dikman

Another few hours down the rabbit hole (it's getting bloody deep!). Finally figured out how to import a file into Coreldraw, managed to ungroup and apply the hairline but there's no way to save it, believe it or not the window that opens up for it extends down off the screen and I can't find a way to move it up! Also, Coreldraw won't let me save it as an .svg file, only a .cdr file. I can import the .cdr into Inkscape, and then save it as an .svg but when I import that into Lightburn the the laser tracks the image but doesn't actually turn on the laser to burn. All very bizarre. My laser is quite capable of burning a very fine line - but thus far I can't convert my image to do that. My language has been somewhat colourful of late.

Interesting, that's good to know. I downloaded an earlier version of Coreldraw but being a trial version it won't let me import images so isn't very useful. I'll look into it further.

I thought something was different - no Chuckie posts. Good to see you're still alive and kicking.

Is that the quick-draw version? Very nice job on the leatherwork, looks great.

Cheaper if you make your own, I've built three so far. Lots of information on the castboolits forum.

To change it to vector I have to use the trace function first, which gives me a vector image, but I can't see anywhere in Lightburn that will let me isolate individual or part lines into different layers (it may be there but I haven't figured it out if it is). I have successfully changed the image to a vector but the linework is too thick and when I engrave it and then run the swivel knife over it I'm left with an "outline" or edging from the burning alongside the tooling. Searching has shown that Adobe Illustrator will let me convert the thick vector lines to a thin line using the artwork function, but I don't have Illustrator (nor am I about to buy it!) and thus far I haven't found any other programme that can do this function. It looks like I'm heading down another rabbit hole. 30 mins. later: ok, it looks like I need to duplicate the image and assign a different colour layer to each duplicate (as many times as I need to vary individual lines). This still wouldn't allow for a line that tapers in cut depth along its length, this would have to be done manually with a swivel knife. Plus each layer would need editing to remove parts that don't need cutting. I've been dabbling in Inkscape to use as a suitable drawing programme but it's far from being user-friendly or intuitive. Overall it seems a clumsy way of doing anything. Whilst engraving the lines is great to use the cut as a guide for the swivel knife it looks like the best way is going to be finding the settings that only just engrave the image with just enough burning to see the outline and leave a minimal marking on the leather and then use the swivel knife normally.

I have those Gerber pliers too, I've had them for years. I carried them while working at the Grand Prix here in Adelaide and one day whipped them out to cut some fencing wire, turns out the wire was high-tensile and notched the cutting edge of the pliers! I like the way the pliers just slide out without having to open up the handles. Nice pouches, should last forever.

That drop-down guide is a rather strange-looking contraption. The two notched rods on the left had me puzzled until it occurred to me that maybe that's where the spring fits that holds it up and down?

That makes four of us! I discovered that little trick not long after I started leatherwork, my little machine couldn't sew leather but it could punch little holes. Made my saddlestitching much easier (and neater).

Thanks for moving it, Northmount, the thread has grown bigger than I intended. Bert, thanks for the vid, for some reason it didn't occur to me to search youtube (which is odd considering how much time I spend on it ). Billybopp, the plywood "base" under the leather is not fixed, unlike the metal sheet underneath that which is screwed down. I have engraved a line in the metal as an aid in lining up the plywood, but you're right, if I make an alignment line in the other axis I can then make indexing marks which should give me some degree of consistency (at least within a couple of mm). More fettling required. As for the depth of cut, I hadn't thought about that. It is certainly possible to vary the power for different lines but that has to be done in the design stage by creating different layers. With an imported image like I'm using that can't be done as it's all one layer so all cuts are the same depth. More thought required. My next step, however, is to use a smaller image and experiment on a decent piece of veg, one that can be cased properly.

Just spent two days trying to figure out why I couldn't tack on another image to my test piece. Part of it was outside the area covered by the engraver but I figured Lightburn would just chop it off at the limit point. I was getting all sorts of line and image layers but nothing would burn! Finally worked out that if part of the image falls outside the work area Lightburn will not process anything!!!! So I tried burning it into a scrap piece of leather and it worked well. I dampened the leather to try tooling it but it doesn't cut or tool easily. It's very old leather given to me with a lot of other stuff and appears to be a "hard" leather. I might try casing it with saddle soap and see if that helps. It's also occurred to me that maybe I don't need to use a swivel knife, perhaps if I can get the burn depth right I can simply use the engraver to "cut" the pattern and then just tool it? Have to give it a try.

