RockyAussie

Good move and congratulations. You might be needing 3 pieces of pipe maybe 3' long x1 1/2" or 2" dia and a crow bar. They are really heavy and hard to move around. Watch for the oil reservoir and any spillage.

EXCELLENT pick up hold back on selling too much for a little while. I run 3 different machines regularly and being able to dedicate one to a certain type of work and another to another work flow comes in very handy. The Kwikprint will be good for the heavier and larger type jobs and the little ones good for quick changing with the monogramming initials etc.

Well done @noobleather. Thanks for sharing the processing steps with us all.

Sounds good. Do you have any pictures of it? As you are taking it off a table I am wondering if it is presently set up with suction? @Constabulary gives a little history on this brand in this earlier post and @David Bruce has one and likes it.

Thanks @alexitbe That is a good picture. Looks like that one has been out of action for a while. I have been trying to get some measurements of a Cowboy from the dealer over here but no luck as yet. I was hoping to be able to get enough measurements of different machines to make up a universal type suction funnel affair but so far the interest looks pretty poor and not worth the effort. I suppose if you haven't used one with a vacuum it is hard know the difference it makes. On yours for what it is worth I think the guard over the bell has been rubbing on the bell and there is an cam adjustment knob on that cover to stop that. The bell is a bit far back I suspect which is why the blade angle looks overly acute. The sharpening stone has junk in it to be dressed out before and sharpening is done. I hope that is of help and again thank you for the picture measurements. Brian

Warning...the smooth stones do not grip as much and on the stiffer leathers it will not feed through well. On garment type leathers they can be good if you are going to be doing that a lot. DO NOT use the stone on the stick inside the bell too much as if you overdo it on an angle it will be worse than ever. The leather will dive in and down and holes aplenty. Are you trying out some different leathers to see how they perform? Not having seen a video yet on how the machine is performing it is still a wild guessing game as to what could be the problem.Your top foot may be not tapered/angled well or smooth as needed or many other things that can come into play. What is the brand name on the back of the bell? Does the skiving go smooth and ripple free at all on any edges for a while?

Really.................?

Most leathers are fine but some are really bad. I tend to use a 2mm chrome tan that I use for my dress belt backs but that's because I have plenty of scrap of it. I have never used any polishing compound with it so I can't say how that would go or how to use it. If a leather feels scratchy when you feed it in while doing normal skiving then that would not be a decent behaving leather. They tend to chip out your blade early.

Thanks YinTx. That sort of looks like 1 1/4" plus whatever the width is of that ruler. I think you need to hold the square the other way around. I would expect to see something about 2 1/2" . Does your skiver hinge back ? Would it be hard to put the back of the square against the frame as I have done above with the measurements shown next to the edge?

Your blade may have started of sharp but those lines are from where the blade has picked up very small sometimes large chips out of it. I mentioned earlier about stropping the blade and I say it again. Once the blade is sharp some leathers can knock the edge about within a few inches and some wont hurt it at all. Once the blade is sharpened and stropped it will hold the edge for many times longer. To strop you find a decent behaving leather preferably about 2mm thick and feed it through very very slow even stopping it sometimes. This seems to smooth the edge of the sharp blade a little and you can hear the noticeably quieter sound as the leather feeds through. Choppy lines will often lead to the chopping out holes so as soon as you see them stop and resharpen. I do not strop every time as sometimes through a long run I will let the stone lightly touch for a few seconds and continue on. This does not seem to hurt the stropped edge much. If it feels or sounds rough it will need to be sharpened and stropped. I will look at the video above more as I have not seen it previously but at a quick glance I noted around 18 minute mark where leather shavings went all over the top. No extractor. I notice the noise difference on the FAV when he skives against my Fav and when it sounds like that I know it needs stropping. P.S. Hole chops in crocodile are expensive mistakes and may be why I am very attuned to the problem.

Thanks YinTx. I need this measurement from the bell edge (the sharp edge ) to the inside frame as shown here below.

Very nice work @paloma I am sure he will love it. My hands are aching just thinking about all of the hand stitching you did.

