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 8 hours ago by Dwight

[dikman]

You're quite right, of course, Dwight, but playing Devil's Advocate here, once someone has a clicker die and some means of applying the needed pressure then it's very quick to cut out multiple pieces and you don't even need any power (or computer) to do so. And not everyone wants to mess around with lasers and such, which is precisely why a colleague is teaching himself how to make dies.

Me, I've got all that computer stuff, 3D printer, laser and small cnc engraver, but I'm currently getting a headache trying to build a die bending thingy. The only reason is 'cos I haven't got one and want to prove to myself that I can make dies. It's a problem I have, once I get an idea into my brain........

But for getting a design out fairly quickly yeah, your method is great.