Clicker dies, no clicker press?

[toxo]

1 hour ago, SUP said:

You get soft plastic mallets specifically for this, these days. 

Amazon.com: barenx Leather Craft Puzzle Mold Punch Stick Cylinder Rod Hammer DIY Handicraft

 

Just holding it in place works for me because I can see where I need to hit the soft mallet and am not working blind like when the die is placed cutting side down. 

 

 

I was thinking bag sized panels. A bonus if you have another pair of hands to hold it 

[MarlinDave]

Harbor Freight has some small hydraulic presses. Find them a lot used in yard sales and Facebook Marketplace. I have been known to weld one up. 

[BenOrsonLeather]

I have both a Vevor hand press and a 25 ton clicker press in my shop.  I love the hand press for the one-off (or few-off) pieces with smaller dies.  Small footprint, easy to use and, in my opinion and situation, well worth the $200 spend even with a more than capable 25 ton close by.

[dikman]

12 hours ago, toxo said:

I assume the UK is too dear also? I did a post a while back about this where I posted a link to  Partwell.

Usually sold in packs of 60/100 so heavy. Better off looking for die makers  who might sell you some. 

Even that is proving problematic, Australia is a strange market......I'll try the banding steel, it may not have enough carbon in it to get a hardened edge but should still hold an edge adequate for cutting leather. It's cheap enough ($5 a roll) to experiment with.

[toxo]

4 minutes ago, dikman said:

Even that is proving problematic, Australia is a strange market......I'll try the banding steel, it may not have enough carbon in it to get a hardened edge but should still hold an edge adequate for cutting leather. It's cheap enough ($5 a roll) to experiment with.

Another factor with postage is they come in 1 meter lengths. Shame you weren't nearer I would've sorted you out a few lengths. I've even got an almost full pack of 3 point somewhere that my cheapo bending gear won't handle.

If that banding gear is a bit springy you might have trouble with straight lines. (unless you're putting it around a wooden block and then fixing it might be a problem cos you have to leave enough sticking out to cut the leather.)

[fredk]

On 8/19/2025 at 12:34 AM, ThisIsMyFirstRodeo said:

Luckily, it’s really only for small pieces, keychains/coasters/bracelets and the like, but anything that will help my efficiency. 

Don't use any mallet directly on the die. Thats  a sure way of ruining the mallet and possibly damaging the die. 

I lay the die on a hard surface with the blade upwards. Find my leather and press it into place with my thumbs. That sort of 'locks' it in place then I use piece of off-cut wood or a piece of round nylon I have and hit that with my mallet. About a minute later I have the cut out. Pop it out of the die are start again. In about 10 minutes I have a dozen or so pieces to make key fobs

If you cut 2 key fob pieces, glue a magnet on each end and sew the leather fob pieces together you have made a magnetic book mark!

Two of these sewn together with a magnet at each end

Make one book mark

They are mildly popular at the moment

Edited 4 hours ago by fredk

[dikman]

Toxo, that is very thoughtful of you.  I just went for a drive and bought some steel banding. It's 0.7mm thick by 30mm wide and the rolls are between 20 - 30 metres long. They are leftovers from the manufacturing process, they get huge rolls of the stuff, approx. 1 metre wide, and slit it to 30mm  and these are the bits left after coiling it to measured lengths. The stuff is used for building steel-framed houses, is very good quality and is high-tensile.

It's going to be interesting to see what I can do with it. I'll probably try making wooden shapes to attach it to, but the first thing is to build some sort of jig for bending it.