Home made rivet adapter

[dikman]

A friend of ours had a leather business many years ago and kept a bit of stuff when he got rid of it. Just before he died he asked me if I wanted the stuff, so of course I said yes. There is various pre-dyed leathers, tools, buckles, fasteners (including several thousand assorted quick rivets) and three very old Carr hand presses, with an assortment of fittings for various fasteners. Strangely enough, though, there are no fittings to use on the quick rivets.

So, a bit of lathe work and I now have a set of dies for quick rivets (which I can also use in my arbor press if needed). The bottom anvil is flat while the top die is slightly domed. Heated and dunked in linseed oil to minimise rusting.

[kgg]

5 hours ago, dikman said:

So, a bit of lathe work and I now have a set of dies for quick rivets (which I can also use in my arbor press if needed).

Nicely done.

kgg

[toxo]

Don't we just love fettling. Good job. 

[CdK]

Very nice.

I am thankful that I have the tools and the ability to make, adapt or repair parts to support my passions. I have had people sneer at my small Harbor Freight lathe and mill but these tools have allowed me to quickly machine bits & pieces when needed. I do own some CNC machines but they are in another business location and I prefer to manually do quick & dirty work on manual machines as it is mentally soothing and satisfying.

[chuck123wapati]

 awesome

 

[dikman]

CdK, I find lathe time to be very therapeutic.

[bruce johnson]

7 hours ago, CdK said:

Very nice.

I am thankful that I have the tools and the ability to make, adapt or repair parts to support my passions. I have had people sneer at my small Harbor Freight lathe and mill but these tools have allowed me to quickly machine bits & pieces when needed. I do own some CNC machines but they are in another business location and I prefer to manually do quick & dirty work on manual machines as it is mentally soothing and satisfying.

 

2 hours ago, dikman said:

CdK, I find lathe time to be very therapeutic.

You guys are my tribe! I've got a benchtop lathe and mill also. I can make small replacement parts for my leather machines and true up parts. (That was the original intent). A couple months ago I had someone over in the leathershop. They loved my stylus, nice heft and feels comfortable. It is just a piece of hex stock a friend turned a pencil point on and gave me. I told this guy I could duplicate it and he requested an inch shorter. Loves it, my wife likes hers, and so it goes. Fast forwarding - sometimes I need a break on a "shop day" or just don't have enough time after work to jump headlong into some refurbishing.  I have stock cut to length already and I turn some styluses. "Mentally soothing and satisfying", "very therapeutic", and gives me sense of accomplishing something in what would probably be non-productive time.

[dikman]

My first lathe belonged to a family friend, he was a fitter and turner and built it himself, it was vary basic and lacked many of the niceties, like power feed. I bought it off his estate and it came with a lot of high-speed steel tooling that he had ground into various shapes. I did a lot with that and eventually bought a more modern one (paid for by digging boolits out of the berms at my pistol club, melting them down and selling the ingots to reloaders ). While I have carbide tooling too, I get a lot of enjoyment out of shaping high-speed steel bits to suit a particular purpose.

I also have one of those little "mini lathes" that are common on ebay and find it very handy for small jobs, plus one of those small mills. The mill is, of course, limited in what it can handle but I've found it very useful to have. I love machining aluminium and brass.

How about a photo of the stylus, Bruce?

Edited November 11, 2024 by dikman