dikman

Squid, I've got all sorts of sharpening gear, collected over many years () and I find the paper wheel to be excellent for a final honing BUT you are quite right in that heavy pressure would still likely cause damage to a very thin blade/edge. The other wheel, which is paper embedded with grit, definitely would if used carelessly. I still keep a leather strop next to my leatherwork tools.

They use metric sizes (seeing we're in Oz) which can be confusing when this site, being in the US, generally uses #. If you haven't discovered it already there are several sizing "systems" out there, unfortunately. Basically M40 = #69, M20 = #138, M8 = #277. Finding anything heavier isn't easy in Oz.

Joachim, I've dismantled it because I fitted the wheels to a larger grinder, I found the wheels were too close together on the small grinder and sharpening a longer blade was awkward. I now just use it freehand, works fine. I was overthinking it before! Squid, it's not a problem because you don't apply heavy pressure for extended periods (unlike using grinding wheels or belt grinders). It isn't meant for hogging out steel, only for fine honing, sort of like a mechanical strop.

https://www.vardhman.com.au Have a look at them, they're located in Victoria.

I found that using my right foot for both operations was a bit of a nuisance as I kept looking down to see where my foot was! I was too worried about accidentally pressing down on the Go pedal and putting a stitch hole where I didn't want it! Using my left foot for the lifter feels far more intuitive.

I don't think I got an open toe inner foot with mine (boo hoo ). Best thing is to try the different feet to see the effect they have, you have the double-toe foot fitted in the picture which stops the guide getting too close. As for the drop-down guide, yes, it gets in the way of the manual lifting lever so I made an extension to move the lever to the right. As mine is mounted on a conventional table, however, I made an extension underneath the table and fitted another pedal so I can lift the feet using my left foot. I find it works well and is more convenient than using the hand lifter.

Usually it's Aus Post that does that. I've had several items that said "In Transit" (as in NOT at my local depot) only to have them delivered that day. Still, at least you've got it. Now the fun begins.

Yep, could work as the design looks rigid so should concentrate the downward force. Pretty expensive, though.

Poncho, that is an impressive bit of cutting into the pin! An excellent example of why NOT to do it.

Is a grommet press going to have enough leverage to cut through the leather?

Noel, welcome to THE forum for leatherwork (and information about industrial leather sewing machines ). Note the word "industrial", in the review Mary linked to they are all domestic machines, with the exception of the Juki 8700, and that is a fabric machine. I doubt if anyone here would consider them as suitable for serious leatherwork. The first question, as has been asked already, is what do you want to sew? That will determine what will be suggested as a suitable machine.

Interestingly, the paintwork on the main body looks very good, with very few blemishes, but the base shows signs of a lot of use.

I bought one of those generic models off ebay (they all seem to be much of a muchness) and it's working fine. Pretty simple but it wasn't worth the trouble of making one at what they sell for.

A light automotive grease, or lithium grease, or moly-disulphide grease - it's not going to be too critical, especially if you're going to run it fairly slow with a servo motor. For $100 I would have taken both!!

Who'd have thought of making donut-shaped magnets? Or even looking for them? I found another use for my press. I have two Macadamia trees and the nuts are so hard that I have to crack them using an engineer's vise. Makes for a slow job. Guess what, the press does a pretty good job of cracking them too (and it's a bit quicker).

I don't know about prices over there but when I was looking at getting a 4500 I thought about a 3200 as it seemed like a nice size machine but there was a minimal price difference here so it made sense to get the bigger machine. Now that RockyAussie has developed the narrow needle plate and feed dog to use #138 on thinner material it makes the 4500 much more versatile and probably better value.

When I first thought about it I wasn't sure it would work either, but the fact Sam Andrews uses one proves that it does, in fact, work. The only proviso could be in the grade of aluminium used, some are harder/denser than others. kgg, I needed mine to fit on the left side of the grinder, which is a left-hand thread, plus the shaft is too short to extend past the burnisher. Finding such taps here isn't easy and the lathe I had back then couldn't cut threads. Your ideas should work.

Spyros, the same thought occurred to me once, but as you say I don't think it would stand up to the pressure and speed. kgg, I thought about making one out of aluminium as it would be pretty easy to do on the lathe but the biggest problem was how to cut the thread for the shaft in the ally. The advantage of wood is that I could drill the centre hole slightly undersize and then force it onto the shaft, using the shaft thread to cut a matching thread in the wood.

Not much missing from that list, Spyros. I reckon, though, once you get that narrow plate fitted and sorted you're not likely to use much of the other bits, other than maybe a couple of the different feet. I've never bothered fitting the belt guards as I always find them a nuisance. Exciting times ahead.

Now where would the fun be in that? What bits did you end up getting with it? I assume you're getting the complete setup with the table?

This is the guy, you can see his burnisher at 13m 29secs. He has other videos too.

Spent all morning sorting out my machine, it was a combination of things. Now, I haven't used this machine for a while and had threaded the takeup spring wrong (although it still worked as 95% of the stitches were fine). I also checked the needle timing and while it was obviously fine with thicker thread I could see a potential issue with thinner stuff so dropped the needle bar just over 1/2 mm. I re-balanced the bobbin/upper thread tensions, plus I had also forgot to back off the foot pressure for lighter material. After doing all that I could sew two layers of suede with no problems, doubled it up and still good. NOW it's doing what I hoped it would, so for around $140 (plate/feed dog and needles) I've effectively got another machine, in between an upholstery-class and harness stitcher. Impressive. And I'm not posting a picture of the quiver, while it's functional it didn't quite turn out as I envisaged (not pretty!).

Brian, I adjusted mine according to Uwe's excellent video so I'm pretty sure my settings are correct. I'm not panicking (yet) as I'll do a bit more experimenting when I've finished this quiver. Yes, new plate set and needle. It occurred to me last night to check the thread path, as whatever the problem is it's relatively minor, and yes, it could be the suede getting pushed down the hole slightly. I'll try a few different materials and see if there's a pattern, I'll find it.

Yep, Sam Andrews uses aluminium so it can't be too bad. I made a couple out of wood, one using a hardish wood the other a slightly softer wood and both work fine, but I think hardwood would be better than softwood.

You won't regret it (well, you might every time you think of the money!) but it will last you a lifetime, which is more than you can say for a lot of things these days. I thought I'd better try out this new plate, I need to make a quiver so after lots of thinking (makes my brains hurt ) I came up with a design, of sorts, using canvas and suede. I figured it would be a good test for the #138, and it won't matter if I stuff up the stitching a bit in the process as it's going to be a knock-about thing anyway. I'll post a photo when it's finished. Unfortunately I've had a few missed stitches and I'm wondering if the hook timing isn't quite accurate enough for the thinner thread (or the thread tension isn't quite right).