RockyAussie

You can wrap a teflon strip around the foot and that can help but I prefer to use a roller because I do a lot off glazed crocodile and that you really don't want to scratch. Here are a couple of links that show what difference a roller can make -

That is the temperature gauge. I got 4 of them out of China for about $3.00 each and they all look to be very accurate. I did a 15 minute test yesterday at full power in the standard without shroud mode and to my surprise it went from 30.7 degrees C up to 45.7 Degrees. I am hoping to see some results with the shroud and top fan sometime later this week. After I see how it all performs I will consider whether to make any up for sale I guess. Great thing about the printer is it keeps working while I carry on doing other work.

Yeah I been starting to worry bout that a bit . In my defence I have to say this really has been one of the simplest and fun projects that I have ever done. I've been trying to rush through a couple of improvements to free up the 3D printer for some other jobs that are waiting. Since getting the laser I have found I need it to be running nearly non stop and the original design is only intended for hobby use and should not be run at full power for longer than 20 minutes or so. This has to be done by allowing the laser to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before starting again. I am guilty of going past this time way too much. Keeping the laser running cool is a big thing in how long that diode will last. Another factor is air assisted cutting will make it cut more efficiently and quicker. Keeping the smoke off of the diode lens is another big point to remember ass well. For cutting thick leathers requires multiple passes or you gets a lot of burning /cindering on the edges. Being able to drop the laser down on these passes at say a1mm at a time is also a great advantage. I have been able to just do a few passes around without a drop down adjustment but I am sure that is a pretty inefficient way to go. Following is my answer to these problems and is what I am working on at the moment. The first thing to improve was the diode cooling and I noticed that the 2.5 Watt Eleksmakers fan can not really get any air to blow down the sides of the cooling fins and the centre of the holding block is solid . See pictures - I concluded a larger cooling fan on the top was needed and therefore why not encase the block in a shroud and force the air down over the fins and then funnel that air to get some air assistance at the same time. Your only trying to burn stuff down there anyway!!! Here is the shroud part with some recesses for nuts to locate the laser block into place. I decided to make the funnel part connect with magnets and forgot to take a separate picture of the print so I will show some a bit later. The next thing is to design a Z lift mechanism that does not takes up any of the cutting area. The only Z lift I could get come with the cost of a lot of the cutting area. This next part stays with shroud and has the holes for the guide rails. Next shows the fit is good Bolts screwed in and they work great This pic shows the main body of the Z lift which will replace the acrylic piece that presently holds the laser body. Note I have mounted the fan and also a temperature gauge to the shroud section. Also note the button section that moves up and down on the thread is a tight fit into the hole on the slider attached now to the shroud. This back picture shows the button has a recess to receive a nut that allows the Z movement. This one shows the magnet attaching funnel. This is needed to allow ease of focussing if needed. With the Z lift that should be fairly rare I think. This also shows that the 5 Watt laser fits in to the shroud as well and the big bunch of heat sink and electrical looking stuff on the right is actually for the 5 watt laser.I am doing 2 shrouds to allow for quick change over whenever that may be required. Although I have designed this to have a Z lift motor at the top which will allow manual movement with it, I have for now also made another piece that can clip into the top for manual adjustment. I have not ordered in the 3 axis power board thing yet and I am still waiting for the Nema 17 motor to come in as well. So far everything seems to be testing alright and I hope to do some in place testing later on this week. Thanks to all of you who come in with experience and advise and help to contribute. Brian

Hey Treesner, I can not say whether it would work or not as what I have done I know works for me quite well enough. Each persons requirements will differ of course but for myself I need to be able to get back to a bench without any permanent obstructions and it must happen quickly and easily as well. The HDPE cutting board is good for cutting in any direction which is good but allows the leather to slip around on it easily which is not so good sometimes. The 1/4" back strip is good for leather that is say between 3 and 6mm or 1/8 to 1/4" but if you were doing thinner leather it would need to be a bit closer. It helps to stop it sliding back by the leather being forced down when the end of the steel gets pushed under the screw. If the leather were under the steel it would need to have a stronger angle or box steel that could have more pressure applied and would then need a more serious clamping system. For now it works fine for me as is.

