RockyAussie

Now for those that have a 3D printer or access to one this can be a whole lot easier. In this I had to do a new version of a 30mm belt with a double snap connected buckle. I already have a knife for doing this in 35 and 38mm belts and determined that the same shape could be used here as well. A similar construction was done as the jig above except the 3mm Masonite was done in pla but without the need for any cutting out as shown below This continues up now with a 30% fill and the wall thickness I went with is 1.6mm Under view and notice the recess for the belt end cut off This shows my old 35mm jig alongside the new 30mm one The 35mm one with knife view in place Here I am showing both jigs about to be used Both now cut using the same knife A better view And that I think is it. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer. Remember to keep a watch out for my upcoming dress belt manufacturing tutorial. I do not pretend this is how everyone else in the trade does this sort of thing as I don't know ......This is just how I worked out to do it for me and if something could be better then please say so. I go with this method because each cut takes about 30 seconds and is reliably the same and the cutting is not limited to the one cutting spot which tends to wear out after repeated use. Thank you for reading and your comments are all appreciated.

For many years I used this type of machine for doing shoe and bag repairs and eventually became quite proficient in how to use one. For stitching on badges it is invaluable but for most manufacturing they don't do that good a job. What I would say that will be of help is to set aside a couple of full days and cut out a large heap of square bits of leather of some various thicknesses and stitch around the outsides WITHOUT turning the leather. The purpose of this is to learn the importance of keeping the thread positioned on the same side of the needle with each and every stitch. Play around with the thread tensions until it all becomes automatic and this includes the thread lift lever which most operators have not a clue how to set. In my opinion the only time to use them is when no other machine can do the job for some reason and with good designing that is almost never. Some jobs if designed like this phone pouch below may tempt you to try it out, but a lot of practice must happen first. Products that can be turned inside out meaning the stitching is not visible would be fine as well.

Thanks Matt, I thought that it might be of some interest at least to us that try and earn a living from it. Thank you

Absolutely beautiful and that has to be some of the best stitching I have seen. I think the pink touch in the flower centre is a master touch. I hope that you do manage to get some pics with LuLu wearing it.

After that the tip end needs to be cut out wider to allow for the knife thickness and a dry check done to be sure the end allows enough of the leather to go up in under the end stop pine board. Once done the end stop strip can be glued and nailed in. Now from past experience I have found that with out a support strip up the other end the jig will stress enough with the cutting that it will splay and become useless so I worked out to use a thin strip of aluminium as shown. I then sand away the Masonite enough for the strip to fit in and then nail it into place as shown below This shows the top view now Ready for testing ....... And Yippie she works This one shows other jigs for this width belt that were done similarly. How the buckle retainer piece is made is shown in another earlier post here - and Note: there is an attached pdf file in that post that shows how to do it with descriptions... I will go over how I do this cutting jig with the new 3D printing process tomorrow morning if I can. Brian

This is a method of cutting out the belt holes and tips together and perfectly every time. In the following I will show how I go about making a jig/alignment tool the old way as well as the new 3d printed way. Because I do mostly production manufacturing, time and quality are always important factors to be considered. As I am working on a tutorial on how I make combination dress belts shortly I thought best to do this one in order to cut down some of the explanations in that later one. I will start this with a couple of pictures of the type of belts I make to show off how the tongue holes and buckle holes and tips are done. This first one is one of the styles of the dress belts I commonly make. It is the 30mm version with a removable buckle retainer. I like this style mostly because the buckle retainer can be taken of the belt easily shortened which means if a customer is buying a gift for someone else they can safely get a long one and get it shortened. This hornback version also has a removable buckle retainer and is for a 45mm (1 3/4") buckle. This version is what I am going to show how I make up a jig for doing the holes etc. I use a clicker press and knives for doing this job but some workable inexpensive presses can do this work as well. Some of these can be found in this earlier post I did awhile ago and note that they are also useful for wet moulding, stamping and other things. After I have done my cad drawings and sent the patterns to the knife/die maker, he sends back a pretty good knife that will cut out the shape. One with the tongue tip and holes like this below should set you back about $150 AU or a little over $100 US dollars. This is done on 19mm or 3/4" steel rule die and will last for many years and many thousands of cuts. Once I get the knife back and in hand I grind away the edges so that only the tip and holes will be cut. Care must be taken not to touch the hole punches when doing this grinding process. After this step I construct a jig using 3mm (1/8") painted Masonite board for the base and normally some skirting pine that is typically used in internal door surrounds. That is normally around 30 to 40mm by 12mm (1 1/4" to 11/2" by 3/8"). I cut 2 pieces of the pine to the same length as the knife and with the knife held in between these I scribe a mark to cut the Masonite width and similarly the end stop smaller piece of pine. I then with a sharp knife carve out a recess for the belt tip leather to go in under for the tongue line up cut. Around 3 or 4mm normally will work OK. following this I cut the Masonite to width and glue and attach with small nails the 2 side strips of pine. Before attaching the end stop pine piece I tap down the knife enough to mark the Masonite well in order to get centre marking for cutting out. Once a clear centre line is drawn in and the width of the belt to be held is marked in place I proceed to do cut lines with a band saw or handsaw. (Back shortly)

@Bluzoom thanks Dwight, I am working on some belt making stuff you may find useful for you so keep checking or follow me.

