Belt Holes Ugg

[Sylvia]

Sylvia,

You are way over thinking this. Sqaure, clamps ruler.......WOW. Go, get yourself a shot of good whiskey and work with me here.

Find for your first hole and mark it with an awl, so you can see it. Then locate you next hole the same way and on and on. Now look at them. Are the awl marks straight inline? If so punch em, if not move em. 1/16" off Center to center on a belt/strap hole to hole is nothing. It is far more obvious when they don't run in a straight line. If you really want them within .0000001 of an inch on center within .00001, get a laser. Now take another shot of good whiskey, and Jim Beam ain't it.

LOL I gave up Whisky in my youth after a mishap. Somewhat like this song.

It involved a hot spring, and a cliff. .... not a great situation.

Thanks though!

[Bluesman]

Good Tequila, made from 100% Agave will get em naked, everytime, :evillaugh:

[Wishful]

Here is a link to a Japanese co that I just came across that has a product that looks useful for what you need. Maybe this can inspire you to make a template of your own. They seem to have a few other interesting items too but not sure if they ship to US economically.

http://www.goodsjapa...ncil-for/Detail

[HellfireJack]

If you have the cash you can buy a set of Osbourne self centering hole punches.Then it's just a matter of placing your marks in the right spot.

Edited March 18, 2012 by HellfireJack

[FHL FERG]

Sounds to me like you may be trying to center your punch over your mark. This will almost always end up with your holes being off as you site them down the line. Use your mark as the edge of the hole instead of the center of the hole.

[Sylvia]

Sounds to me like you may be trying to center your punch over your mark. This will almost always end up with your holes being off as you site them down the line. Use your mark as the edge of the hole instead of the center of the hole.

Thanks FHL... I've since learned to do just that. But I still have issues with side to side. I have an idea for a tool but I need the money and a highly skilled machinist to put it together for me.

Thanks again for the hint.

[Goodsjapan]

Here is a link to a Japanese co that I just came across that has a product that looks useful for what you need. Maybe this can inspire you to make a template of your own. They seem to have a few other interesting items too but not sure if they ship to US economically.

http://www.goodsjapa...ncil-for/Detail

Hi

Thanks for the endorsement! Just to let you know, most items (soon to be all) have free shipping world wide.

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[busted]

Do you have a kick press? If you do have one you should make a gang punch setup for it. This would be any number of holes you want in the belts. I am making one for my press it is setup for 8 holes and if I don't want 8 holes then I take out the punches I don't want to use. The holes are consistently straight.

I swear, I'll measure and measure again... punch the cotton-picking hole and it's off... just a hair. But enough that I can see it. Uggh.

So I've been thinking that I need a better system. I have an idea but I want to know how you folks manage to get the spacing and centering just right.

[Sylvia]

Do you have a kick press? If you do have one you should make a gang punch setup for it. This would be any number of holes you want in the belts. I am making one for my press it is setup for 8 holes and if I don't want 8 holes then I take out the punches I don't want to use. The holes are consistently straight.

Hi Busted:

Nope, no kick press here. I've looked at a clicker dies for belts but the problem is.... I make completely custom, made to fit guitar straps. And while one may only adjust 2 inches in either direction another might adjust 11 inches in total. Good idea though.

I have gotten a "belt template set" recently that has helped with the distance between the holes but I still spend gobs of time making sure it's centered left and right.

I'll find a way to foolproof the process eventually.

Thank you very much for your idea though.

S

[TomG]

Hi Busted:

Nope, no kick press here. I've looked at a clicker dies for belts but the problem is.... I make completely custom, made to fit guitar straps. And while one may only adjust 2 inches in either direction another might adjust 11 inches in total. Good idea though.

I have gotten a "belt template set" recently that has helped with the distance between the holes but I still spend gobs of time making sure it's centered left and right.

I'll find a way to foolproof the process eventually.

Thank you very much for your idea though.

S

Hi Sylvia,

Back on Page 1 I think, was a drawing of a device with 2 small holes and a larger center hole. I'll bet money that if you made one of these and used it to punch at the edge of your awl mark, you'd be a lot better off. It is self centering no matter what the width. But I've found the key to REASONABLY accurate hole spacing is to put the edge of the punch on the awl mark and not try to center it over the mark.

And with Plexigalss, you'll be able to see where it's going.

All of that being said, I did have a similar problem once when using a leather template. Same issue you've mentioned. the strap cutter had tapered the end of the belt ever so slightly. The template was flush for the inner hole but around 1/32 wider at hole 6. AND I missed putting the exact center of the punch on the awl mark so that added a little error. It was enough to see.

Using the ruler to line them up may work IF the strap is not curved... ie one edge is held flush against something straight. But to guarantee that, you're back to the square, clamps and liquor!.

I'm going to make a couple of the plexiglass center finders and see how they work next week. I'll keep you posted.

Tom

[Sylvia]

Hi Tom:

I think you are referring to the self centering doweling jig. That would work however... the problem again is the different sizes of straps. I am getting better at centering and spacing as I said before the templates have helped immensely. Thank God for the good people at Black River Laser. Their well made but inexpensive templates have done wonders for me. Its much easier for me to lay out the holes or slots and all I have to do now is scribe, aline and punch.

I still have that idea for a tool I want to develop.... but I'll need to wait until BRL has the time to prototype it for me.

Thanks everyone for your efforts to find me a solution. I am OK with belt holes as it is now. Like anything they can improve but I am much better and more accurate now.

[DoubleC]

Sylvia I have followed this thread recently starting at the beginning and up to here. I finally had enough money to order some leather and that may seem odd but I have been using the scraps given me months ago up until now except for my conchos. A nice young man called me back from SLC thinking I wanted him to cut me out a guitar strap when what I wanted was him to put a straight edge on one side so I could use my strap cutter. This is going to be my first (still remember what that was like back what seems like 10 years ago now?) and I'm already a nervous wreck about the belt holes from this. I ordered a separate strap at 1 & 1/2" they had on sale for $5.00 and I think it's maybe 60 inches so I have some wiggle room there for the adjusting strap but I would never have guessed it would be so hard to make belt holes even after seeing your pictures. I don't have any templates like you said are getting you by now, so the only thing I can think of doing is measuring, then clamping my actual belt I wear on my hold line and hope for the best since I'll have enough strap to make several tries. I can't afford to get anything like that now because at the last minute remembered I was going to need an oblong punch and man are THOSE expensive. Was 40 some bucks I hadn't counted on. Anyway, I'm going to try my best to have fun with it because I decided to do it so I could use different skills than my eyes and rhythm beads allow for. I try and practice other things to at least keep the little skill I have now and I'm setting aside time to do the dragon challenge this month so I can carve and bevel some. Anyway looks like from all you have discussed here I'm going to need a lot of luck getting the belt holes right. This has been a great thread. c