I meant to say Curra platform. You can angle the job in all sorts of ways on the platform and if you rotate it to 45 degrees you will find that the print lines will travel along straight with the job and I have found that this tends to give a smoother end result. See the angle in picture below. I can not open the curaprofile you have put in above. Could you just copy and paste them here ?

Also try angling the job at 45 degrees on the curry platform and slow down the speed. If you are running a heated bed on glass you may be able to put the letters face down on the glass for a while with a little weight on top. I think the sanding works pretty quick and easy though. Each block only takes about 2 minutes.

You would probably do a bit better with PLA. As to the Curra settings possibly could be better but what are your settings?You may be able to copy and paste. Although I would normally get a better print result I have found that some sanding with a fine sandpaper, that white stuff helps and when it is smoothish finish it off with some firm rubbing flat down on paper. I normally use the back of the sandpaper. It can get pretty shiny.

Hi Tom, I have already loaded the files for people to use right at the start in this post. As Uwe found it takes a while to get a printer to print out a file the way that you want and he did not actually trial the product by doing any zips with it. The curve he was worried about though a lot more than how mine printed out would not have mattered in practice anyway as once it is applied onto the zip it straightens up anyway. The redesign version he did shown earlier in this post would resist folding down which would be undesirable when feeding over a sewing machine like a cylinder machine you want it to flow along with the rest of the job as it goes through. Note in the pictures below how the links straighten out but can still flex if needed. What I am hoping to do is make available at an affordable price well made pieces for those that do not have printers or could not be bothered to print them for themselves.

Thanks @YinTx I will keep it in mind.

Thanks @koreric75 for the offer. I just checked your location and it looks to be fairly much middling on the map. I have no idea location wise if that is good or bad for distribution. I have not had much in the way of feed back nor lots of orders either as yet so I doubt it would be much trouble to start with. I have not really done much to show off how they can be used in various ways to suit the applications either yet though. I have been playing around improving this laser I have been building and that has taken up a lot of my spare time lately. One good thing is I found it laser prints well on the pla which means I would not have to get the printer to print in the Made in Australia part on the run and that would save a lot of the printing time. At any rate think about it and give me some idea what $ you think it would be worth to pack a little box and address it to the buyer and post it if you could. I will have a look into the postage costs here and work out some recommended size and numbers of pieces for people to purchase in a kit so to speak. Just very roughly I am thinking about $2.00 to $2.50 au a piece which would probably make up into average kit of about $20.00 to $30.00 plus postage and costs. What are your thoughts?

Here's the thing ...It costs about $25AU dollars to get a small parcel to the states which is way more than the cost of the pieces in a typical order and I could send probably 5 times as many pieces for the same postage cost. What would someone want to be paid to send out orders from over there I wonder and if anyone would be happy to do that? ANY suggestions welcome... Brian

I have a similar machine and have a fair bit of experience with stitching sole leather as well but not with this machine. Not that it could not I guess but here is the main point....Whenever I have done sole leather I soak it in warm water with a little detergent until it becomes softer and pliable and behaves more like a bridal leather feel. This is sometimes left to soak for some hours and then put into a damp towel to mellow overnight. The needle should be a triangle shape tip or at least an LR shape but definitely not just a round point. You need the hole to allow the needle and thread to pass through easily. Lastly with regards to the thread breaking back off your bobbin until you can just see the loops showing on top and then re tighten a bit and back off the top tension a little. For some reason running a looser bottom can work and and stop the thread breaking. May not be smack in the middle but do you think that matters here?

