RockyAussie

This is just a very handy tool I have come up with that I mostly use for quick removal of thickness when I do my Crocodile backstrap belts. I have found by putting in place a steady at the front it can be rotated back to act as a thicknesser. I have sandwiched a coarse sandpaper between the rotating guide/steady, and this works well to hold firmly in place wherever I set the steady to.The steady can rotate right out of the way to allow free hand sanding or right in to touching.See the pics. The newer model I am working on will have a foot pedal to allow it to be opened and come back to an adjustable stopper which will improve the input of materials.Although I have bandknife splitters and skivers this machine would get used between 1 and 2 full days per week and I have another similar 2" version which gets at least 1 day per week. Hope this can be of help to anyone starting off. Note it takes a bit of practice if sanding down soft chrome leathers to a thickness.

Recently I suggested a drill press as a possible way for doing some embossing. This interested me as an advantage with a drill press is that you can turn the table for getting the stamp into perfect alignment, it can be made to level if not quite aligning with stamp, the table can be moved lower for higher jobs like box lids and for some the drill press could easily revert to use for burnishing edges etc. My idea is to get the morse taper blank and fit a block onto it to receive the embossing plate slide holder.This would have to be pinned to stop the rotation.A screw or magnet should work.Second to get a thermostat connected to the side of the machine and have a bayonet style plug as on computer power supplies and jugs etc.This then can have a way of attaching the cylindrical element which inserts into the block with the morse taper. The last pic should show a similar set up on one of my current machines.

Like I said if all else fails drill through that pin bit by bit.A tap with a good drift from the back will eventually loosen it.

Hey thekid77, Tell people where your at roughly. Most bandknife type splitters should have not much problem but are expensive. I do it all the time for people in Australia no probs. If someone wherever you are has one I'd guess they'd do it for you.

Ha Ha not saying anything in particular but you gotta watch them Kiwi,s mate.

Thanks for that Billybop it looks interesting. Is it possible to getting a picture of how you use it?I think it looks a bit light on for a lot of this type of work.

Thanks for your efforts MADMAX22. Something along this idea may be of some help. If perhaps I were to hinge the steel at 1 end and foot lift it at the other at midway or something.Something to mull over and thanks again for your trouble.

They are 3mm approx to start with and are backing for the crocodile hornback belt products. See picture

The strap cutter is just an old Merkle and is limited to only 5x38mm cuts at a time. The buts are quite stiff and need to be cut first to get them to pack well at the finish. Once split they have to be packed of and sent up to my main competitor in the belt area that is. For my own belts I mostly use a stiff chrome due to the softer feel and resistance to shrinkage. In flight to America the Veg loses an inch+ in length, something that near drove me mad to start with.

Hi Bikermut07 All I did was straighten the edges of the 70 shoulders, not cut up and into strips or split yet.The time btw is 1 and 3/4 hours so far. I am getting close to 60 now and maybe getting slower and time as I get older gets more precious and I.d rather have me feet up and a stubby that much sooner.

Please see attached pictures of how I am presently straightening up these 70 shoulders. I have to do this reasonably straight to next feed into the strap cutter and then split all to 2mm thick. Presently I am scribe cutting with the back of a pointy boot making knife and following this with the curved knife. This helps to keep my curve knife sharper longer due to it barely touching the cutting surface. I polish sharpen it once in this lot.The time to straighten this lot has just taken me 105 minutes(1.5min per). This time is to take of the trolley, straighten as shown and put onto another trolley. Any ideas appreciated and possibly rewarded.

This may help,we have been making some of these purse designs today. They are not bag pics but are a little similar in construction.

I would make up the lining as a separate piece with stiffeners in the 2 outer walls.If possible glue your zips to the outer edges of your liner first. Make up your outside like a bucket and insert your liner and glue to zip again then stitch around zip and through liner.

Is there any reason the press could not be substituted with a moderate Drill press. A little dearer but could have a advantage by having a turntable for more intricate lining up and a variable height table as well. A jug cord type set up and it could revert to a drill press again if needed. Some times it helps to be able to have a lot more clearance for some jobs such as over the top of small product box lids that are already made up. Many embossing machines do not have much of a clearance gap. I just had to do today a lot of mods to get my embosser to be able to do 200 of the box lids as shown.

Serafil is no good by me and gives a lot of headaches with tension. I find it too slippery and shreds easily. Coats poly is better but try Strongbond from Shann it was called Venus and in my onion is the best by far. It is very strong and burns off well.I use it in all sizes. http://www.shann.com.au/product/amann-strongbond-thread-bonded-nylon/84

Hi Mike please see attached pics of various ways I use the trays I have made up.

Hi Mike 516, No for a lot of my production I have made up Trays that start as 8'x4' plywood and cut into 4 pieces making them 4'x2' then they get a 19mm or 3/4" quad border glue and attached to the top of each ply. I use the same trays for knife racking and general stacking of product pieces in processing.I will send some example pics this afternoon. When running the belts through I take from 1 trolley on the left and stack and build onto a right trolley. They normally take about 1/2 hr to dry between runs so I prefer to do runs of 50 to 100 at a time.