Skiving thin leather with the 801?

[Garyak]

5 hours ago, toxo said:

Thanks @Garyak I know it can do it but getting there is proving to be a problem.

Brian, I got the knife closer to the foot but didn't improve so I backed it off a little. I moved the stone back and increased the bevel on the knife edge by about1 1/2mm. I was careful when I did it and had a water soaked dauber on the edge the whole time. The roller wasn't as effective as the standard feet. Still not where I need it to be.

When I tried with 3/4mm veg tan it was proper apart from being wavey. I'll show a pic.

This was 2.5mm veg tan and I did it in one controlled pass. The waves might suggest a slight wobble on the knife? Doesn't always happen though.

Now I'm suspecting the bearings on the knife. Another thing that's not right is the skive versus speed. I have just the one motor for both knife and feed roller and have no idea if the ratio between the speed between the two is right. Could it be that one of em needs to go on a different pulley? I think I'm over thinking it now.

You need to slowly ease that stone into the knife,  let it sharpen about 10 seconds, slowly ease it off…. But first, I’d take each adjustment on the machine, one at a time, play with them, look closely at what each does, then you should know exactly what needs to happen to get that stone as close to the blade as possible without it hitting. You’ll see sparks come from the spot it hits. Make sure it’s not up against the stone before doing this. Ease it, with the adjustments up against the blade, level it across the stone curve and blade curve. Like a glove. 

[PeterinID]

After taking a course on skivers at the Pendelton Leather show. I switched from a stone wheel to a rubber one, I set the clearances pretty close and am able to skive many different tempers of light leather very thin.

[Bert03241]

9 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

yes you are fogging a dead horse, build the wallet now your leather will be thinner too after about a year of settin on it

[RockyAussie]

15 hours ago, toxo said:

The waves might suggest a slight wobble on the knife?

This waver is more than likely a very small chip out of the bell edge. Turn it around slowly by hand and you should be able to see it. Sharpen then dress inside the bell then with a medium temper leather SLOWLY let it feed through for a few inches. This can help to remove and little fine bits of feather edge off of the bell edge. A couple of pictures showing your foot to feed roller positioning may help. AS for the speed ... the faster the bell goes and the slower the feed goes within reason will give you the best results. All of my skivers have either a clutch that allows me to feed in slow or a separate motor that does the same. My first old Fortuna had no clutch and and was a nightmare to get running well so I gave it away to some poor fella. Work on separating the bell feed to get it running continuously at about 1200 to 1300 rpm.

[toxo]

24 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

 My first old Fortuna had no clutch and and was a nightmare to get running well so I gave it away to some poor fella.

Looks like I ended up with it.

[RockyAussie]

I would not wish that for anyone but I am sure you will get yours happily running in not a long while. You can tell when the bearings are gone you can press the bell up and down and that is pretty rare.

[toxo]

12 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

I would not wish that for anyone but I am sure you will get yours happily running in not a long while. You can tell when the bearings are gone you can press the bell up and down and that is pretty rare.

Getting there now. Although it can go really fast I've found the secret is keeping it slow. No waves and much more controllable. Unfortunately whilst trying to slow things down via the motor I've managed to reverse the rotation and can't get it back. It's now running counter clockwise when viewed from the right hand side of the machine. There's a dot on the digits on the motor that wasn't there before. I have the manual for the machine but not the motor. Can someone help me out here. I've obviously not hit the right combination on the buttons thus far. Here's a pic.

[Northmount]

27 minutes ago, toxo said:

I have the manual for the machine but not the motor. Can someone help me out here. I've obviously not hit the right combination on the buttons thus far. Here's a pic.

Check through the leather sewing machine forum.  There are from what I recall, some instructions for digital servo motors.  Some are very similar between brands.

This is from Keystone a few years ago.  Works on my servo even though it is not related to Keystone. 

Hope it helps.  Your P and S buttons might be similar to the up and down buttons.

[toxo]

5 hours ago, Northmount said:

Check through the leather sewing machine forum.  There are from what I recall, some instructions for digital servo motors.  Some are very similar between brands.

This is from Keystone a few years ago.  Works on my servo even though it is not related to Keystone. 

Hope it helps.  Your P and S buttons might be similar to the up and down buttons.

Thanks for that. Found it on Y/T as well under the guise of the Reliable SewQuiet 6000SM Servo motor. It's going the right way now. Will stick some sponge under the treadle to limit the speed. Getting close now. Realising that tiny adjustments make a big difference.