Quickie Motorized Burnisher

[shtoink]

OK, so I had one of those white, plastic burnishers from Tandy and it hasn't seen much use as I have a nice old one made from cocobolo. It occurred to me that I was missing a burnisher with a shank to chuck up in a drill and speed things up a little bit and that plastic one might be a good candidate for such project.

I found that the local hardware store had some stainless steel bits that would do just what I wanted. The 1/4"bolt and nuts work great.

Here's the plastic burnisher waiting patiently...

Load one of each of the nuts and washers.

Place the burnisher on and finish with the last washer and nut. Here are some finish shots.

Once you have it here, you can trim off the head of the bolt with a hacksaw, chuck it up in your favorite drill, and go to town on your leather. You could even trim the head off the bolt first, but that's your choice.

All told, it was less than $2.00 for the stainless steel bits and whatever the cost of the burnisher is. I don't have that price handy and my burnisher was just sitting in my box of stuff.

I had intended this to be a simple tutorial that didn't require anything but the simplest tools to make happen. I hope you guys find this useful.

Also, don't forget to click on the images for full size version.

Edited July 31, 2012 by shtoink

[Ferg]

Your method works fine on long edges, when you need to do inside corners and such, the large diameter doesn't work.

ferg

1343712927[/url]' post='258710']

OK, so I had one of those white, plastic burnishers from Tandy and it hasn't seen much use as I have a nice old one made from cocobolo. It occurred to me that I was missing a burnisher with a shank to chuck up in a drill and speed things up a little bit and that plastic one might be a good candidate for such project.

I found that the local hardware store had some stainless steel bits that would do just what I wanted. The 1/4"bolt and nuts work great.

Here's the plastic burnisher waiting patiently...

Load one of each of the nuts and washers.

Place the burnisher on and finish with the last washer and nut. Here are some finish shots.

Once you have it here, you can trim off the head of the bolt with a hacksaw, chuck it up in your favorite drill, and go to town on your leather. You could even trim the head off the bolt first, but that's your choice.

All told, it was less than $2.00 for the stainless steel bits and whatever the cost of the burnisher is. I don't have that price handy and my burnisher was just sitting in my box of stuff.

I had intended this to be a simple tutorial that didn't require anything but the simplest tools to make happen. I hope you guys find this useful.

Also, don't forget to click on the images for full size version.

[HellfireJack]

I did the same thing before I switched to just using a hand burnisher made of wood.

Word of caution: do not use with a dremel. It will burn the leather and then ruin the smooth plastic.

[shtoink]

Your method works fine on long edges, when you need to do inside corners and such, the large diameter doesn't work.

ferg

You are exactly right on that, but for someone trying to do a belt and only has access to off-the-shelf items at the moment or a beginner with similar limitations, it's a way to get the ball rolling. By no stretch of the imagination was this ever meant to be the only burnisher one would need for all projects. It was a simple proof of concept that showed that anyone with access to a minimum of tools can put one of these into action and do so rather quickly.

I probably should have mentioned that at the very top, so I blame sleep deprivation.

[Sylvia]

I used one of these exact things for a few months before I got my Gary Lyon drill press burnisher. (may he rest in peace) It will work, but you should know that the plastic does start to disintegrate after a while