I am not sure what you mean by stamp press and die size. Are you trying to emboss a logo that size or cut something that size? If it is for embossing does it have to be heated as well? 6" x 1 1/8" is pretty big and I would normally resort to using a clicker press for that sort of tonnage depending on how much detail in the stamp there is, but there are some other ways as well. A picture could help if that is possible.

That is some real nice looking stamping the Bob. If I may say it when using a sewing machine and you can feel an extra thickness coming up you will notice that it starts lifting and that is where the needle will go close to coming off the edge. As soon as you feel that rise, force it down and in to stay level and you will overcome that problem generally. I reckon they will love it for many years to come.

I would think that if a piece of thin foam with a slice half way through could be placed just before the first stand eye the thread could then have any backward movement stopped thereby not allowing the thread to ever drop to the underside of the cone. For some cones it would be easy to print out a reverse cone that had a springy centre to fit within the the thread cone hole but some only have small holes and some large. The large holes would be easy to fit up but the smaller ones would be a little more complicated. I do think stopping the thread from falling back would be the main issue and that may need something shaped like this >.

Mate that just looks tooooo good to use I would be always be stopping myself before I'd be game to stick that knife in there. Beautiful work.

Thanks you , I think compared to your work it will pale and I think many here will get to see and appreciate this from you. Thanks I am glad to hear that That was my main goal and I will do some more using some machinery in the near future. I have to do a couple of hundred 3/4" belt in a whole range of coloured edging sometime this month in case you might want to follow me for a bit. Hey ....would I post anything but....??? I would like to thank all of the people that follow me for their patience and all of the notifications they must have gotten while I multi posted into this post.

Here is a link to my latest one that shows some on how I use edge paint -

Well its done... The first 2 are from my crappy old camera which I have to now take 3 shots to maybe get one in focus and the others are done by my wife's camera in a light box. I am not allowed to touch it..... This is one job where I wish I had smaller hands and fingers That is all for now ....next one will be a phone pouch I think.

To get the stitching right I have to mark out where I want the start and stop holes to be. This I do with a sharp ended spike as below If you look carefully you should see where I have poked holes right the way through. This is so from the top side I can see where to stitch to and from As I am an expert at going crooked when doing this I have put a scribe line across to follow Now as I ALWAYS do I do a test to get the tension and stitch length where they should be. Not perfect but its Ok with a slightly blurry camera Now we have to clean up all of the threads This I do with a little dab of wood glue and a cup head bolt that I have sharpened to a point that has the end a little squared off After cutting the threads back I put a dab of glue down to poke the spike into. As the glue tacks off I push the spike down into the hole and check for any overrun. Well ...thats about it. I will post some pictures when I finish polishing and putting it together.

Same principle , it one of those things left over from my shoe making/repairing days. This link shows more info that may be of use to you -https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/5-X-Kabi-Gluemaster-KA25B17-Patented-Brush-Oil-Can-Brass-Pump/28023986721 The one I call spiky is my own idea where I have pulled apart an old worn out brush and inserted a brass tube into the supply hole.

Yeah ...I'm starting to get amazed myself....might have to throw this egg cup up your way. Again with the egg cup I give it 1 or 2 more coats and let that dry for a few hours Sometimes after drying they still may need some extra work. This pic below shows the edges are still a bit split line looking This is now tackled with some very fine sandpaper and light rubbing with the grey Scotchbrite Now it looks smooth but quite dull The next step is to apply some of this HooCo wax This I do on a finishing machine with a soft horse hair brush I also like to give the top a good polish at this stage as that helps to avoid glue sticking to the needle when I stitch the bands This picture shows the difference between a polished edge and one that is not. Now it is time to place the keeper into place and I have sanded it all to make sure the glue holds it all in well. Here shown it is glued and ready to stick down Now it is ready to set up for the stitching Time for a coffee -

you OK now it is time to iron in the rough edges. I do this with the help of a 60 watt soldering iron that I have shaped the tip into a curved shape. This iron is temperature controlled by a light dimmer switch which I have been using this way for many years now. I use a piece of box channel hollowed out on one end to hold the iron in between steps. A magnifying viewer with a light helps to check and spread a bit of light as well. Here I am pushing the iron away from me and sliding it along the edge Now the same is applied to the other side of the same edge If there is any trouble getting the centre down smooth you can also use the edge of the iron as shown A quick check under the magnifier shows its good enough for a finish coat At this stage I decided to get the fixed keeper joined up I position the other band on top and determine the length needed A sharp knife is needed for a good skive The keeper is now contact glued up with the help of my spiky glue pot and now it is pushed down over the top at this stage Next step will be how I do the finish edging