I been thinkin......................yeah it happens occasionally, that I could print up a vacuum scoop to retrofit on to these bell skivers. I would need to know a couple of measurements on the Cobra /Cowboy and any others that are similar. The first is what thickness is the table that the machine is on. The second is the distance from the bell to the machine base as in this picture below Mine as you can see in this close up is about 23mm The next one I need is the distance from the bell edge to the inner machine frame edge. Mine is 65mm. Note on my Fortuna that there is a relief cut out for the suction tube which may not be there on the other models. See picture below These below are the vacuum scoop shape that I am talking about printing a version of. This would come up through the hole in the table and bolt in place from underneath and the attach to a 65mm nominal size pvc elbow. After that it can go into a printed funnel shaped reducer to a typical 35mm vacuum cleaner pipe if you want to go with that or a collection box can be adapted in between if desired. I intend to do some vacuum checks first to compare what difference there is on my Fortuna against a shop Vac vacuum cleaner. The only disadvantage I can think is that the vacuum may need to be off when sharpening the bell blade in case any sparks could be picked up. As for the videos ..I will see if I can come up with a few short instructional ones in a sort of a series. It takes me forever to do editing on these and if I try to do too much together in one it may never happen. While I am on the video subject I would like you to note the video of the nippy that a couple of people said they would like theirs to go like. Watch only the feed stone and take note of how many times you see leather going around and around and even a large strip fly out. I am happy to say that is something I almost never see on mine. FACT is every time one of those little pieces is coming around you end up with a thinner piece where that bit comes through. Sometimes that don't matter but it looks pretty awful on a smooth bit of leather when it gets glued down. Brian

Thanks @Mark842 I found some pics in a manual that help. I wish I could say that I have found some video's worth watching on this subject but have found nothing that I could really recommend. I absolutely hate making videos due to lack of confidence in my speaking/voice but I am starting to think I might just have to. For instance the sharpening guidelines mentioned in a video earlier in this post and his later video showing how to skive leather are not very good at all. They sort off remind me how it was when I first started using a skiver and being almost scared off it. I don't agree with his dropping back the bell and putting a second bevel on the edge and then bringing it back forward. The grabbing/bunching up at the start and hesitation as he starts a skive would be avoided by just angling the start and taking a little piece off the corner first and then going full in. This overcomes the stall so to speak as well as the occasional hole cut. If the blade is sharp and the feed correct there should be no difficulty holding the leather in place as it slides through. I am in no way meaning to rubbish these videos as anyone going to trouble to share their knowledge should be commended but unfortunately if no one says something then many may assume what they see to be correct.

WELCOME @DaddioDigs and its never to late. Your here now. I look forward to seeing you develop your style. I guess guitar straps will come in there sometime.

Thanks for the compliment @plinkercases but honestly I would be embarrassed to say how many thousands of backstrap I sanded on the finishing machine by hand one edge at a time using the same angles. Same said with my edging machine sadly. It would be good to see ahead what other people come up with that may be inspired by something that I shown here.. Yeah that makes me think I should do a post on a heap of backstrap products I make. They can be quite challenging to make use of with all of their peculiar bone variations and skinning cuts. Here a couple anyway might be good for a little inspiration- Hornback crowns into buckles Hornback belt with some of my bangles as well another hornback belt That should give some ideas A?

It is great that you have a good contact there jimi. I will look forward to see what they can come back with on this.

Thanks for that @jimi. Would it be worth considering to use a piece of teflon or nylon instead of the steel wiper? I dont know the noise and wear factor on the feed wheel with the steel one but I would have thought the others may be better. I don't notice much metal embedded in your feed wheel so I assume that the spring pressure is quite light and just well positioned. The slop on the shaft probably helps as well with keeping it centred over the stone curve I think. I would very much like to see some comparable pics of how YinTx's Cobra wiper is orientated as against yours which I think is a Fortuna if I am correct. Can anybody with a Cowboy or Cobra skiver post any other pictures to assist in any further comparison discussions?

