dikman

Matt, a 1x30 can be very useful (bigger isn't always better ). I've had the other one for over 30 years and I've found that I actually use a belt grinder quite a bit, but the main reason for lashing out on this is to get the variable speed, as there's no easy way to vary the speed of a single phase grinder.

Brian, it's a 1.1 kw (1.5 hp) motor, it's the size they recommend for this grinder. As it's designed for hogging out metal I don't think I'd want anything less, but if it's only used for leather/wood you could possibly get away with 1 hp, but the price difference between the motors isn't much. I bought the motor from Artisansupplies only because it was convenient but there's a place on ebay called Conon Motors, in Vic, and they have a good range at what appears to be good prices (unless you can find one locally maybe). If I go ahead with modding my lathe I'll get the motor from them. I bought the VFD from them ($200) but there are others on ebay for around $100 and I've found good reports on them. I think if I buy another I'll try one of the cheaper ones. Putting the VFD in a separate case is a good idea, as you say it protects it and once it's set up you don't really need to access it, all you do is fit remote start/stop and speed controls, all done by programming. My background is in electronics but the programming had me scratching my head for a while as the terminology was a bit new to me. I watched a few vids on youtube where guys had fitted them to lathes and that helped me understand the basic ideas. Most of the settings don't need to be changed for our needs, basically just add the motor parameters (volts, phase, current, hp etc, all of which is on the motor nameplate) and that's it. Depending on the VFD type it may be necessary to set the voltage input, I didn't have to on mine. The trickiest part was working out the settings for the remote controls, but like a lot of things it was fairly obvious afterwards! Anything you want to know just ask.

Actually, she saw it on the credit card account and said perhaps I should have it as a combined birthday/christmas present. Here's the "finished" product, a cheap (because I used whatever I had in the sheds) and rough-as-guts (well, I did give the wood a rough sand to remove most of the splinters) dust catcher! I routed a slot in the rear piece so it can be adjusted for height, a few assorted plumbing fittings, a spare hose from an old vacuum cleaner and a cheap shop vac. Works well for leather and wood (no good for metal, of course), but even with the vac outside it's still noisy!!! Now I think I need to buy one of those digital tachometers off ebay so I can measure the speed and mark my adjustment dial.

Spyros, I'm impressed! That's a great bit of fettling there, both the lathe and the stuff you made with it!

Bert, that's what I'm working on. A quick mockup showed that it should work and I was going well today until I got a call that my wife had fainted at the bank, so had to rush over there. She was ok, she had given blood earlier that day and the bank was hot and stuffy and that combined with a long wait got the better of her but the medics still insisted on carting her off to hospital. Couldn't do any more on the dust collector 'cos I had to walk back to get the car and then hang around by the phone.

Looks pretty good to me, Joe, considering you only wanted to knock something up in a hurry. Stacked leather handles are a lot of work, even when you have lathes and stuff!

I just love looking at things that folks have cobbled together! Fortunately I'll only be generating a fraction of the dust that Brian does so controlling it shouldn't be too much of an issue. You may have noticed that my grinder is mounted right next to the doorway, I did that deliberately when I installed my first grinder, and if I'm likely to be doing a bit of work on it I use a floor fan blowing out the doorway.

Local scrap yard? No such thing. We do have a rubbish dump, of course, but the days of being able to rummage through it and find useful stuff are long gone.

Thanks Spyros, you really know how to cheer someone up! My original intention was to move it (temporarily) outside the shed onto a table when I wanted to do any extended/very dusty grinding, but by the time I got it all set up I realised it wasn't a practical idea. Oh well. I generally wear a dust mask if I'm doing extended grinding as I'm well aware of the dust it creates, you only have to blow your nose afterwards to see!! For the time being I'm going to rig up a catcher right under the belt that can be connected to a shop vac outside the door. I've seen how much of a mess sanding leather makes and the beauty of this machine is I can slow it down for wood/leather/antler so the dust won't be thrown up everywhere by a high speed belt, theoretically the vac should work under those conditions. I know the dust extraction systems you're talking about as I looked into one a long time ago, the difficulty I had (have) is where to put it - outside, obviously, but then I will have to build something to protect it from the elements and given where my gear is that's a problem.

Took some photos while I'm waiting for my frozen scones to thaw. The third one shows the platen arm rotated so it can be used as a slack belt. The work table has two settings, as you can see from the slots in pic 4. There is also an attachment available (which I didn't buy but may make myself) to allow use of a very small diameter contact wheel, it's on their website.

