Drill Press / Burnisher Question..

[CustomDoug]

I'm going to be getting myself a cocobolo edge burnisher as soon as I can and I'll be needing to get a drill press at the same time. So, my first question is this - Is there some kind of an "add on" table with a hole in it, for the burnisher to lower into, so that you can get to the desired notch in the spindle (for the various sizes of edges). This so that the leather piece is always sitting on a solid flat surface while it's edge is being rotated. Or, is everyone just suspending the piece in their hands and working it that way. Perhaps there's drill presses that have such a built in hole feature (big enough for a wooden burnisher), that I need to look for?

Second question - Is there an optimum drill speed or a minimum power rating I need to look for? Thanks.

Edited October 6, 2012 by CustomDoug

[mojoewrkn]

I just hold my leather in my hands up off the table. I set my drill press to 1100 RPM's.

[Chief31794]

X2 on holding it in my hands, my drill press speed is 1200 RPM. Works well, I have one of the burnishers from Bearman and an old industrial drill press.

Chief

[Heimdhal]

Same as well, hold it in my hands with the burnisher suspended. I made my own and they worked well enough, but I also just ordered the cocobollo from Bearman. Looking forward to using it.

Unfortunatley my drill press is an old one and only has 3 speeds. 700, 1500, 3200. I usualy use it on 700 for burnishing and just go a little slower.

Edited October 6, 2012 by Heimdhal

[katsass]

From the grumpy old guy: Yes, I hold my stuff in my grubby mitts, BUT I don't use a drill press - - I use a variable speed 3/8" hand held drill. It's locked into a homemade fixture, upside down so that the burnisher is horizontal. That way I can stand over my work and easily observe the burnishing process as it proceeds. It's just more comfortable to me, and I feel that I have better control. Mike

[CustomDoug]

That's an interesting idea, I really like the being able to see the burnishing part. Thanks for the input guys, I suppose if there was such a table with a hole attachment (or whatever) you'd have to keep one hand on the lever to keep the burnisher at the correct height... unless there are presses with a locking feature? Sorry I've never owned a drill press before and don't know much about them.

[Bigfoot]

This is my prototype burnisher, made out of an old cotton reel and an old sewing domestic machine motor with a foot controler bolted to the table.....It does work OK and simple to make as I just glued the spool to the shaft and then turned the spool to the groove sizes that I wanted using files, gauges or anything else that was the right size.

I'm gonna replace the spool with a nice piece of hardwood when i find something suitable and then it should be very good....even if the speed can be a bit erratic!

[CustomDoug]

That seems like a great set-up Bigfoot. I like the idea of a horizontal mounted burnisher so much that I haven't made a move on getting a drill press for the job yet. I keep thinking something will pop into my head to get it mounted horizontally. Any other ideas, guys?

[King's X]

I use a bench top drill press from Harbor Freight and suspend my leather as I burnish. If I am working on something small, I will use my Dremel with a burnisher on it. The process for using the dremel is different in that I work the dremel while holding the leather in hand. I hope this helps. BTW, our member Bearman on here sells some beautiful burnishers if you are in the market.

[Horrrk]

Ingenious setup Bigfoot and I reckon that Ben Hur would've been proud of the end of that spindle..lol

Regards

Phil

[CustomDoug]

From the grumpy old guy: Yes, I hold my stuff in my grubby mitts, BUT I don't use a drill press - - I use a variable speed 3/8" hand held drill. It's locked into a homemade fixture, upside down so that the burnisher is horizontal. That way I can stand over my work and easily observe the burnishing process as it proceeds. It's just more comfortable to me, and I feel that I have better control. Mike

You wouldn't have a picture you could post of this set-up would you? I'm considering this over the drill press.

[CustomDoug]

Would laying a drill press on it's back be out of the question ?

[Northmount]

Depends on the size of drill press

Would laying a drill press on it's back be out of the question ?

Depends on the size of the drill press. Also the drill press table will be in your road. So a cradle for your electric or cordless drill would be much easier to work around. A cradle is easy to make from a few scraps of wood and can be clamped or bolted to the bench. If you have an old drill you don't use much since you got a cordless, you could permanently attach the drill to the cradle with a long hose clamp.

Tom

[katsass]

You wouldn't have a picture you could post of this set-up would you? I'm considering this over the drill press.

Doug, PM w/pics sent. Mike

[CustomDoug]

Doug, PM w/pics sent. Mike

Got it, thanks Mike.

[CustomDoug]

Wait a minute.. would this piece (in the link) be all I need to be able to mount one of the drill-bit type wood burnishers onto my Bench Grinders ? This is a Chinese company (probably not the easiest to deal with regarding shipping and a wait).. is this a common item, that I could find in the states? A quick search didn't locate any using the same description.

http://sell.lulusoso.com/selling-leads/1765438/Drill-Chuck-Bench-Grinder-Attachment.html

[Northmount]

Wait a minute.. would this piece (in the link) be all I need to be able to mount one of the drill-bit type wood burnishers onto my Bench Grinders ? This is a Chinese company (probably not the easiest to deal with regarding shipping and a wait).. is this a common item, that I could find in the states? A quick search didn't locate any using the same description.

http://sell.lulusoso.com/selling-leads/1765438/Drill-Chuck-Bench-Grinder-Attachment.html

Search for drill chuck or Jacobs chuck. Be careful of the mount you select. Threaded are available in 3/8" x 24 tpi or 1/2" x 20 tpi. So you will need to use a die to thread the shaft. Note that this is fine thread, not coarse thread.

