RockyAussie

Very nice work you should be proud, I know I would be.

For someone who shows they could learn a lot from this site you sure have a weird way of doing it if that is why you come here. I have thought to answer some of your questions here at times and have concluded after seeing your responses to others offering advise, that my time would just be wasted but......this time you've got me. The article above is mostly used in the top pocket and sometimes the back but if you'd care to go to an engineering shop or any sort of machinist type business you will see that they among other things carry a small steel ruler about 6" long for quick referencing. They would certainly wreck pockets quickly with out such protection. The finishing of these pocket protectors for the purpose they are used is excellent.

In case it is of help the bearing is a B623ZZ axial ball bearing ( normally about 1$ cost) and the outer pla printed piece is for the X as well as Y axis pullys that the bearing sits between 2 pieces normally. This is the stl file if you want to print it - belt-guide.stl

Here is a link to a video I just finished showing one method by my very talented wife using the zipper guide for making up care bags for crocodile bags I just completed. For those that have been patiently waiting for some of these ...I have finally got them done to a reasonable quality and have have checked with the postage costs. I will endeavour to get them out this week. The postage to UK and USA is around $25AU and should take about 10 business days although inter country postage may take a bit longer. Forgot to mention within Australia cost is about $11 express and they will go as well.

A clicker press, a good skiver with suction, and some machines and methods for applying contact cement. A clicker press and a good knife/dye maker are just about the first importance other than sewing machinery.

Thanks Jimi ,I did think about making some for attaching to my thumb and fingers initially but a this was the quicker solution and as you say my shovel size hands shore do make it a challenge at times. The plastic discs attach to the bearings tightly and they normally face each other over a bearing to give a track for the belt to roll in. My printer was designed to have many of the parts replaced or replicated by printing and I will have to dig out the relevant stl file and load here when I find it. I've had a new computer since I bought it and finding my old files takes some doing at times The fence would be easy to make but I pinched it off of my other brand skiver which is a FAV. Some jobs I need the other pointy one but mostly this one gets used. Glad you like em Gary ...I quite like making them when I can get the time. Rule of thumb is if I can make it in the time that it will save me the next time I should do it now. That is why they are normally a bit rough and from parts laying around. Nowdays when I hack up a pair of pliers she gets me a new pair of cheapies the following week.

Now that looks like a good idea @dikman and thanks for sharing. Could be good in the sewing machine section

This is just another tool I've made to help make skiving easier. I have another order for the ring boxes I make and I needed to do a large number of skives on the circular leather parts of the job and this is what I came up with. The end result is I can now do the job about 5 times quicker and a whole lot less painfully. For any of you interested to see more of how these ring boxes are made (if you have not already) you can see that from this earlier post I've done here - I hope to load some videos showing many of the steps involved in making these ring boxes sometime soon.

There are tricks in some cases depending on the construction of the bag design. If you would show us a picture of the design I or others could try and answer.

WOW.....mate ...if your still in that cleaning up mood I got a few here could use a bit of that TLC. We only 6 maybe 7 hours up ya know.

I am not quite sure of the problem with gluing the lining up and having it oversize to trim after. If I were to do the patterning for this the lining would be 1/8" bigger than the the outer cover all around. The glue then on the lining would be glued in about 1/4 " which would be around a 1/8 over lap against the outside leaving a 1/8" to trim around. The application can be done in several ways quite easily depending on what tools you have for it. A machine like in this picture below is ideal but a glue gun can be fairly fast as well. To see the machine in action check about 1 minute in on this video - I doubt you will find any glue other than contact to set well on the pigskin in the method you want to do without a lot of time waste at least. Happy if you can prove me wrong and if you do please share here.

OK now I am hooked. Please give me a thought when the cutting device is a goer and let me know. Do you work with any agents/suppliers in Australia?

I don't understand why with the contact glue on the pig skin you don't leave it oversize as you are saying you want to do. Once the glue is dry it is no problem to cut/trim afterwards. I do that method for a lot of my one off pattern jobs. Mostly though for production jobs I put top and lining together oversize and then second cut them both together. If applying the contact is slowing you down too much how are you applying it? I only ask as there are a lot of very quick methods depending on what you have to work with.

Thanks for the answer Tony. Its a shame to have to get the whole contraption for some with low table space room and like myself 1/2 a world away in distance. The cutting device alone I am sure would be a big seller without the need to have a lot of storage room your selves I think. Either way I hope to see you get it going sometime soon.

Yes it would be magic in comparison as long as the blade sharpening does not need special equipment or the blades are cheap enough to replace. I just love good ideas like that but I guess in reality it would only save me 2 or 3 hours a month. Not really worth designing my own for that.

