Mascotte Report post Posted July 27 Hello all! First post but long time lurker of this incredible community. I know about skiving services, but I recently saw this machine on aliexpress and was intrigued by it. Does anyone know anything about this? is it a replica of another machine? Does it work? Any information is welcome. Thanks all https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804365925381.html?spm=a2g0o.home.pcJustForYou.7.468a76dbcf7IQK&gps-id=pcJustForYou&scm=1007.13562.333647.0&scm_id=1007.13562.333647.0&scm-url=1007.13562.333647.0&pvid=30e29ba4-26d6-44bc-9865-d0e5cb1f8d36&_t=gps-id:pcJustForYou,scm-url:1007.13562.333647.0,pvid:30e29ba4-26d6-44bc-9865-d0e5cb1f8d36,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238116%232002&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%213204.23%212146.83%21%21%213204.23%212146.83%21%402101c80217221146961388138ec309%2112000029582064064%21rec%21US%21989079739%21X&utparam-url=scene%3ApcJustForYou%7Cquery_from%3A Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomE Report post Posted July 28 From the description at Aliexpress I couldn't figure out what this machine is capable of. It costs as much as a Class 14 splitter from Leather Machine Co. The class 14 is a workhorse that is backed by LMC's customer service, and blade sharpening service. This desktop machine doesn't look as sturdy as a Class 14, so I wonder about the thickness and width of leather pieces that it can handle. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Matt S Report post Posted July 29 On 7/27/2024 at 10:26 PM, Mascotte said: Hello all! First post but long time lurker of this incredible community. I know about skiving services, but I recently saw this machine on aliexpress and was intrigued by it. Does anyone know anything about this? is it a replica of another machine? Does it work? Any information is welcome. Thanks all https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804365925381.html?spm=a2g0o.home.pcJustForYou.7.468a76dbcf7IQK&gps-id=pcJustForYou&scm=1007.13562.333647.0&scm_id=1007.13562.333647.0&scm-url=1007.13562.333647.0&pvid=30e29ba4-26d6-44bc-9865-d0e5cb1f8d36&_t=gps-id:pcJustForYou,scm-url:1007.13562.333647.0,pvid:30e29ba4-26d6-44bc-9865-d0e5cb1f8d36,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238116%232002&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!3204.23!2146.83!!!3204.23!2146.83!%402101c80217221146961388138ec309!12000029582064064!rec!US!989079739!X&utparam-url=scene%3ApcJustForYou|query_from%3A I've seen a couple designs similar to this being offered for sale on the usual Chinese websites for a few years. Nothing in the way of actual user reviews though. I would be very curious to play with one but not curious enough to spend my own money if you see what I mean. They appear to be a band knife splitter, but smaller, cheaper and lighter than the industrial standard ones. At first glance that appears to be tempting. I have one of the industrial standard ones, albeit a slightly old-fashioned model. It weighs about 400KG (800lb) and has a 12" capacity. Most of that mass is a couple of chunky iron castings which are used to keep the blade as taught and flat as possible. There's a good bit of weight in the large driving wheels so (a) the knife isn't being pulled round a tiny radius and (b) I guess their mass smooths out the blade's speed (which affects quality of finish). A fair bit of space is tied up with mechanisms to minutely adjust positioning and interactions between various internal mechanisms (and prevent those setting from wandering in use). There's also 4x motors to carefully time and control various functions (knife, feed, knife sharpening and dust extraction) and an automatic knife advance feature. When I was shopping for a splitter I spoke with the UK dealer of Camooga, which are one of the leading brands today. Their current equivalents of the one I eventually bought aren't much lighter because you still need/want a very stiff frame and to be able to control all the same aspects of function. Knowing what I do now I would not buy one of those desktop models if I expected it to be reliable because it cannot physically fit the above features. There's probably/hopefully a solid frame inside that sheetmetal enclosure but looking at how much of its limited realestate is taken up already there's not much space left for stiffness. I'd rather learn to live with using my bell knife skiver, mortgage a kidney buying a "real" splitter, or spend my send my leather out to be split by someone with a good splitter. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mascotte Report post Posted August 6 Thank you for your replies. I would die for a video review of this thing. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
