Clicker dies, no clicker press?

[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.

[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 Wednesday at 02:08 AM by fredk

[Northmount]

Split off posts about Making Your Own Dies to https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/131702-making-your-own-dies/

 

 

[dikman]

Thanks Northmount, I tend to get sidetracked sometimes - I'm also very good at hi-jacking threads.

[ThisIsMyFirstRodeo]

On 8/19/2025 at 7:06 PM, fredk said:

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

I do believe that you have given me the courage to attempt such shenanigans. And thanks for the bookmark suggestion, definitely works for my primary market here in town!

[fredk]

btw, the magnet is glued on the inside of the leather 'key fob' pieces

[Dwight]

On 8/18/2025 at 4:07 PM, ThisIsMyFirstRodeo said:

Hey all,

So I have a bit of a conundrum…

Is there a way to use clicker dies without dropping the money for a press? Possibly a deadblow mallet? I know the Vevor press is quite affordable, but it’s still $200 that I don’t have. 
My “shop” is just myself, my wife and daughter (so really just myself lol), so any time I save by skipping templates I can put into my forge. Or doing dishes. Depends if the wife is home or not…

Thanks for any thoughts/advice/commiseration,

AZR

Let me ride this rodeo out of town . . . and start a new one.

You obviously have a computer . . . and if you have ANY photo program . . . you can take a photo of ANY SHAPE you want . . . fill in the shape with black . . . and go to your 300 dollar 10 watt laser engraver.  

It may take two 30 second passes to cut out your shape . . . but it will cut up to 8 oz in two passes.

The neat part is you never EVER  have to get another clicker die.  They are a thing of the past with a laser engraver.

I use mine to cut small stuff any time I want an EXACT shape . . . the engraver and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (5 dollar program on Ebay) . . . are all I need.

My bed is about 14 inches by 14 inches . . . so I can cut anything that size . . . and as many exact copies I want providing I have the leather.

You do have to rig up a fan to take the burnt leather stink away . . . but that is the worst  . . . and it is not hard at all.

AND THE BEST PART . . . 

When you get done with cutting stuff out with the laser engraver . . . you can then waste a couple days . . . and as much corrugated brown cardboard as you can scrounge up . . . learning how to do roses . . . buildings . . . automobiles . . . horses . . . any shape you want . . . for any drawing you want . . . on your laser engraver. 

The cardboard mimics leather fairly well . . . so you can get a good idea of your settings needed . . . then do a small check piece of leather . . . then do a large picture or drawing or whatever your heart desires.

If you really take your time . . . you can do photographs . . . army patches . . . custom book marks  . . .  billfolds . . . purses . . . and if you let your daughter play with it for a while . . . she might teach your wife how to use it . . . they can make the decorated front of the purses . . . you can do the rest . . . and you have a whole brand new product line.

Or you can just put names on the key fobs . . . that'll work too.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited 4 hours ago by Dwight