I Have No Way To Work. Tooling Is Too Loud.

[Sicksteene]

Have you considered one of the swivel knife bevelers? They are available at Springfield Leather for less than four dollars, it wouldn't totally eliminate the tapping but would offer your family some relief, lol. Some of the members here have had success mastering this tool and might be able to offer tips.

[Widget]

If you have a hard time finding a granite slab (I tried my local counter place, but apparently someone uses them for something around here and they sell the cutouts for $300 apiece...yikes), I got a tip from a thread on here (sorry I can't find it to link it) to build a tooling slab on the cheap...so this is NOT my idea, I got it from someone else on the forum (don't want to steal someone's idea).

Go to Home Depot and buy two concrete pavers 12x12 and one 12x12 granite floor tile. Then use a strong adhesive to glue them all together... I put one together for about $12, including the glue (which was the most expensive part...). It has helped a ton, both with noise, and with the cleanness of my tooling. Hope it helps!

[Jimbob]

Go to a headstone company they give u a small old one for free....

Then take a THICK towel and wet it real good....wring out and fold several times, put under ur slab and u gud to go!

Use a leather mallet, lesser noise then brass or Nylon!

Hope that helps...

Ohhhh and got to Tandys and buy every one of ur family a leather craft starti g kit....ya all have fun together in no time.....then u might have to deal wth the people living beside ur place....hahaha.....

James

[Skald]

Been in the same situation. I got a more solid table, a 2 inch granite slab ("stolen" from scrap bits where they make tombstones) and a rubber mat beneath it. It makes almost no noise at all, at least not so that it's being heard very well outside the room where I work.

I got another tip, which till make it almost dead silent. Get a massive tree trunk (yes), which is wide enough to work on top of. Get it properly plain and straight on top, and just put a slab (and maybe a rubber mat) beneath it. It's probably as silent as it will ever get. I tried that in my father's garage when there's was no proper table around.

[Glendon]

This is an older thread, but I have quite a bit of experence with leatherworking in an apartment setting, so I wanted to put in my experence. My work area is set up like this. Everything is set on top of one of those interlocking foam mats that has a rubber top coat. Sitting on that is a solid wood work desk. A wood workbench would work just fine. Just make sure it is all wood so that it obsorbs noise rather then amplifying it. Then I have a rubber mat between the desk and my granate. I have not had a single noise complaint since setting that up.

[kodiakthejuggler]

For those who want a good slab of granite and don't want to spend lots of money on store-bought slabs and shipping, do a Google search for local custom countertop installers or fabricators, i.e. the people who do the actual cutting. Big box stores like Home Depot or Lowe's simply order the sizes from these local installers. They don't have the equipment to do the cutting, so they won't have any remnants lying around.

I found a local custom countertop installer in Dallas called Slab Fabricators. They have machinery for cutting and sculpting and such. I had a talk with the manager and he said feel free to raid the dustbin. Yes, I had to pull them out of the dumpster, but I found two very nice slabs of granite for free!! Next I went to Home Depot and found a rubber tile used for outdoor landscaping. Should deaden the shock effectively! And it was less than $8!

In the attached photo, you can see the rubber tile under the big piece, which is at least 2 1/2 feet square. My keys on top should give some perspective as to the size.

Edited May 23, 2013 by kodiakthejuggler