RockyAussie

Nice job. I reckon you could take 1/4" off the top of the base with an angle grinder pretty quick. I have shaved the sides of mine at times in order to get jobs in closer and the cast is pretty easy grinding. That would give you a little more clearance under on boxed or tubular jobs as well. You would need some right size packing washers to get back the 1/4" for some dies though.

Others may say different but 5" wide veg can be difficult to get right with even a bandknife splitter of which I have 2 types. I would be shocked if the machine you have could do anything reliable wider than 2" unless fairly soft and with enough thickness. A bell knife skiver could do it with multiple passes or if that is to expensive yet a sanding machine may be an answer.Multi tool sander and adaptions for dust extraction and leather thinning.pdf

Just did a few checks and please note that a few of the skivers in your list do not have covers for the top of the bell. I have taken the top skin off my fingers when not using one them and I do note also that Alexander's do have that feature http://www.solar-leather.com/cb801-bottom-feed-bell-knife-skiver

I have a Fortuna and a FAV and both are pretty useful. They both have aspirators (vacuum to assist the waste removal) and having had a non aspirated skiver I would not go without again. NO offence to Alexander intended but I believe all of the machines you list above including the FAV are potentially able to do the work to a high standard with operator experience and a roller foot which leaves next to no mark at all. I do a lot of glazed crocodile work and the scraping/scratching from standard feet is why I developed a roller foot for myself. I have done a few video's on my Fortuna skiver with roller feet and I recommend you to check out this one and maybe a couple of my others you can find from there. The video showing circular skiving is done with a roller I made for myself years ago and still use4 mostly every day. Thick leather, chrome or Veg is possible but best done in a couple of passes sometimes.

Just to be sure I am talking about rivets like the red glass ones in these pictures below

In the past I have lathed down a piece of nylon 1" rod to fit my press and the give in it works alright. Nowdays I'd probably just print them in the 3D printer which would allow me a few more various shapes/dome sizes etc.

I was worried you may come back and say that. This type of product is not a piece I would recommend making early on in your leather working. You need to use a divider or something to mark a line around the perimeter. If I were to be doing this by hand I would do my line and pre punch my stitching holes around the outer fully before attaching the outer to the inner. If the pattern is correct after attaching the zip to the inside, the inside should be just showing a little larger than the outer after it is attached. This is normally less than 1mm all around on mine. See below a few pictures that may help. I would do some practice on your perimeter stitching before going back to such a difficult product piece. Regards Brian

There are very different styles of wallets and small bags and I would urge you to post a couple of pictures of the style of products you want to produce. The larger machines mentioned above could easily be a disaster. If you are working on thicknesses above 3mm (1/8") Veg etc then a larger machine as mentioned may suffice. Keep in mind that leather point needles for these machines are not available in the smaller sizes below 160 and that can be a problem. 95% of the stitched product on my Wild Harry website in the link below can be done on a small cylinder arm machine like a Pfaff 335 or one of its clones. The pictures below show product that is done on a 335 style machine. The wallet shown would be next to impossible on one of the above mentioned 3200,3500 or CB 4500 machines. @bikermutt07 advice on the cowboy cb341 sounds to me a more realistic starting point.

I look forward to seeing them and helping if possible. Sorry mate, I suspected you wouldn't have any probs with that and look forward to any help if needed in scaling in the slicer program for any who may request it. I do have slicer but got a bit disappointed when a couple of prints looked like they would work on the screen but did not come out as expected. Once I get used to a program and how it works I tend to stick with it often to some disadvantage. Question..... On the cap you printed does it clear the hook/shuttle stuff alright? It does on mine but I run my filament at 1.74mm and hot in order to extrude a bit heavy and this gives excellent bonding together but some times things come out a bit on the larger side.

Mate I would love to try and help you there but I don't have one of this style of machine and from the little i have found online so far it looks that it can not be thinned down much. The only area I can see potential is down on the bottom appears to have room for some chamfering but without seeing I can not be sure. If you want to take that cap off and post a few pictures here it would help to decide if its worth giving it a try. So far this is the only picture I can find and as you see there is a fair bit missing. At a guess I would say that the cap is round and it may be possible to taper back until you are near the gear section. I will ask around and see if anyone local has anything similar.

