RockyAussie

Thanks @toxo kind words like that, are more than enough and people like you that bother to say so make the sharing all that much nicer to do.

Boring as hell for many I'm sure but for any interested in working with croc I reckon they will like it some. I am starting to make waaaaay to many typos so until tomorrow ...goodnight to you all.

After they are together I press down around the edges with my cow horn slicker very firmly as this particular belt style is not stitched and it is very important that the adhesion and edging methods used are done well. they are now ready to go through the combining machine that will take about 1.5mm off each edge as it goes through. note that the roller on the front helps to press in the profile a little as well as it runs through. Here at the back you can see the edge strips being removed. After they are all combined they go up to the clicker press to have their tongue and buckle holes done. Purpose made jig holders keep the knife in place as they get press cut into shape. How these jig holders are made can be seen in this link - After the holes are done the edges all need to have a bevel sanding and that is done on another one of my purpose built machines made for this purpose. Basically it is 2 bench grinders set in a table that allows me to move them closer and further apart as well as adjust up and down and angle in and out and back as well. That's it all for tonight I will add more tomorrow. See this link of the edge sanding machine in action if you wish - and say you like it (even if you don't) The back is set and sanded first Then the top checked and set how much removal is wanted as well.

Thanks for the kind words @paloma. I expect that one day it will be well within your capabilities.

The tips on the fillers could be done on the clicker press but in this case I've decided that cutting them could be just as quicker by hammer and punch After this they get split to 1.4mm thickness (yes.... I know I should have done this before cutting into strips) After that they get their edges skived. A strong magnet helps to make this easy and quick. I do this one side at a time as I like to get the tip done along with the edge skive. Now the fillers are ready to attach to the backings. They get sprayed all together on a purpose built spray table that I can tilt toward the operator for better application. They now can be lifted off and placed for another operator to peel apart and attach as shown below. Next the croc pieces are glued up along with the combined filler and backs. This takes some practice to not have the croc flip up while spraying. These are then carefully placed together as shown. If it were not croc and only leather tops, they could be fed together straight into the combining machine all together. Normally my hand that is holding the camera here would be walking along holding one side down whilst the other is pressing down the croc into place. I think that is about the picture limit now again so I'll be back later.

I should have pointed out that the first cuts of the croc and the backings starts at 22mm wide and is later cut down to the 19mm width. Here shown joined up there is over 200 pieces for a couple of customer orders As many of these colours have to have matching edging I will separate the black edged ones with black backings first and go onto the skiving stage of the tops next. This is done on my Fortuna skiving machine with the aid of a roller foot that helps to prevent craze cracking in the glazed crocodile skins. The skins are supplied at around 1mm thick and therefore do not need to be split any thinner in this case. The thickness at the skived edges is taken down to about .5mm in order to make 1. Cleaner and better for gluing. 2. allow the croc to flex over the filler more easily and improve the profile. 3. thinner edges make for better edge coating results. Next the backings are cut and split down to around the 1 to 1.1mm range And then moved on to the embossing of the sizes and customer branding. The sizes are done quite quickly by making the size stamps onto blocks that I can lift out on the run from the holder and put in a new size that gets preheated on the top of the embossing machine. The metal box holding the size stamp is held in with a strong magnet and a pair of pliers is used to get them in and out. The next step is making up the fillers that give a high profile to the finished appearance. For this I have used some splits from earlier larger width belt job. I used my belt combiner machine with 3 knives for this job but a strap cutting machine would also work fine. Following this I have then taken them to all of the belt lengths of the orders. Will be back later......Cows need to be fed.

This is the process where I make our 19mm (3/4") crocodile skin belts. I must first say that this is more of a manufacturing style of post and I will try to give small scale alternative methods where and if I can. The first step in making these belts is the cutting up into strips the crocodile as this sometimes affects the numbers of backing and fillers that need to be made to go with them. As a general rule I keep back the tails of the skins after other products are made for the purpose of making the belts. My strap cutter is not wide enough for the full width of a tail normally and this must be done in one or sometimes 2 runs through. Note that there is now a wide sweep after the cutting and this makes it difficult to manage running the next part through the belt cutter. To overcome this we take a bit out to straighten up a little better This time we can use the fence guide on the strap cutter As you can see it still has a fair amount of curve but this is overcome latter on in the processing. After this we need to join them up into lengths long enough for the belts. We now end for end the pieces to find comparable size scale size and angle to hide the joins as much as possible. He3re a very sharp knife and and experience is a must. There should be at least a 1/2" of overlap at the join. Contact glue is then applied and given some time to tack off. Normally several are done at a time. This is then carefully lined up and pressed and tapped into place making sure that no excess glue is left behind. This process is repeated until all the sizes are made up for the order. That is the upload limit for now so I will be back with more later. There will be a link to a little video on the belt sanding as well.

In case you don't have one the scrap ejector @jimi is refering to is a brass bell that fits snugly inside of the bell and helps to prevent some of the leather from staying in there. Do you have it in there? Other than that I think the sharpening on your blade looks like it is to aggressive and should not be showing quite that amount of scratching. If I have taken out some sizeable nicks it would have that appearance but I come back again with a lighter touch pressure on the sharpening stone for a bit than proceed to do the stropping step. What you have there looks like a little saw and it would be easy to get a deflection on the blade particularly upward. There is way too much leather scrap sticking to your feed stone as well and that will need to be brushed off. Another thing I notice is that the guide stop looks very pointed at the front and I would suggest grinding it a bit flatter at the front in order that the leather might not be pulled into it too much and cause a possible bunching that may create bad skiving. Those pointy ones are mostly for shoe upper work and the like where you need top get around extreme curves and such. The fence/guide I mostly use has a flat about 2 1/2" long and if doing long straps you can box it in with a flat magnet as well.Then you can just hold it and let it go. Lastly and after giving it all a clean check, back your bell back a 1/2mm or so and see if it goes any smoother. I do that when doing thicker leathers normally though. Another thing when starting a skive take a little slice off the corner first by holding it 1/2 way in the go around the job in an anticlockwise action so that each new start is not on the thick. That will help not get chop out holes if you are careful when you start the feed each time.

