dikman

As Wiz alluded to earlier, the "bursting" problem is pretty much unavoidable when sewing leather on a machine (it's the nature of the beast). You can reduce it somewhat by playing with needle size but you won't eliminate it. The only way to get a nice hole appearance on both sides is to hand stitch! Theoretically using a pointed needle should provide the best result visually because it's not cutting the leather, and on thin leather this should work, but on thicker leather it may create problems with trying to pull the thread back up through the leather. Sewing leather on a machine is always about compromise. If you're a perfectionist then hand stitching is the only way to go.

Love it! I'm not showing the grandkids because then I'll have to make some.

You're full of bright ideas, aren't you? (Well, full of something...). Some on youtube use the coloured caps to make a multicoloured object, looks pretty cool.

Thanks for the info Dave. Spyros, I used the milk jug thing too. I did a bit of experimenting with the plastic and like everything it's not quite as simple as you'd think! If you get it too hot it burns, and if you try to melt it too thick, or the temp is wrong, it might not fuse in the middle. I've used an oven, hot air gun and gas torch (requires very delicate application!!) to melt the stuff. When you get it right it's nice stuff though, and turns quite nicely on a lathe. I still have a large container of cut up bottles waiting to be used.

Maybe a scotchbrite scourer instead of steel wool? Dave, that looks bloody nice, mate. You said the head is polyurethane, is it any particular type?

I've experimented with melting various waxes, using pure gum turpentine as a thinning agent, but what I've found is that over time the turps appears to "come out" of the mix and leaves a fairly hard black deposit in the container.

I stripped (kept the pulleys and shafts) and junked two, both old Singers that were potentially dangerous due to the age and condition of the wiring. I gave one of the more "modern" style to a mate to experiment with and sold two on gumtree for $20! Turned out the guy who bought them had a couple of machines he was repairing and needed the motors, so at least they were being used. I had visions of using them but it was just too hard to convert them into something usable and they were just taking up room in my shed.

I can't see any practical benefit for texturing the head. If you look at the one on the right you can see where the texturing has worn off from use.

The hole won't be seen once it's all assembled, so no-one will ever know, and it could always have epoxy put down the hole to fill in the gaps. It looks so nice that it would be a shame not to use it.

Unfortunately you don't just buy a remote unit made up (at least not from the store). It consists of a potentiometer (I used 10 kohms), a knob, a switch and a box to mount it in, all of which are available from Jaycar, if they're handy, or online. Some of the VFD's have a removable control panel but I don't think it's a good idea to try and mount it remotely. I used a 3-way switch to give me forward and reverse but after wiring it up it struck me as pretty pointless having the grinding belt going backwards!! I'll probably replace it with a simple on-off switch. Pity we don't live closer, instead of 3,000 kms or so, but I'm happy to help in any way I can. If you get stuck with the remote bit I can make you one and send it up. I've been looking at the cheaper VFD's on ebay and all of them that I looked at had 220v input and 318v for the 3-phase, and while they obviously work we use 240v and 415v for 3-phase - which the one I bought from Conon is rated for. I'm thinking that I should buy another one of those for the lathe (I'm undecided). I noticed that the lathe motor has a squeak, which is not good.

I'm curious, why is the off-centre hole a problem?

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?