A couple links: http://www.jacobschuck.com/images/products/JC-003%20200%20Series%20No%20Crops.pdf

http://www.sears.com/jacobs-3-8-in-keyless-replacement-drill-chuck-with-3-8/p-00920970000P

Lots of replacement chucks around with key or keyless. Take one off a junked drill that's no good any more. Some are locked to the drill shaft with a screw from the inside. Open the jaws up all the way so you can see the bottom. The screw (if there is one) will have left hand thread instead of the normal right hand thread, so it doesn't come loose when you reverse the drill.

Tom

[CustomDoug]

Good info BUT, I just realized my bench grinder is 3450rpm.. that'll cause burning won't it? I don't see any on Harbor Freights website less than 3450rpm either, even the bench mounted "polisher" are about the same.

[St8LineGunsmith]

I use a thread spool on a drill clamped down in a vise to burnish the edges of my leather I will coat it with some bees wax as it spins and rub bow rosin on the edges of the leather then go to town burnishing the edges cheap and works great.

[Northmount]

Variable speed drills are cheap and readily available, already have a chuck, and only need a simple shop made fixture to hold them. Agree with st8. Don't need to over think the problem. Also don't need to thread the motor shaft. Should be lots available for real cheap at garage sales and flea markets.

Tom

[CustomDoug]

Variable speed drills are cheap and readily available, already have a chuck, and only need a simple shop made fixture to hold them. Agree with st8. Don't need to over think the problem. Also don't need to thread the motor shaft. Should be lots available for real cheap at garage sales and flea markets.

Tom

I'm not over thinking it - I just don't want to make a mistake and buy something I'm not happy with after a short while. It's a lesson I've learned from sewing machine purchases and it's gotten a little old. As it stands I prefer the bench mounted grinder option (if it's possible) over a rigged up hand-held drill. Especially since it'll be an expense for me either way. I hope to be using this thing for a very long time. To me the bench grinder just seems a little more compact if not more,..professional (FWIW). So my question is still, are the 3400rpm motors going to necessarily cause burning of the leather? I guess I could try to get a "slow speed" grinder or a variable speed one - here's a cheap unit from Harbor Freight but the reviews are not that great:

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-grinder-with-flex-shaft-43533.html

[CustomDoug]

Then there's this bench mandrel too, that would work with a common run of the mill motor, they have the matching chucks too. http://www.grizzly.c...earing/G5548 - Why'd I ever get rid of those old electric motors?

edit - not sure why that link won't go to the correct page, just search item# G5548 and G5555

Edited October 15, 2012 by CustomDoug

[katsass]

FWIW from the old grump; I have found that the hand-held drill (even if it is 'rigged' up) with it's variable speed capability seems to be the most useful. I even have all of my Dremel tools (three of them) hooked into simple light dimmers to facilitate speed control on them. Yes, I do know that at least two of them have a variable speed control built in, however it's a lot easier and quicker to just reach over to the handy light control, and slide the switch to where I want. For a bench mounted mandrel I'd want the same variable speed ability, so a motor speed controller such as a rheostat (or whatever modern, solid state gizmo is now in use) would be a necessity for me. Actually, I'd like a similar set-up on my drill presses, and that may be something I'll look into. Changing belt locations can be a pain when you are busy. Mike

Edited October 15, 2012 by katsass

[Northmount]

CustomDoug, the old grump has some of the best input, including previous comments.

One of the previous comments he made was to mount the shaft with the burnisher vertical so you can see more easily exactly what you are doing.

There are short arbor extensions that can be added to any 1/2 or 5/8" motor shaft so you don't need all the extra bearings and shaft like you found on Grizzly. Take a look at https://www.swmetal.... and Extensions and you will see lots of choices, even for dremels.

The typical one you would use is https://www.swmetal....em?itemID=11989. They used to be available in a lot of hardware stores, so you might find one locally. This combination with a 1725 rpm motor (or slower furnace fan motor) could be mounted so it hangs off the side or end of your bench with the shaft vertical. It would give you lots of working clearance around it for larger items and allow you to see exactly what is happening as you burnish. Depending on the type of burnisher you are going to use, you could use a tapered spin-on like https://www.swmetal....em?itemID=11973. With it, you can use a stepped burnisher, stepped right down to a small point for belt holes. Alternatively, you can drill and tap the burnisher to fit the item 11989 and just screw it on. Watch your motor rotation direction, or you may launch the burnisher!

I've used my own burnisher on a lathe. Gives me variable speed, but not very convenient. I think I'll build a dedicated machine using a stepped burnisher, motor shaft vertical with fan motor speed control like the Grump says.

Tom

I seel Lee Valley has arbor mounts too. http://www.leevalley...072,45939,41743

Edited October 15, 2012 by northmount

[BearMan]

Hi CustomDoug, Beary & I have been looking into a burnisher that would mount on a variable speed bench grinder. What we've found is that some bench grinders even in the same maker have some very weird size threaded shafts. Some are 1/2"-20,,, which is good,,, but a lot of them come with a 1/2" ACME thread,,, some have a 12mm shaft. So fitting them with a burnisher that doesn't wobble, is very problematic. The problem with the arbor shaft extensions is that with the set screws pushing against the shaft pushes the arbor off center. We have made a few that fit SOME variable bench grinders,,, but there doesn't seen to be any good rhime or reason to which shaft size & thread will come on your grinder. Once we get back from the show, I'm going to do some reasearch into a grinder company that consistantly uses a usable shaft size.

BUT,,, on another good note,,, Beary is introducing a new Burnisher at the show, designed to fit & work very nicely in your cordless & variable speed hand drill! He will have those ready to roll out in about 2 weeks,,, maybe less.