I would never have guessed! Oh, and congratulations (I think ) on not being single anymore.

This machine is designed primarily as a binder, only get this if you specifically want a binder. I suggest you keep looking.

Nothing like a new toy arriving!

I'd say it's a clone of a Pfaff 335 (the 335 in the model number is a giveaway). It's also a binder, so if you want to use it as a "normal" machine you will have to change the feet and the needle plate (and possibly feed dog?). It also probably has the backwards/forwards feed dog, not the usual oscillating feed dog. Kwok Hing should have some feet, plates etc, they did for my old-casting 335.

I've been thinking of making a dress belt but I'd like to have another go at carving at the same time. Stohlman's book Belts Galore has an oak leaves and acorns pattern which looked nice. Then I thought (always dangerous!) could I use my new laser engraver to very lightly etch the pattern to use as a cutting guide, rather than the usual tracing method? My Stohlman book is a .pdf so it wasn't too hard to copy and paste the pattern into photoshop to make it a suitable size and get rid of the stippling that he draws in. A trial run on some cardboard shows that it should work. There are two problems, however, the pattern is only a short section and has to be repeated several times to make up the length of the belt. Locating the pattern accurately each time is going to be tricky and I will need a jig of some sort so the belt can be moved along within the laser's frame and not move out of alignment. I whipped up an adjustable guide thingy out of plywood that should work (not pretty but the leather doesn't care!) and magnets around the edges of the board should keep it in place. While writing this it suddenly occurred to me that as my engraver has a bed width of 400mm I could join two or three of the pattern elements in photoshop so I could engrave the longest run in one go, this will minimise the joins I need to make. Hmmm. Lots of experimenting needed (using cardboard) to work out how to accurately locate the laser beam each time. Has anyone tried anything like this?

They don't have an oil reservoir so nothing to spill. Plenty of padding on the seat and sit it there, you could lay it down (carefully) on the padding if necessary. If you have to carry it in the back just make sure you have lots of padding and try and strap it down or wedge it so it can't slide around.

Won't poking a traditional diamond-shaped awl through the round hole help to give you the effect you want?

Mike beat me to it, I pre-punch my holes using a sewing machine (gives me even spacing) and then use an awl to give the nice diamond shape to the holes. I also do as TomE said and pull the thread back towards me to reduce the possibility of piercing the thread already in the hole (I learned that the hard way!!!).

I haven't done much with mine but the intention was to use #277 (heaviest thread I could find here) on holsters, but the beauty of the narrow plate set is it also sews #138 just fine. Not bad for a big lump of a machine like the 4500! I have other machines for #69 thread.

I bought the narrow plate set from RockyAussie and haven't seen any need to take them off, they work well for everything I'm likely to do.

It's easy to get carried away with shiny new toys!

You may have a problem doing this, if I remember correctly on these models the end bearing is actually part of the handwheel, unlike most models where the bearing is fitted into the main body casting.

On my list of stuff when I'm next near the plastics shop. Tried some aluminium, it cut through the powdercoating and while it etched the ally it wouldn't cut very deep (also what I expected). Lots of other materials to experiment with.

I made a maker's stamp using jarrah, a dense Australian hardwood. Lots of charring, smoke and smell! It actually worked, inasmuch as the fine detail was there but I overlooked the fact that structurally the wood is very delicate and the lettering fell apart as soon as I touched it. Next was some Zenolite, this is a hard perspex with a thick coloured acrylic coating in this case white. It worked beautifully while engraving the white coating but once it burned through that and into the clear perspex it got interesting. The laser went through the perspex and started burning into the wood layer underneath. I had read that it won't cut clear perspex so this just confirmed it. The smell was not good even though I had a fan blowing over it next to an open door. I have an old kitchen rangehood that I'll rig up as an exhaust fan as in wet weather I can't keep the door open. All good fun.