If you have not bought a skiver already I would urge you to seriously consider getting one with suction as I said earlier in this post with this link http://www.techsew.com/machinery/techsew-sk-4-leather-skiving-machine-with-vacuum-suction-device.html For that sort of money and finance and back up I would be going that way. As for the roller I think this one would fit and be a good all rounder https://campbell-randall.com/product/fav-1498c-roller-foot-with-30mm-1498-roller If you really want one the same as my brass one after you get a machine with some standard feet you could send me one down and I could make one up. Cost would be $100 + about $20 postage. The only mention I have made of setting one of these machines up with an extractor is referred to earlier in this post and as I only have 2 of these machines that both have extractors I don't have any reason to make one up. I would love to if I had one here to do as I think it would be fairly simple and fun to do. If anyone gets serious about doing it I am more than happy to walk them through it. For a start all of them wipers could go in the bin.

That is how they should all go. Note that the flatter end on the guide helps the leather to not pull in and the leather quality can have a fair bit to do with how well it feeds through as well. Some leather have feel agents (waxes/silicon's)on them which allows for less top friction and therefore beautiful skiving.

Thank you soooo much for the info and pictures there @jimi .I note that your wiper looks to be metal, Is that so? and does it actually make contact as the feed roll revolves or is there an adjustment screw to set it just clear? I notice also that yours looks a lot more to the centre of the feed roll than on YinTx's and I think that is better if it can be done. On yours where you have some kinks in your brass deflector,it is worth when you have it out next to tap them out and just a little past so that it keeps them pressed in tightly. As you would know little pieces get stuck in there and can be hard to get out and if you need to do any cardboard skiving it will play havoc getting stuck. It is interesting in the manual from that other post that the wiper blade has open ends where it bolts on which to me makes since if you want to increase or decrease the pressure or adjust out more when it wears down.

Ha Ha ....I have no idea. the temp varies depending on how fast I can do the wipes and the size of the job etc. On my light dimmer turn knob I have a nikko mark that is generally an average but for thick belts its higher and thin belt lower. You know when the edging smooths and runs along nicely that it is right. Some colours are high and some lower etc. The brightness of the light changes as it goes up and I mostly go with a 60 watt iron. Here an old workmate has had extended boards put on to clamp the hornback belts better and note that the angled nails keep the iron in place between changes. Scientific worked that out. The legs at the back on the workmate are extended to have the belt comfortably closer to work on. Note that I tape the irons up where the wire goes into them because they start to crack up there after a couple of years use if you don't. Cheers for now Brian

Sounds like you are getting it figured out alright. Does the parts manual show a diagram of the feed stone wiper with a spring? Could you post a picture of it if so? Where you say pressure foot pressure, do you mean the feed stone pressure? I am not aware of any pressure foot pressure adjustment . I only have a Fortuna and a F.A.V.2 skiver so perhaps these may have something else I am not aware of.

Great thinking....Hang around some @Pterytus I love to see more of this type of thinking.

Do you not get any manual with this thing? I just spent ages going over the videos on skiving machines and .....mostly was horrified at the amount of misinformation out there. Why anyone that makes video's on how to set them up when they have just got one is beyond me. These videos get thousands of views and that is a bit sad I think. I am not knocking that some may think they are helping perhaps and for that they should be commended. I saw one deler video that I think does some pretty decent video's on sewing machines but as for his skiving machine information .....IT is nothing but crap.For anyone that ever sees this post please understand that there should NEVER be an occasion for you to ever have to pull the leather through a skiver. If that feed stone or roller is not feeding it through by itself then you have unwanted friction that is distorting/stretching the leather and on finer leathers you will get a lot of inconsistency problems. If your leather is not going through smoothly as I show in this video then something is wrong - By my standards the smoothness shown here is not even optimal but against many other video's I just looked at you'd think I might know what I am doing. My normal brass roller I made and use allows me better control than shown here. @YinTx I have to ask if it would be possible to do a short video of the machine in action? This may help to establish if you are getting anywhere closer.