I am sorry but this picture makes the pain so real and has made that thinking part of me go into overtime. To quote you - "I have some hair from her and was thinking about a bracelet but not quite sure how to go about that". I can think of all sorts of elaborate ways but here' a thought - What about a tassel of hair done up like a small tassel like a charm. Stick a line of hairs down onto some sticky tape about 1/4" up from the edge and make them in a row a few inches along. Then firmly roll the sticky tape around on itself until it is perhaps 3/8" in diameter. Whilst rolling the tape try and keep it from closing at the end so that it leaves a hole into which you can put in some clear sealer to start with. When that has dried off make a loop of leather to go down into the hole and put some araldite in and place in the loop to dry again. Then make a circular piece of leather to cover the top and a little of the outer edges and stick that into place. Follow this by making a leather band to wrap around the tape and finish it off. These pictures below are done a bit along the lines I am trying to describe and probably help to make it clearer. You can attach it to a bracelet or whatever you like then.

Thanks for the feed back Brian. You would not believe how quickly they have fallen into every day use here and I am starting to worry just how the hell we ever did most of the zips here without them before. I saw someone asking about how to do them on here recently and I previously used many different jigs and line up marking tools and I honestly don't use almost any of them now. Amazing how quickly you can forget when you don't need to remember.

Yes can do if you want. Let me know what zip sizes you are using/wanting and I will get you some costs sorted out.

Not sure if this will help you or not but here's a post I did awhile ago may be worth a look.

Nothing to apologise for @ABHandmade your English is fine ...I'm just being creepy showng off again These pics show a hair clip attachment and this one shows the clip.... and the fact that I can make a mess of the edging too at times

Thanks and I'm glad you liked it. Hope to see something from you where it helped one day. Give us a call if you need any assistance.

?? like these Or perhaps the hair bar would be easier. Many just use a wooden dowel but I reckon a piece of cow horn looks a bit flasher SORRY I just coudnt resist

No That shape would not work for inter joining links but maybe in useful for feeding some rope through and folding over to have another rope slide between. Horse halter type stuff maybe.

If you have a press of some type you just keep making use of the shorter bits ...depending on the value of material used somewhat. Don't have much problem getting the tongue holes in the right place with this method either.

I had one printed in for that purpose originally but it broke off under the tension. I thought about drilling it out and replacing with a suitable nail size but as you say the hole would likely stretch longer and out of shape. It may be worth a try though.

I see lots of problems here, and having just gone through my photo collections I can not see any that can show enough to be much help. I will try and get something together over the next few days. First up for now you will find it of help if in the corner of the gusset you take out a small V section to relieve the pressure there. There should be no edging done until the pieces are put together and sanded smooth and rounded. In some cases it could be stitched first if that helps by allowing the stitch to be in from the edge enough to allow later sanding but I usually prefer to get the sanding done first and sometimes a couple of edge coats done to assist it to stay together. A tip that should help is the use of a heat gun which if used carefully will reactivate the glue and allow you to reshape and press down all the up and down wobbly bits. This can also be used to singe away some of the furry leather bits after sanding before the edge coat application. The Cowboy 4500 is most likely too large for this job a bit especially with the standard feet and throat plate. Do not try and stitch so close to the edge or your under/bobbin side will be all over the place. You may find this post of interest- I have to get some work done for now so I will try and get you some more info later. Brian

The top open edge is difficult to not get pulled downward toward the bottom where a lot more pressure is being applied so I generally put the outer mould piece down at an angle at the top so that it pulls the sides tight before the bottom comes into play. This is done by hand a fair bit before going into the press. In the mould above the sides are very tight and and I do get a 2mm to 3mm gap in the middle where it has pulled downward. Thankfully that has been allowed for and it all comes out fine at the end.

A post I did awhile back may be worth a look at if you go through to where I show how I made up some moulds for handcuff pouches. The advantage of going this way is you can get exactly the same duplicate mould made as many times as you want, with out having to spend any time much on making them. The method shown also allows minimal waste of leather unlike many I have seen on the tube.