nr. 463 dsb6 Comes in a 6 pack of colours