So long as the needles are correct then it is possible over the years that the metal thread that holds the screw for tightening the needle has stretched and extended. I Back the needle screw out and put the blunt side of a smaller size drill bit up in where the needle goes and feel for any lips/protrusions where the screw goes in. If it catches there then I would try and clean it out possibly by using a drill bit that fits in the hole without being overally tight and carefully spinning it with your fingers until any obstructions are removed. Do be careful not to break the drill bit in there as getting that out may be very difficult and involve a lot more work.

Nice and very strong looking work there @koreric75 The emblem detail is very nice.

I am a little afraid to give much advise without seeing some close ups of your settings and ideally a video of how it performs. Sometimes it is the operator sometimes the settings and sometimes its just a pig of a leather. Your original pics number 3 on the leather, show some coloured marking going through and that may be a sign that it not a well tanned leather. Some leathers will blunt your knife incredibly quickly and are almost like they have sand in them and some are like butter and you can go for hours without any need to sharpen the blade. IF all the settings are correct.....the best tip I have is after you have given a good sharpen and dressing and light sharpen again, cut a few strips of leather that skives nicely and run it through VERY slowly a few times. This acts to remove the slightly rough edge on the blade in the same way as stropping a knife. After a couple of feet have been run through it should be smooth as and will help to stop the edge deflecting up or down. Hard to see but if it deflects up even slightly it will take a deeper bite and if it deflects down then the opposite will happen. Notice in your photo 3 the top skive has gone rough and shows that the blade now has very small nicks in it. That is what you need to not have happen. If that leather continuously does this then it probably is not suitable. I would like to finish by adding that I don't like skiving machines without extraction suckers much and for any of you in the USA I would recommend you consider this one I found recently http://www.techsew.com/machinery/techsew-sk-4-leather-skiving-machine-with-vacuum-suction-device.html Having had a skiver once without an extractor I can assure you that the amount of times that the leather gets stuck to the feed wheel and ruins your work will be cut down to almost never. Once I went to the extractor versions I vowed to never ever have another one without extraction. I wont use them without a roller foot either. I'm not clever enough to make them other things work reliably any good. This is one of a few videos I did on skiving if you haven't seen it yet. Pretty sure I could not do it without a roller foot.

Gary I have to ask was this test done without any cardboard support under? If so I guess the plate was not sitting down as it should making the leather tilt as the needle went through and then occasionally divert it away from the hook. If cardboard was under it then it may disguise that the dog foot hole has become extra wide with wear and that as well can lead to missing stitches because the leather goes down in and stops the thread loop from forming fully. Going through the cardboard would be like having a tighter hole in the feed dog if you get what I mean.

The hook timing looks alright so the next things I would normally check is if there is a small burr on the needle end or if it is bent a little. Sometimes changing the needle will confirm this. This is not uncommon. After that is there anything along the top thread path going back to the thread cone that could be causing any elasticity of the thread? In particular in the area of the movement of the thread return spring.

Stall video at 12 seconds in. There is no way that scarf of the needle should be facing forward. Spin the needle scarf to face the bobbin hook.

Mine does as well but only slightly and mostly at the widest open stitch length. My zero position also moves back and forward slightly but maybe not quite as much as yours.

Your welcome. I have to go get my dinner now so will check how your going tomorrow. Its 8.30 pm here at the moment. Check @Uwe he may be of help here.

I would try rotating the bar around (without the foot on) and see if you get any different behaviour first. Rolling the bar on some glass should also give you some idea if straight. If you think it looks alright then it must be a bent connecting arm I guess.

The diameter of the bearing? I just measured and it is 9.7mm.

Yes that is it. My bearing on the 69 does not move left and right as does yours. On page 14 in this service manual the bearing part number 4 is firmly bolted with no movement other than rotation. http://www2.duerkopp-adler.com/export/sites/duerkoppadler/commons/download/public/69/S_69-373_69-373H_EN.pdf

The pfaff does not have such an adjustment as the Adler but can still be made to do it. They are a way tighter fit at that point where the bar goes up into the tube. Note on this one I have raised the tube higher than standard to get less foot pressure marks.

No I mean the adjustment thing on top. You undo the lock nut in order to tighten or loosen the presser foot pressure. The presser bar goes up into that tube. I doubt that, that would be bent as I dont think it is all that tight of a fit there.

I have been looking at my 69-372 for a good while now and although I found 3 hornets nest in it, it does not make any similar sound. I did have this problem on a Pfaff 335 I think and the answer was that the back presser bar was lightly bent. On that machine I found I had to find a loose spot in the adjustment of the presser tension tube and I was able to get away with that. I would think it is possible that your presser bar is bent or the top tube has been bashed or more likely the bottom of the bar at the foot has been bashed. I did notice in your first video 23seconds in ,that the appeared to be some heavy scouring on the back of the presser shaft.

That is truly some very nice work there @Rolandranch.

Fantastic news and I must add a big thank you to @Techsew RonRon for reinforcing the fact that buying from a local reputable dealer is a buyers best bet. I love the large range that TechSew has on offer and have often considered whether to upgrade with them and I think that this might just give me the green light to do so.