Bell Skiver Frustrations!!!!

[Northmount]

3 hours ago, MtlBiker said:

cannot find how to remove it

Scroll all the way to the bottom, to the uploaded photos, click the garbage can on the lower right of the photo.

[MtlBiker]

2 hours ago, Northmount said:

Scroll all the way to the bottom, to the uploaded photos, click the garbage can on the lower right of the photo.

Thanks very much!  I didn't see any garbage can icon... are you talking about before I submit the message, or afterwards via edit?  Before submitting it, I tried all kinds of things and must have missed the garbage can.  And though edit, likewise, I didn't see that.

[Northmount]

3 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

Thanks very much!  I didn't see any garbage can icon... are you talking about before I submit the message, or afterwards via edit?  Before submitting it, I tried all kinds of things and must have missed the garbage can.  And though edit, likewise, I didn't see that.

It's there under edit for me all the time.  May not be there for you all the time, besides your limited time window for editing.  The icon is light gray.

 

[alpha2]

On 4/29/2022 at 11:07 PM, Spyros said:

Bell skiver sounds like the kind of thing you only master in your 60's LOL

Oh, I don't know...I'm 68 now, and am just now, reading all this, glad I never went crazy and bought a bell skiver! It always SOUNDED like a good idea! I swear, I managed, when I was working, to install and calibrate all manner of high tech, digital, 3d, cone beam, volumetric tomographic x-ray equipment, but my Cowboy 4500 gets slightly out of time, and I'm all thumbs. If I didn't have our amazing resources, (you know who you are!) and their youtube videos, I'd buy a really big boat, and use it for an anchor. I don't have any idea what people did before the internet. I likely had an idea, years ago, but I've forgotten. (Remember libraries? Neither does anyone else!)

I just discovered, that you can have cheap Tandy leather, and a REALLY sharp head knife, or a REALLY good leather, and a maybe almost sharp head knife, but you can not, under any circumstances, have cheap Tandy leather and an almost, not quite sharp head knife. I have determined though, that Tandy leather needs to be cut with a hacksaw. A SHARP hacksaw. Still learning at my advanced age.

[RockyAussie]

A video of you prior to feeding and then feeding in some leather would help. For now I think that your feed stone is too lowly angled at the front. Your presser foot is angled down too much so that it cuts in a hollow more so than the outer edge. Your presser foot has been shaved and perhaps not polished enough. First up here is an edited picture of your leather sample above

This picture shows that your feed stone has too much gap at the front -

Mine for you to compare -

Showing what to adjust- turn front knob clockwise firstly in your case.

 

 

 

[MtlBiker]

@RockyAussie - What a great and oh so helpful reply!!  Thank you!  I am off today (my weekend is always Sundays and Mondays) and I will readjust as per your instructions.  You are really a prince for your kind and patient help!

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by MtlBiker
spelling

[MtlBiker]

@RockyAussie - I'm making progress, but only a little bit.  I was surprised that my presser foot was so tight that I had to use pliers to loosen the retaining knob.  And it was so tight that it wasn't even touching the back stop (It wouldn't pivot at all) so the adjusting screw wasn't even reaching it.  I've fixed that, and am trying to make the feed stone parallel with the bell knife and I think I've got that.  I've also brought the feed stone up evenly to just shy of the bell knife.  Still chewed up the leather.  I guess I'll try backing off the presser foot pressure (but that'll reduce the skive amount, right?) and see what that does.  I did change the angle of the presser foot to the bell knife (improved it I think).

I'm not quite sure how to make the space between the feed stone and the bell knife the same all along... I put a piece of paper in and it seems to be the same.  Should I maybe move the feed stone away from the bell knife and THEN insert the paper?  And then try to feel how easy/hard it is to pull it out?  And try that at the front and back of the stone?

I'm going to have to sleep on it and try again tomorrow night after work.

[RockyAussie]

11 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

(but that'll reduce the skive amount, right?)

Lighter spring pressure (the hook thing on the side) will let the leather push the feed stone down more easily so in fact it should skive out more. That could mean that you may then need to raise the presser foot up so as to not take out too much when you run the leather through.

 

18 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

I put a piece of paper in and it seems to be the same.  Should I maybe move the feed stone away from the bell knife and THEN insert the paper?  And then try to feel how easy/hard it is to pull it out?  And try that at the front and back of the stone?

You could do all that but you should be able to see by eye fairly easily as in the picture of mine compared to yours above. If it gets too close to the bell with the feed running you should hear it quite easily. If you let it do that too much it will ruin the edge of your bell and the leather will always want to dive in and cut holes in your job. That said I often will let it touch very very lightly for a couple of seconds if I am cleaning up a heavy burr after a heavy sharpening. Crocodile has bones in it sometimes around the flank areas and that can take a good chip out of the bell edge which then takes a fair bit to sharpen back to level again. I am not sure if your edge is sharp or not but as I said do a video of the leather running through and I may be able to advise from there. A bell is NOT sharp if the leather wants to pull back away from you when it is being fed through. With soft leather if you push it up against a blunt bell or a bad presser foot or too tight a spring presser it will concertina up and that makes it chop out hollows and holes.