Yeah it sits in on my 335 a fair way as well but still cleared everything alright so I thought that being shorter would just give even better clearance away from gusset walls and such. It is very easy to make a longer if you want in Curra as you can just add some extra percentage in the direction you want. Likewise if your printer prints a little looser than mine and you wanted the fit a little tighter you can reprint at say 99%+ - over all in the Curra scale. Let me know if you need any instructions on this procedure.

I would be happy to send you one if your happy to cover the postage. I will have to check out what that is and how to best package it. PM me your details if you like. Please check that it is the smaller bobbin model. The cap diameter should be at present around 46mm not 50mm. I am just taking a stab in the dark but I think the postage is likely to be around 20 to $25.00 au. What brand and type of zippers do you you use if any? I am just thinking that a box for the cap would be able to hold a whole lot more like the zipper guides for no extra postage cost .

Ha Ha good one.... I started using this colour awhile back due to my super messy workbenches and just old age and bad memory. I think I spend more time looking for something than I do making stuff sometimes these days........What was i going to say.......Ogh well it'll be there somewhere.

Looks nice. I checked out the web site and I do have to ask how you come to get 5 hours continuous run time with 15 watts? Is this conditional on being run in an cooled air conditioning room? The temperature here runs hotter than ideal when the machine is not even on. See picture showing an average day temperature in centigrade. Do you sell the 15 watt piece by itself?

WOW that was quick. Looks better than my yellow coloured ones. I am hoping that a few of the other members that have clones of these machines will try them out for fitting. I would like to have a list of the various machines clones etc that it will fit onto to advise everyone. Also if there are any negatives as to where the cap may be improved. For 27 cents of filament electricity included. its not that big a risk really. So far mine have tested in use well and I will do a few more little changes once I am confident it will fit a wide range of other clones as well. I am thinking of putting this thread into the sewing machine section in order to get some more feedback. Thanks for the feed back. Brian

File sent in PM .

WOW some serious power there. Congrats. Pictures?

I have been doing a few projects recently that need a very small cylinder machine to enable me to get into the tight corners and such. This is still a bit of a work in progress but so far the results have been good. A few more tweaks and they should be excellent. I have a 335 Pfaff , 69 Adler, Tk 335 Elizabeth and a 331 Pfaff that I have finished of some new cylinder caps for. After doing some measurements and tests the width of the caps have now been reduced from 46.6mm down to 41.4mm. ( a bit under 1/4"). The depth has reduced a couple of mm and the length a couple as well. NOTE: except for the Pfaff 331 which has a little more room for reductions, all of the caps fitted and they are all the smaller bobbin variety. The first picture shows 3 of the 4 caps just finished as against the ones being replaced. This is the TK335 Elizabeth cylinder showing some comparisons. This one below shows the Adler 69 fitted well This one below on my favourite Pfaff 331machine (needle and dog foot feed and no pesky walking foot) Here are a couple of samples of work where this kind of reduction comes in handy. I do like to be able to stitch around a product fully and try to design for this and the sewing machines capability. Here I think the difference shows fairly well If any of you have printers and one of these style machines let me know and I will get you a stl file if you want it. If you have one of these machines and are one of my followers and do not have a printer... PM me if you would like one. I know the colour is awful and I could have done them in a metalic silver colour but at least they are easy to find now. Brian

@Antonia May I ask what type of sewing machine are you trying to sew this purse with? This could have something to do with it.

