beltman08

I read the online manual excerpt and I think I have an additional problem. The blade looks like it has never been sharpened and is fairly new. However, there are small "breakouts" on each corner. From reading the manual, it looks like this could cause problems with getting the blade set correctly at the stops. Could this be contributing to the issue that I'm having? Looks like a regrind or replacement might be in order. Also, the manual on proleptic shows to only be three pages. Is this the same one that's available online for free from bootmaker? If so, it's of no help with setting spring tension, etc. Just don't want to waste $7 if it's the same thing. Above that listing is a bigger manual and parts list for a Model 3. Is this a real Landis model or could that be a misprint for the full 30 manual? Thanks.

Well, I'm not really explaining very well and much of what I'm spouting off is guesswork at best. I'll definitely look into the manual as I agree it would be money well spent. Let me try to explain what I was getting at. When I try to feed a piece that I only want to take a tiny bit off of or level, it doesn't seem to have enough pressure between the top smooth roller and the bottom toothed roller to feed the piece. The toothed roller does turn continuously and doesn't slip, so I think it's connected properly. When I adjust the setting enough so that the piece will feed, it takes off way too much. So, the roller tension idea may be the answer. I'll check it out. Thanks to everyone for the advice and sorry to be such a newbie.

OK, this will be a dumb question I'm sure. But, if say, I've got a piece of 8oz leather and I only need to make it 6oz. So, I'd only want to take off less than a mm of thickness. I'm now guessing from seeing this machine in action that this is not the machine to make that happen. The reason is that there's not enough friction to make the piece feed. Now, if I need to make that 8oz piece 3oz then it would be fine because the friction between the rollers is enough to make it feed. Is this thinking correct? BTW, I took the blade out and it was in the right orientation. It was sharp, but not super sharp. So, I sharpened it on 1000 grit paper, then on 2000 grit paper, then finished it off on a manila folder with rouge. Pretty darned sharp now. It feeds a little better with the sharpened blade, but I'm still feeling like it might not be the machine for me because of the scenario I listed above. Often times I only need to take off a little (less than a mm) and this just doesn't seem to work like that. I even tried feeding it on a lower setting and once it got started, changing to a higher setting. But, it didn't seem to like that either. Still confused and frustrated. Wally

I've been making belts somewhat casually for a couple of years. I usually just use the thicknesses of leather that I can buy, but decided some time ago that a splitter would be a good idea. So, I purchased one of those inexpensive Neel's Saddlery pull type splitters on ebay a while back. It is just ok if kept extremely sharp, but once it dulls just a tiny bit, it's very difficult to use. So, I decided that a crank splitter would be the perfect solution. I was finally able to acquire a Landis Model 30 and I've just had time to play around with it a little. So far, I'm befuddled. Either I'm too dumb to figure out how to use it, it's set up wrong, or it won't function in the way I envisioned and need it to (or some combination thereof). I'm therefore looking for some guidance. Although I use chrome-tanned leather some, I didn't really figure it would be of much help splitting that unless it was very firm leather. But, I assumed that it would split veg tan leather without any problems. I figured I'd use it to split veg and if it did some chrome, that would be a bonus. So, I've tried various pieces, various thicknesses, etc and still am having massive problems. When I go to split a piece of say 8-9oz veg, the only way it will feed is if I have it on 4.5 setting or lower (a lot of times it won't feed unless it's on 3). When I do manage to get a piece to feed, it will only split to a very, very thin thickness of less than 1mm. When it splits on say setting 3 and is less than a mm, then I adjust to 4.5 and feed an identical piece, it splits where the top part is still less than a mm. So, and sorry that this is hard to explain, but, what I'm trying to do (obviously) is split the various pieces so that I can get different thicknesses to use of say 4oz, 4.5, 5, etc. It might work if I could flip the leather over and have it shave that small amount off the back, but then the teeth of the feed roller would ruin the finish of the leather. Am I making sense? When I set the adjustment lever any higher than 4.5 the leather won't feed at all. The teeth on the feed roller seem pretty sharp. Everything seems to turn and work as it's supposed to. The blade seems relatively sharp as well. Any ideas? I'll be happy to take any pics that would help in diagnosing the problem. Thanks in advance. Wally

There's an edge burnisher for drill press on ebay. Not sure if link is allowed, so just search for "Fantastic Leather Edge Burnisher" and you'll see what I'm talking about. Has anyone here tried this? If so, thoughts? Thanks. Wally