dikman

For a moment there I wondered what drugs you were on! Once my head stopped spinning it did indeed make me smile (it's a little like the story of Samurai swords being quenched by stabbing into prisoners!).

You're waxing lyrical there, young mike. As for the subject, I think the responses indicate that any manner of objects can be pressed into service. How about a heavy needle pushed into a wooden handle? Which is what the Blanchard looks like to me.

One interesting little fact I've discovered is that if I input a picture from elsewhere (photoshop, for example) the engraver software reduces it by 58%! A bit bizarre as it's a funny figure and took a bit of testing and calculating to prove it. The software might be pretty rudimentary, although adequate, but it seems a bit strange. It also occasionally won't print and the software needs to be re-started, no big deal, just annoying. When it prints though it's great.

Odd. It sounded like the motor was spinning in your vid. If that's the case then I'd say the electronics are shot?

Work has a habit of getting in the way of the important things!

Got me curious. As servos don't have a clutch I assume you meant the actuating arm that goes to the foot pedal, the idea being that when you turned it on it just went to max speed (or whatever you set as max speed) straight away. If you take the belt off what happens to the motor? Does it run?

A bit different to my machines (I suspect those slotted pieces are just guides? A bit hard to see with all those fluffy bits in there). Best thing is to study the motion/movement of the feet and look at the various linkages and clamps. Try adjusting one at a time to see what effect it has, that way you should be able to set them back to how they were. These things aren't rocket science (just clever mechanical contraptions) so what can be undone can be put back together - eventually.

It remains to be seen whether a printed mallet head is able to stand up to the impacts of heavy hammering without delaminating, but it's a neat idea. Thanks for including the .stl file, it's always nice when people do that so others can have a play with it themselves.

Video was a bit short (in both length and detail) but at the end like Matt said it sounded like the motor was still spinning with no load.

No worries. The reason I used two springs is because I didn't have one spring in my spring drawer that was long enough (or strong enough).

If it's the same as a Juki 1541 will these manuals help? http://www.danreetz.com/blog/2013/09/29/juki-dnu-1541s-service-manual-and-users-manual/ Sometimes it's necessary to adjust the position of the clamps on the bar that the outer presser foot is mounted to.

This is what I did to my Seiko, not very elegant but it works.

A somewhat labor-intensive job!

Simple but no doubt effective.

True, but it gives my brain cells a challenge trying to work out what was meant.

I'm glad YOU know what you're doing......

If you're talking about a new machine I suggest you contact some of the vendors who advertise on here, they should be able to supply a complete package to suit your needs.

Post-bed machines aren't that common and it's unlikely too many on here (your average hobbyist type person) will have one. There is a vendor (Robin Industries) who has advertised the odd machine on here. They are new machines and he is overseas, but they appear to make some quite specialised machines, including for shoemaking.

Mike, when I click on the link you provided it takes me back to the start of this thread. Pretty clever......I think? Anyhow, I always like looking at MSDS's, fun things indeed.

I'd already figured that out. I could mark the stack first and do it one at a time, sliding each one down the rod, but if I used diluted white glue (the logical choice) I would then have to start drying it out all over again! After leaving it overnight I checked it this morning and it felt much drier (and harder) but the whole lot had obviously shrunk and had to be tightened up again. It looks like the best way to do this type of construction is to tighten it up and then "bake" it in the oven (low heat) for a few hours, tighten again and repeat the baking/tightening cycle until it's dry and hard. Unless you live in the middle of a hot desert.

I concur with mikesc and Hildebrand, the best thing is to search for comments on this forum. It might not be as easy as finding and reading a specific review, but you will get warts and all comments from actual users.

I've pondered doing that (there's between 60 - 80 pieces!) but if I do that I need to have the metal end piece in place first, to tighten it up against. Which is another problem, I tried melting scrap brass to pour into suitable molds but I melted the bottom of my melting pot and lost some of the brass!! The pot is (was?) a piece of heavy-walled steel tube with a 1/4" steel plate welded on the bottom. I left it unattended for a couple of minutes, came back and saw this wonderful display of colour coming out of it and it took me a minute or so to work out it was the brass burning!!!!! When I cooled it there was obviously a hole in the bottom and the brass had fused to the steel. I've ordered a graphite crucible and will have to try again. I've had the thing in my small oven for a few hours, at about 50*C, and it feels like it's drying properly. I don't know why I didn't think of this before (dumb!).

Good idea Tom, I've been fixated on drying it in the sun, of which we haven't had much for a few days, but I think you're right. I'll stick it in my small oven on low heat for a while and see what happens.

After leaving it to dry for a few days I turned it down in the lathe. There's a couple of issues, first is that it obviously isn't dry enough as it still seems a bit soft in places. We've finally got a bit of sun so I'll leave it in the sun for a couple of days and see what happens. Second is that I can still tighten it up a bit more! I'm not sure just how tight I'm supposed to go. I'm thinking that maybe I should apply something and put it in a vacuum chamber to pull it into the hide. This might stiffen it a bit. I thought of a diluted white glue, but I also have some concrete waterproofing stuff, it's a very thin polymer so should soak in quite easily under vacuum. I also wondered whether I should have soaked the cut discs in a diluted white glue solution before stacking and clamping them. The problem with making this is that there's very little information on how to do it, virtually everything I've found is to do with rolling it up to make a mallet, not stacking discs of rawhide.

But Mike, what do you really think of them?