RockyAussie

The laser is quicker and the acrylic is harder than the pla+ and therefore does a crisper neater cut into the leather. keep in mind that a 2.5 watt laser is still pretty slow and a 5 watt would be 2 times faster and a bigger tube type as @PastorBob showed above would likely do the job in only a few minutes. I have not tried it yet but I think it MAY be possible to even make a press knife out of this acrylic for light weight leathers. I have been able to get an impression left behind in the hdpe cutting board and that surprised me a lot.

And the design has a lot to do with it as well. In the Wild Harry pictures above you will see where in one the letters are pushed in and the other where the letters are protruding out. There is something like 3 times more pressure needed to press the background in. Good thing though is that it costs maybe a one $ of material to find out against $100 for a metal one you cant push in either. Also great for testing the design before committing to getting a metal one made up. Also great if you want to print the font of your choice out and make your own letter set. WAY more options to explore.

Very good indeed. I think you gunna master this process real quick and save a whole lot of $$$$$ on stamps as well.

I think you may have forgot the link there Tom. Was curious myself and found this vid which may help some -

The only way I would be doing this would be by using an edge paint. You let the first coat or 2 soak in and fill all the voids and then start sanding or sometimes using an iron to smooth out the roughness before applying some further coats. Some people use PVA wood glue as well but I think that would depend on the end use application taking into account the amount of flexing it needs to withstand and so on.

Clear will not work with a diode laser but is good with the tube ones.

I think if you glue the braid ends first you could still use the drill and pin method for the extra security. here are a couple of pics that show how I 3d printed up some holders for the drill press this weekend. The rod I have used is a 1.5mm alloy welding rod which fits the hole nice and firmly and taps down nice as well. Note that for the curved style ones they need to have the angle put in to keep the shape square when you drill.

Let us know how you go with the 5 watt. I have one as well but have not tried with it. The narrower beam on the 2.5 watt could be better for the detail but the faster speed would be nice. Try 400 mm per minute should get you close. Thanks @battlemunky I wish I had more time for more posts like this and I have a whole lot more that I need to get loaded backing up.

First up before I start ...I am not a laser expert. I mostly only use a small 2.5 watt diode laser and T2 Laser software. I was asked to share my settings for cutting the acrylic the way I have and what type of acrylic. The local supplier advised me that the 10mm thick black non transparent acrylic is manufactured by Titan Poly Tech Co Ltd. Link - http://titanptc.com/products/cast-acrylic-sheet/ This is just something I tried out like a lot of things and found it worked pretty good. I decided to start with a simple bitmap file and set the resolution to .05mm (that is 20 lines to the mm). For the speed I started with 150 and full power and on some 3mm acrylic it burnt right. A couple of more tests and speeding it up I managed to get a pretty good result as shown below I then got the 10mm acrylic and to get about 1.5mm depth I ran the speed at 200mm per minute at full power with z taken up for the extra thickness. These pics are the result at this stage showing our brand in the positive and inverted styles. Today for this post in an terrible hurry I came up with a sort of geometric pattern to try out which cut out alright but in my hurry did not line up so well on the leather unfortunately. Now to finish off I have to warn you that I have modified my diode laser module with a 50 mm fan on top of a shroud to give some better cooling and a little air assist. Most diode lasers only have a silly little fan on top and are not able to run for more than 20 minutes on full power. I have been able to often use mine for 2 hours or more at a time without any overheating or failure issues. This is an earlier post of mine that shows some of the mods I have done. I hope that is a bit of help for now Brian

I would guess they adjusted the distance of the hook from the needle size to be ideal for the thread you said you wanted to use. It should still work fine on the the thinner threads but thicker you will need to check if the hook is touching the needle too much. If so learn how to adjust the hook back a bit.

Would you be able to post a picture please. I have never heard of a problem of this nature before. Remember pictures need to be reduced to under 1.4 mb in size before loading.

Contact is a no go. Weld Bond is ok on Zamak depending on the leather. Super glue sometimes good but on smooth stainless inside not so good. Think about drilling and pinning.

I have found the original Fortuna bells seem to sharpen and hold the edge longer than the atom ones. Last maybe 2 times longer but the croc I do is pretty nasty on blades sometimes.

Looks beautiful to me. If you were trying to get it.... you probably wouldn't. Though I mostly do croc skin where people pay a lot more for the multi tone effects.

