Contributing Member wolvenstien Posted August 6, 2007 Author Contributing Member Report Posted August 6, 2007 Best advice I can give is to find a few counter top manufacturers/installers in your area.... and just go there.... get as far into the back as you can and check out the small stuff.... if no one comes out to greet you, go find someone in the back and talk to them. thell them you need a good clean piece to hammer leather on.... if they are cool, and have scrap there, they will show it to you and not screw you on the price..... it is scrap, and very unlikely they will find an application to use the scrap for and will end up needing to pay for it to be removed.... I paid $10 for my piece.... I was hoping to get it for free... but he very well could have asked for $50 or $100 for it... I would have had to walk away.... but I was lucky enough to get a guy to come out and greet me who was not trying to get rich off of one sale.... Quote "The miracle is not how two adults can create a child, the phenomenon is how quickly a child can create two adults." -- VYBE Her: Hit Me Him: Do you want me to use the knife? Her: No, When you hit with a knife, that's STABBING!
gtwister09 Posted August 6, 2007 Report Posted August 6, 2007 Speaking of salvage.... We gathered up this large piece of Baltic Brown granite from a building and then bedded it on some 2 X 4s and mounted it on a sit/stand workbench. We made the top edge so that tools couldn't roll off and hit the floor. Here are a couple of pictures that show the "base" of the marble/bed and the completed bench. This was made about 6 years ago. Regards, Ben P.S. The "clear acrylic" that someone mentioned in it's various forms like Envirotex and such will start to crack and come apart with repeated stamping especially with heavier stamps like lettering or some of the 3D stamps. Quote
Contributing Member wolvenstien Posted August 6, 2007 Author Contributing Member Report Posted August 6, 2007 I like that.... and I like that it is on wheels too.... Quote "The miracle is not how two adults can create a child, the phenomenon is how quickly a child can create two adults." -- VYBE Her: Hit Me Him: Do you want me to use the knife? Her: No, When you hit with a knife, that's STABBING!
Members Tangent Creations Posted August 7, 2007 Members Report Posted August 7, 2007 Gtwister, thanks! My husband said the same thing about the acrylic...oh well, there goes that idea!LOL Anyways, I went down to the local custom counter place today and was scared to death when I walked in...felt like my pinky should've been WAY in the air!! But the lady behind the counter was super friendly and is getting me a near custom cut piece 28 inches long by 18 inches deep for $25!!! Yay! Quote Build a man a fire, keep him warm for a day. Set a man on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life. -Terry Pratchett
Contributing Member wolvenstien Posted August 7, 2007 Author Contributing Member Report Posted August 7, 2007 Sweet! Quote "The miracle is not how two adults can create a child, the phenomenon is how quickly a child can create two adults." -- VYBE Her: Hit Me Him: Do you want me to use the knife? Her: No, When you hit with a knife, that's STABBING!
Members Rawhide Posted August 13, 2007 Members Report Posted August 13, 2007 I have the 1 1/2 inch thick by 12 inch square slab that I got from Tandy, but it seems small for some of the larger carving pieces I want to do. So I found a 2 foot by 3 foot slab out in my back yard that had been there for who knows how long, I bought the house 4 years ago and it was out there when we bought the house. I grabbed it up and got to looking at it, I scrubbed it clean with dish detergent and water and got all the dirt off it, but it is pitted and I fear it will harm the cased leather if I try to tool on this the way it is. What I am wondering is if there is some type of poly cote I can put on it that will smooth it out and allow me to tool on it without fear of it harming the cased leather. If not some type of poly something else I can cote the slab with to seal it and make it usable for tooling...Anything you folks can come up with is much appreciated! Thanks Mike I don't know what kind of resin you can buy to fill the voids and eliminate the pitting, but I'm sure you'll pay at least $20 for the chemicals. You can go to a head stone maker (grave stone) and get one of the screw-ups for little or nothing. I bought a piece two feet, by four feet and had them split it into two tooling stones for $40. I could have had the one for $20. Just my $.02. Quote Marlon
gtwister09 Posted October 16, 2007 Report Posted October 16, 2007 We have had a couple of requests for additional information on the ergonomic sit-stand workbench. Have included 3 PDFs that provide pictures, details, notes and such for the workbench and also for tooling racks. Sorry that it took so long to get these out there! Enjoy. Regards, Ben Mobile_Ergonomic_Sit_Stand_Workbench.pdf Additional_Details_and_Notes_for_the_Mobile_Ergonomic_Sit_Stand_Leather_Tooling_Workbench.pdf Mobile_Ergonomic_Sit_Stand_Workbench.pdf Additional_Details_and_Notes_for_the_Mobile_Ergonomic_Sit_Stand_Leather_Tooling_Workbench.pdf Quote
Mike Craw Posted October 16, 2007 Report Posted October 16, 2007 This is another great topic, but one which I wish I had been a part of about a year ago, before I ran all over Southeast Georgia looking for that perfect stone. Mine is a piece of marble, the broken off bottom of a crypt door that had been thrown out in a field behind an undertaker's business. Mine was very rough, but if the one you have access to is marble, and you have a random orbit sander, you can make is smooth as silk by working down from very course to fine (240 or so) grits. Also, don't discount a free slab if it's only 12" x 18" x 1.5" or thereabouts. After wrestling my 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 1/2 inch thick prize home and sanding the entire top, I find that I only use the 18" x 12" portion right in front of me. The rest of the top could have been plywood covered with laminate or heavy polyurathane to protect it from the moisture in the leather. If it's the same level as your tooling surface, you can tool large saddle parts without worrying about them falling off the bench. Because of a back injury, I mounted mine on a table about chest height, so that I can tool standing up. Mike Quote My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference. Harry S. Truman
Members robert Posted October 17, 2007 Members Report Posted October 17, 2007 (edited) my dad got new granite countertops installed, and they cut out the hole for the sink on site... they started to haul it off, but good ol' dad was thinking about me and told them to just leave it. but you gotta figure they do that at just about every job... the first piece i had was also from a countertop place- they took their scraps and threw them in the mudholes in their work yard... i think they laughed when i was fishing them out of the mud... Edited October 17, 2007 by robert Quote
Chris B Posted October 17, 2007 Report Posted October 17, 2007 Wow, thanks for all of that info... Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.