cmh3821 Report post Posted August 15, 2010 good afternoon, i am new to leather working. My business is starting a line of leather soon and i am still playing with prototypes and equipment and gear now. we our starting to make high quality heavy duty leashes, collars, harness and tug toys for working dogs. we work mostly with heavy weight harness and latigo leathers (9-10oz and up) and sometimes need to secure through up to three full thickness layers of the leather. i have been using chicago screws with red locktite for our prototypes. i have set some rivets by hand with the manual setter and anvil but that will take way too long and is far too inconsistent and easy for me to mess up to use with production pieces. we will be needing to switch to rivets for a few reasons when we get production underway, primarily to speed up assembly and for a more finished look than a chicago screw with the slotted side facing out (neccesary to prevent damage to the dogs coat/skin). I was wondering if there are any alternatives to the craftool hand press i should look into? It seems nice and i have used one, but if there are other presses and dies for setting rapid and/or tubular rivets that work better i'd like to know what ya'll think about them. I will need to be able to set rivets of various sizes and types consistently and quickly. thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UKRay Report post Posted August 15, 2010 As a starting place, I'd be inclined to check out the Weaver catalog - see www.leathersupply.com I've had excellent service from them on a number of occasions. Nothing was too much trouble and Vernon Weaver is a nice guy to do business with. I'm sure other people will make suggestions, but I'd go for a foot press machine in preference to the hand-pulled variety as it gives you two hands to position the work accurately. Hope you get sorted out. Ray Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
albane Report post Posted August 15, 2010 http://www.stimpson.com/ Be prepared to spend a lot of money. All the answers you seek are there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cmh3821 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 thanks ya'll. i like the foot operated presses at weaver and stimpson... i think those will do for now and as production ramps up it looks like one of the stimpson auto feed riveters will be the way to go. http://www.stimpson.com/ Be prepared to spend a lot of money. All the answers you seek are there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