Mine are inoperative as well and I would not want them operating anyway. A lot of factors come in to how often a blade will need to be sharpened and generally 30 seconds to a minute is fine. Some leathers, even soft leathers will blunt a blade in no time and some you can go for a half hour or more. Generally the split will start to look choppy and sawn and therefore it needs to be sharpened. Except for foam I never have the blades sharpening while splitting and that is rare as well. A new blade can take a half hour to sharpen. Make sure to clean the felt guides well when changing the blade and on the odd occasion as well. I tend to scrape them with a knife and sometimes rough sand them if they need it.The blade should be fine sandpapered to get rid of the rust and sometimes I give the blade a light sand on the run but THAT IS SUPER DANGEROUS and absolute full undivided attention is a must. I should be saying DONT do it. Make sure the blade only barely wants to go backward toward the wear blocks (gibs) and do plenty of quick stop starts after to check that it does. TOO much will create overheating of the blade and wear blocks. New full size grindstones will make sharpening a matter of seconds instead of minutes unless your rubber belt that runs the grindstones is overstretched and worn out. Another reason why auto is no good. With regards to the top plate tightening it would be best to check with the manual. My Comoga has 11 screw downs with 11 screws to set the stop points. Main thing is when the blade is in position when you do the front ones up and they put any pressure on the blade when you are hand turning it you back it off just barely and reset the stopper. A piece of paper should be too thick to go between the blade and the upper or lower plates at the front. I try and get all bolts to touch and then back off until I can turn the blade just freely. If it can deflect up or down overly then so can your thicknesses. Getting the blade to show even amounts either side when sharpening is a must and helps to keep the blade in the middle of the gap and therefore the consistency of the split thickness. @Danne The idea looks good and your drawing skills are excellent but I have to say the person doing the adjustments would have to know these machines very well. Is it desirable that both blocks should be the same measurement and if not what should it be??? When you cut a piece of leather by hand is it easier to have a broad flat blade and cut in one hit or a angled blade that slices through? How important is it to run the job exactly in the centre? Many job pieces are not square so that changes the pressure points as does the spring pressures left as against right on the feed roller. The variables in that area are a more difficult thing to get adjusted to be suitable and improvements in that area are more important in an engineering sense to me. So far if a piece comes through thick one side and thin the other you either may need to adjust one side tighter or looser or sometimes just move the job further to one side. I do think your idea has merit but perhaps only in the manufacturing stage as elongating the slots would take a fair bit of expense for the little bit gained.

Hey @Matt S, Congrats on obtaining a splitter. Just a thought on those wear blocks (gibs) check the depth of the groove wear in them as they can help generate excessive heat if they come over more than 1/2 mm or so. The excess wear on the right is normal as the way the blade spins it is the first to cop the pressure. I normally grind them down until there is only a minor wear line from the blade left and check from there. The steel is super hard like tungsten or something on both the Elbiko and the Comoga I have, but interestingly the Comoga also came with a few extra wear block that I think are teflon or some extra hard nylon at any rate. They do wear faster but don't seem to generate the heat as much. If the heat is too much it transmits through the blade and you will find that they put cracks all around and through the blade until of course they snap through. The German blades are better and last way better. Feel the back of the blade occasionally and sand of any excessive burring. On the adjuster for adjusting the blade forward there is a spring that pushes a steel tab into the toothed wheel you turn by hand. It is not in your pictures but I assume you have it and the tab piece. Make sure that spring is fairly strong as some times when the leather goes through it can knock the adjuster back and of course the blade goes back with it. Better to check now and not have to pull it all off and have to go through the joy of having to carefully adjust the top plate down again. Amazing how a great hunk of steel can bend around like butter. Last thing ....check that the blowers air intake is clear and that there is plenty of air flow blowing down the chute right across. Just hold a leather strap in the chute and see if it shakes around and wants to go through. Some times the chute can get clogged up and it is super annoying when you find that the leather your trying to feed through is obstructed by a build up of waste in the chute. This is one reason I like my old Albeko better as it's waste comes out to the front and straight into a bin to the side. Have fun and again congratulations on a fine pick up.

I could not do without a machine for sure. Like knives though they take a bit of learning to get the right results. This link shows a video I made and if you check my profile there you can find a couple more. https://youtu.be/1yxXV09EYHk

Thanks for sharing @MudBugWill I always find it strange the interplay of using beeswax and the use of dye later in the process. Because I mostly work with crocodile and the hard and soft nature of it I only use edge painting processes which require a fair bit of difference to get a good end result. Instead of a mini plane I use high speed sanding machinery mostly to start with followed by several coats of paint with sanding and ironing between some coats. The beeswax comes only into the polishing at the end.

If your bag designs can use a binder it would be likely quite useful. It is very 335 style and they can be very helpful in making up to medium weight bags. These bags below I made with one.

With out the stitching the lace would pull the sides together. The lacing is not constructional at all only decorative. Very nice work there @Hahn and thank you for sharing your work here with us.