Close to true but not quite. Here's an old picture video I did way back showing how I use it for shaving and I do use it a lot for belt length size cutting. With it I can cut straight down through 5 straps at a time which is pretty handy when you gotta do 50+ at the same size length. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7xMEtBUl6s shoot I forgot to say I'm the good lookin one on the right at the end

Once the bell gets down to about an inch long I replace them. It may pay to replace the sharpening stone at the same time. When the sharpening stone wears down too much you get a short blunt sharpen on the bell and then it does not feed the leather through very well. Pink stone is normally the best. When sharpening the blade make sure you keep getting plenty of sparks without too much pressure. When the sparks drop off you need to clean the stone again. When the bell is nearly sharp back off the sharpening to just touching for about a minute to get it a little smoother on the edge. Make sure the brass deflector sits about 1/2 to 5/8" in away from the bell edge. Too far in and it won't get rid of the scrap well and too close will foul on the feed stone. YES the previous operator had let the feed stone bevel inside the bell. (Good thing it wasn't a steel feed wheel or rubber one either)

Thanks @garypl I am still trying to find time to put some stuff into the Maker supplies section. Got heaps of stuff but trying to match up every thing with video's is a massive job to say the least. One you could be interested in is this narrow dog foot and needle plate for the CB4500 which I intend to do a better video showing how you can get to less than 1/8" from the edge which makes it great for wallets and other stuff like that. This one shows a bit on the advantages - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a83lCJe4JKo This is still in the development stages a little but some are ready to go now.

There should be NO inside bevel. After a good sharpen you need to dress away the burred edge and then I normally give a little light extra sharpen. If you are doing some soft stuff then get a little veg leather and feed it through VERY slow to in a way strop the edge. Any bevel inside the bell will make the leather want to bite in and go too deep. Make sure the distance of the bell is not Too close or too far to the edge of the foot. Thick leathers take the bell back a bit and thin keep it a bit closer if needed. For light leathers try backing off the spring pressure with the knob at the left rear at the very back. ( get plenty of scrap and experiment)

Best I have found so far...is dye if you want then follow this with a few coats of clear sealer the laser engrave. This leaves almost NO char to clean up. After a quick clean and wipe I recoat again with a couple more clear seal coats and maybe a polish. Example here- https://wildharry.com.au/collections/stubby-and-drink-leather-coolers/products/stubby-coolers-made-from-leather-with-laser-engraved-dad

That's a good point....for a point

Come on guys....steady on up. What do you think VEG tan leather is??? I am noticing more and more lately that members are inclined to get narky with each other unnecessarily. Looking for differing points of experience is something most are wanting to see and experience by coming to LW.

This is the one I was mentioning above. What do you think?

On another forum the other day I saw an odd knife where the owner was wanting a sheath made. This knife was heavily sharpened on both sides at the tip end and had no stopper or shape to the handle end which made me recommend a plastic end stop inside the sheath. I suggested I could print one out in pla+ and I know this will hold glue pretty well but I would do it so that the plastic would be fully inside the stitch lines of the leather. I would also think to bring the shape around enough to make the blade make the contact further up than the tip. The shape of this knife would easily allow little pressure to push right through the leather welt bottom I think.

They are both very handy technologies to have in your arsenal these days. I think I do more laser work on patterning stuff and cutting out product boxes than doing much on the leather itself. @Lobo advise is very worth taking note of in regards to using in the way he mentioned he did. I do a little of the easy stuff like monogramming onto existing models like coaster and drink coolers as with those I can have a template to set up on and a name change can be done in a couple of minutes (maybe 5). The 3 d printing side comes into use nearly every day for dies. moulds, tools and line up jigs and heaps of other stuff. What watt size is the laser you have and what software does it use. I am mostly using a 2.5 watt Eleksmaker with major modifications and T2 laser software. Most of the engraving on leather would be 1000mm per minute at somewhere between 50 and 60 power. Top power in T2 laser is 255. If you are using 5 watt then either double that speed or 1/2 the power. (same thing). Here is a couple of pictures of my little converted Elksmaker which shows it fully enclosed with fume extraction and able to now do poster size work which is great for doing bulk jobs at the same time. This is a z lift I designed and printed which has a lot larger fan the the original which keeps the diode cool enough to run for hours at a time. This pic shows some of the product boxes that need to be cut nearly ever other day. This one is a product display stand I 3d created and printed which has a Christmas tree lighting inside it. Hope that helps some and have some fun.

Why you selling may I ask?