Yea @billybopp I would kida like one for myself as well. It was at least a lot more interesting to make than the bags I have been making the last couple of weeks.Trouble is they sell to well, soon as they go out more orders pour in again. At least the next 50 have have a more interesting style shape. Keep your eye open for a video I hope to load this week showing the missus making the care bags for these using my new zipper guide tool. Turns out they saved her a lot of time and helped keep them neater as well. She now loves them and I have to print like a hundred more so she doesn't need to attach them on the run

I think in some ways if you have a lot of small cutting requirements these presses would be quicker to use than the hydraulic bearing press and give good feel to the force application when doing embossing type of operations but in either case having to cut the leather down to fit in the machine is something to consider well before purchase. One reason I decided to say anything here is that the video shows a large knife being moved along twice to get the long cut. I do NOT find this is a good nor practical method as it does bow the knife in the centre and the cost of having the knives made is considerable. I know this from experience well as even with my large hydraulic clicker presses a poorly positioned or oversized knife gets quickly to the stage that it has to be repeatably moved around to get the cut done and soon is next to useless.

Looking forward to hearing more about it.

@TonySFLDLTHR WOW I love the cutting action on that device. Can I ask are the blades easy to sharpen or replace. Are they small special circular blades or like a Stanley or razor blade set up? Will it be possible to buy just the cutting device with out the other frame work. Being in Oz would be a killer on the frame shipping cost.

The best way to get straight cuts so far other than perhaps a laser I do as below. This shows a 100 shoulders to be straighten up to then run through a belt strip cutting machine. Here I use a 1+1/2" x 1/4" piece of flat steel which I screw down to the table on one end and put a nail at the other end at the back behind the steel so I do not have to worry about it sliding away as I cut. I lift the steel and slide the leather under and drop it down again to cut. Note that there is a niko line under that shows me where the leather has to go past for cutting. The steel is flexible enough to follow and table irregularities. With the back side of a sharp tipped knife I deeply scribe where I want to cut and then I position the steel back for the main cut. The steel weight helps to keep the leather still as well. Here I like to use my round knife due to its edge holding up for generally most of the job. note at this stage I assist the cut by gently pulling the waste up and toward me. Yeah I know what you mean. I just generally don't do it. Most of the time I design almost every thing to be first cut oversize and then be second cut when the pieces are attached together. That I normally do with made to shape cutting knives on a clicker press but sometimes by hand as in some of these pictures below. For cutting on a pattern which I normally print onto cardboard I start by printing the sheet and then spray gluing the sheet before cutting it out on my cutting table after the glue has tacked of well. These are often re glued and allowed to track off again before attaching to the leather I want to cut. This picture shows some pieces of a pattern spray glued and drying. Here showing that even on very bumpy croc skin I can have the pattern hold still as I cut it or mark out for first cutting. This one shows a pattern for the back of a bag being cut out. Even on small pieces this method I use . I do hold it with my other hand normally but here I taking the picture with it. This one below does not have the leather fully attached together as it has to have straps in it after the edging gets applied but again the tacky surface helps me cut exactly to size. This is one of the finished bags of the patterns above. I have been trying to find time to post the full break down steps for it for some time but there are a huge amounts of pictures and words to do before that happens. I hope that this is of some help to you and look forward to you posting some of yours in the future. Brian

I guess if you have a variable speed motor that would not be an issue. I don't do much with burnishing but I would think about using a brushless servo motor as is now commonly used in the sewing machines. I bought a 550 watt one with all of the stuff associated to mount to a sewing machine here for $119AU (about $80.00USD). With that I can set the fast speed where I want and climb up to that steadily if I use a foot control as well. Could also just mount a turn down knob on a spring to vary the speed on the bench. I do think having a spike that can get inside small areas like crew punch holes would be an advantage especially those big holster ones I see at times. I notice a lot have trouble getting them to look well finished if they do it by hand.

Just wondering as I do at times ....if the convex bullet shape end would be better off concave to get inside those little tight areas? Nice looking picture there anyway.

A lot of the answers to this would require knowing what amount of rounding of the edges there is and what material such as ply wood or nylon and what distance you can get in to sew as well. If the corners are quite box like you would need extra etc. Is it veg tanned leather? I would try and put in a picture of the shape you want to achieve before doing anything more. This link may help a bit - Somewhere in there you will see a handcuff pouch which is about 1" high and I can give you some more detail on that if needed.

Mike.........I have to say thanks.... but if my work was as excellent as yours it would not need anything extra to help it sell.

VERY nice for a first real project I must say. I like the thick thread myself and chrisash do you not think that the front closure would need it to balance it out some?