Thanks for the comments Gary and Brian. I just thought I would throw this picture in to show how well the tack coat can help when second cutting. Most leather are Ok with this but some oil tans can leave little blotchy marks but they normally rub out alright. Now I like to use a fast speed Multi Tool sander with some fine 180 grit belt for this sort of job. You can use a fine grit sanding block as well it just takes a lot longer. This shows the machine and how I have made up an extraction cowl with some Perspex and a piano hinge to assist with the dust. This is the angle I would hold it on while taking a bevel off of the edges. It should start to look like this after sanding A little heat carefully applied with a heat gun takes care of some of the fuzzy fibres Now I do a check and make sure it is going to fit into the watch and buckle and leave a little room for the edge paint. Now after giving the keepers another coat I start applying the edging along the straps. This requires a steady hand and should be lightly touched on NOT push and dragged on. The first coat should be kept fairly light and seals off and goes dry quickly. In this case I followed with a second light coat after about 5 minutes. As you can see from the back the edging is a bit drunken sailor but the ironing will give that a straighter appearance later. Once dry this is what the edging looks like prior to ironing. You could sand it and re edge coat and sand it again as well instead of ironing if needed. Back soon -

Next step is to stitch the connection Then pull the threads through to the back, glue them then tie a knot to keep them firmly held Next step is gluing up and I have run a graphite lead pencil all in the middle to help the pins slide in later if it gets too tight. Here they are now attached except for the backing near the buckle end. This is where I want to put in the first keeper later on. To make the second cutting easier I like to glue up my cardboard patterns and let it tak (dry) off for a while. this helps to stop any moving around as I cut. As you can see it helps Now the holes get marked with a hole punch Note: that the holes are only marked as yet. This is because going through the cardboard pattern and the strap ruins the cardboard pattern. Now the holes can be punched out. Sanding and edging will follow tomorrow

Now I mark out where the backing has to be attached to the crocodile. This is then scratched up to be sure of good glue adhesion. Followed by gluing up the pieces After the strips are attached I like to get the crew punch hole cut and ready for edging The keeper strips are now second cut to the correct width to be edged together with the crew punch. Note that a stainless steel egg cup is used here. Now I mark out where I want the stitches to start and stop on the backing connection. A light scribe line could then be applied if wanted. Back soon -

I have had this watch band floating around here for awhile and thought it might be a good time to do a how to make, along with one of the methods I use when I only have a small job to edge coat. The original band was inset with some short hair skin of which I could find no suitable substitute so as the picture below shows I managed to talk her into using crocodile. At this stage I have cut out all of my patterns and pieces and for the backing and I have gone with some 2mm thick nubuck camel skin I think. The black matt croc is about 1.5mm in thickness. Although there is only 2 keepers needed I do show enough croc strips for 3 keepers and that is because I'm just not that good. If one stuffs up along the way I don't have to reset the skiver etc to make another. This pic below shows the embossing stamp I decided to use and how with a bent metal plate I use to hold the leather still in case I think it needs more stamp/heat time. This shows the other strap stamped and this case held down with a magnet instead. As the keepers have to have their edging done earlier than the rest of the strap I have to split them down to obtain a finished thickness around 1.2mm firstly. For the firm backing I am going for .5mm and have decided to do this on my Fortuna skiving machine. Below shows me setting the height on some scrap first. showing the backing strip running through and now the croc a little thicker at .7mm This one below shows the skiving done on the straps with the Fortuna and a little hand skiving to achieve no thickness on the ends. This is done to minimise getting any holes in the valleys. This is showing all the pieces ready to glue up and attach some reinforcing fabric for where the watch pins go. The one piece of fabric (front left) will be cut into 3 separate pieces as they are applied. Here I am applying contact glue with the aid of glue gun. It is best to attach the fabric in a rolling fashion over something a little larger than the watch pin. In this case I use a cotton bud stick. This one shows what it should look like with the fabric's attached and the croc keeper strips stuck down. That is about how many pics will load in one go so I will be back with more later.

Thanks for that. I hope I can get better at doing it as I go. My old camera is about had it now so I'm going to have to see if I can find one that is simple enough to get my head around. Yeah ....I should put something in the "about me" section along that line I guess. Whether its interesting or not ....... I suppose a good story teller could make it sound that way. I had to ask didn't I Soon as I get a new camera sorted I will do a run down on how I apply edge paint on to the products and wax finish at the end etc. For the moment.....Paint does not stick to oil or wax and hangs onto a rough surface better than a slippery smooth surface. Trust me caus Now I'm an ejumicator ....

Its been a long time now since I've made any court shoes but I can remember the headaches of trying to get my centreline straight and not pull the inside (medial) or the outside (lateral) of the vamp too much one way or the other when I first started off. What I found helped on these is when I got a lasting jack and I glued down the bottom of it a couple of mirrors, they showed up if I was pulling too much one way or the other. The picture should help show what I mean. Another thing that helps is a fine tip set of lasting pliers that help a lot with the little pleating/pulling around the toe area. I cant seem to find mine at the moment but the tip measures about 1/4" wide or a little more. Warning ...do expect to rip the toe leather out a couple of times until you get the hang of how tight you can pull with them. I look forward to seeing more when you get your new lasts.

Looks pretty good to me and I bet he will be most pleased with it. Is it a sewn on retainer or clip on?