There's no doubt that this is a bit of an extravagance, given that I'm not a knifemaker, but I thought what the hell, I'm not getting any younger and I do like nice machinery (read:toys ). Brian, I'll take a couple more photos shortly, there are a couple of vids on youtube that the makers put out. As for dust collection, normally knifemakers put a bucket of water below the belt to catch the metal grindings, but dust from wood/antler/leather is another issue, something that I'm thinking about. I figure a collector of some sort (probably from the plumbing shop) and a piece of pipe to attach a vacuum line to, supported on an adjustable stand to move around below the belt should work.

Yeah, I'm pretty chuffed with it. It's Australian-made (for a change ) - https://www.artisansupplies.com.au/product-category/knife-making-supplies/knifemaking-belt-and-disc-grinder-parts-and-accessories/84-engineering-48-inch-belt-grinders/ I first saw one at the Adelaide Knife Show a couple of years ago but I thought it was a bit expensive for my needs. I recently started thinking about getting a new belt grinder and started looking around. I found a beautiful unit, also Australian made, called the Radiusmaster, but it was over twice what I ended up paying for this one! I also wanted a 72" unit, but the problem I had with that is they take up more space, which would be an issue where I wanted to put it. This unit turned out a lot more compact than I expected, which is a bonus. I toyed with the idea of building one as the construction of this is actually relatively simple and Artisansupplies also sell all the various wheels etc, but in the end I figured it was too much trouble so just bought one. I bought the motor from them as their pricing was good, but they wanted $800+ for a programmed VFD!! Mine cost me $200 off ebay (and I could have bought a different one for half that) plus a bit of work fitting it and watching lots of youtube vids to figure out how to programme it. It will outlast me and I've no doubt it will eventually be "inherited" by one of my sons-in-law. Edit: Bert, belt size is 48" x 2", (a standard size).

Figured I should post a couple of pics, after all we all like looking at pics. The little box on top of the motor is the remote control I just fitted, so I don't have to keep opening the VFD enclosure. The platen arm can be tilted/rotated to place the contact wheels at the front and there is a work table, of course, but I normally leave it off. The grinder alongside is my original one, which uses 36" belts but is too fast for leather. I made a fitting for it to use 48" belts but now that I have the new one I decided to go back to the 36" on it. The white pipe is a piece of plastic conduit that I slid on the handle that releases the belt for changing, it's a bit easier on the hand than the metal handle.

I'm not sure how you managed to reach that conclusion. Yes, there is a section about sewing machines, and that section has a quite a lot of posts, but that's inevitable because sewing machines cause people a lot of problems! There are, however, many other sections, covering all manner of subjects related to leatherwork - tools, finishes, dyes, carving, stamping, stitching, braiding, making various bags/belts/holsters/motorcycle stuff etc etc etc. Exactly what are you looking for that you can't find on here?

There is a sticky, by Wiz, above these posts about the type of machine you need to sew leather, if you haven't read it then it's a great place to start. You mention holsters, unfortunately they will require a heavier machine than one used for wallets and belts (I'm talking dress belts here). It is an unfortunate fact that there is no one sewing machine that can do it all.

I have a belt grinder which I use a lot - metal, wood, plastic, nylon and yes, leather. The problem is it's too fast and burns the leather and wood if I'm not very careful. So I bit the boolit, so to speak, and treated myself to a new grinder, something I've wanted for years. This one is designed primarily for knifemakers and runs 48" belts, and I went the whole hog and bought a 3-phase motor with it and a separate VFD. It took a while to figure out how to programme the VFD but now I can run the grinder from almost nothing to flat out! No more burning leather. I'm so impressed with the VFD/3-phase motor setup that I'm thinking of fitting one to my lathe.

Sounds like a subject for a new thread.

Looking good, Dave. I just bought a packet of acorn nuts from the hardware store for mine (quick and easy).

I'm with chuck. Anyone can make a blade very hard, but the downside is it's brittle. Wusthof-Trident kitchen knives made their knives harder and used it as a selling point, but if you dropped one on a hard surface the tip usually broke. They replaced them under warranty if this happened (they really had no choice if they wanted to maintain their reputation). A chef I knew told me that professional chef's didn't like them as they were too hard and difficult to maintain a good edge on. A flat grind is probably the most practical to use.

Alex, I just had a look at your arty things link - very nice work there, my friend. The forged blades are well done, simple and clean designs.

As Arturomex said, some maintain that cutting a groove in the surface of the leather weakens it, which it probably does, but if it's thick leather then it's not likely to be much of an issue. I have yet to see anyone providing proof that doing this has lead to premature failure of the product. On the other hand as Dwight said it provides protection for the stitches and in my opinion looks neat and tidy. Bottom line is to do what you like and what works for you. You're not breaking any rules.

The bent nail welded to the nut (for a handle) might be a bit of a giveaway?

With all that hand tooling and hand stitching, not forgetting the time in laying out the design, it beats me how you could make any money on it.

That's a lot of fringing!

I think some of this should have been put in the 3D printing section?