Andrew Chee Report post Posted October 12, 2011 Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster here. I have a question concerning a machine I recently purchased on eBay. It's an American S.M.&T. sole cutter /1-in-1 machine. I wanted to use it to cut sole bends for making sandals. The machine came in fairly good condition, I've posted pictures below. The blade looks like it's in good condition, there's not pitting or rust and the crank turns fairly smoothly. My question is, when I cut leather with it, I see that the bottom side (blade side) of the leather is cut pretty smoothly. The top side (gear teeth side) leaves a bit of a ragged edge where the teeth gripped the leather. Is this supposed to happen or is the leather supposed to be cut smootly by the blade? You can see a representation below. I glued a piece of heavy sole leather to a brown piece of 9oz. dark brown dyed veg tan. I cut the piece with the dark brown leather facing up. The sole leather side was cut fairly smoothly but the gripper teeth left a bit of a mark on the dark brown side. If this is not the outcome that I should expect from this type of cutter, is there a way to fix it? Thanks. Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leatherimages Report post Posted October 12, 2011 Andrew this just goes with it. It's so the leather will feed. I've never seen it otherwise. Simply use an edger, or sander once you have your layers glued. BTW, good job on the sandals. paul Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Art Report post Posted October 12, 2011 Andrew, That is normal for that cutter. The Landis and Bostitch and American machines do it more or less to some degree; I have not tried the Tippmann machine. Usually sanding and burnishing clean all of that up. Sharp edges like you have on the bottom have to be edged and/or sanded or burnished or they will dog ear very quickly. Although I have a couple of X in 1s, I generally use the band saw (wood) with either a knife blade (putting that knife blade in is like picking up three horney tom cats), but mostly with a skip tooth blade for cutting sole leather. You could use anything really, because you almost always clean up and finish the edges. Art Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster here. I have a question concerning a machine I recently purchased on eBay. It's an American S.M.&T. sole cutter /1-in-1 machine. I wanted to use it to cut sole bends for making sandals. The machine came in fairly good condition, I've posted pictures below. The blade looks like it's in good condition, there's not pitting or rust and the crank turns fairly smoothly. My question is, when I cut leather with it, I see that the bottom side (blade side) of the leather is cut pretty smoothly. The top side (gear teeth side) leaves a bit of a ragged edge where the teeth gripped the leather. Is this supposed to happen or is the leather supposed to be cut smootly by the blade? You can see a representation below. I glued a piece of heavy sole leather to a brown piece of 9oz. dark brown dyed veg tan. I cut the piece with the dark brown leather facing up. The sole leather side was cut fairly smoothly but the gripper teeth left a bit of a mark on the dark brown side. If this is not the outcome that I should expect from this type of cutter, is there a way to fix it? Thanks. Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Chee Report post Posted October 12, 2011 Andrew this just goes with it. It's so the leather will feed. I've never seen it otherwise. Simply use an edger, or sander once you have your layers glued. BTW, good job on the sandals. paul Thanks, my first pair of sandals. I actually ended up using a scroll saw to cut out the soles cause I got cleaner cuts with it. I then sanded it to smooth out the poor cutting job etc... Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
