Rivet Setter From Ebay?

[Sylvia]

If you do collars now... you could make bracelets and use the snaps. Men tend to like the bigger snaps. Ponder on that a bit.

Crystal Rivets? I would use a lot of caution using a press on Crystals. Wear eye protection, etc. I've never heard of anyone setting Crystals with them.

That said the 6mm items would work ok with the 8mm die. Talk to Dave about the crystals though he may have something or can get something that is better.

DO NOT buy the hole cutter. It's made for fabric or canvas... does not work on leather. You'll hand punch like normal until you find another option. See black river laser for alignment and centering templates

[RavenAus]

For the hole cutter I'm getting a friend with a lathe to turn me some brass anvils and cut a thread on my tandy hole punch, you know the one with the 6 tubes? That way I'll be able to use it for multiple sizes. All you'd need is to get the thread size confirmed and any good machinist or shop could do it for you.

For crystal rivets I'd say you'd be fine with the press as long as you put some poundo board on the bottom anvil and put the face of the rivet on that so the crystal is not hitting metal. It's the same board they have in the packs when you get the crystal or turquoise rivets. In fact, I may just get a big old hole punch and cut out a few pieces of the board to fit onto anvils since I'll get a few from my lathe-owning mate Bit of contact cement and we're sorted

[Sylvia]

Yeah, that was my idea to fit those tubes to it. . The problem is that the height between the top die and the lower piece is too short. And these dies' thread is 10-26 an odd size; especially in the USA. And you'll have problems with the tubes clogging up since there is no where for the punched pieces to go.

What I ended up doing was spending about $30 to have my arbor press' Ram drilled with a 1/2" hole to fit the Tandy punch set handle and a set screw installed. (Although my darling husband had the guy put the screw up too high) it actually works better for me because not only can I use the mini and maxi punch sets, I can use some of my other Stamps too ... AND I don't have to remove change out the dies a lot.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Sylvia

[meagain]

Talked to Dave - he's insisting that the hole punches ARE for leather 'and' fabric - for rivets etc...

http://goldstartool.com/Hole_Punch_Die_for_Grommet_Machine.html

So I'm confused.

He also said there is nothing available for setting 'rim sets' like these things... http://www.rhinestoneguy.com/Images/Products/Rim-Sets.jpg

Scratching head. This is confusing

[Sylvia]

Yes, he JUST told me that... however I really doubt that these will cut through your thick leather.

Take a few deep breaths... this is a learning experience.. being confused is normal.

[Sylvia]

Meagain.

I've got one of the those "piercing die" sets coming. I should have it by Thursday. I've got all kinds of thick 13oz leather here so I'll test it for you... we will find out for sure if it will work. If it does and doesn't require a sledge hammer to get it to cut we'll find out.

[paprhangr]

Gold star hole punch didn't punch holes in my leather

[meagain]

Well if it works in 13oz leather - it'll surely work in 8-9oz tooling leather It's those darned Rivets I need to go thru double that. Rivets scare me. Fortunately I'm not selling the collars!

Oh! Something else I want to do is be able to press (not cut) a hole to be a round shallow indent. All the same depth so this press would be good for that. But I doubt there's a tool for this. I think the limiting factor with this press might be the need for screwing the die in the top vs. the Tandy one holding it in externally. More options I guess.

Also - This looks like the same press to me. He used the Tandy hole punch set in it. Looks the same right?

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=56610&hl=%2Btandy+%2Bpress

[meagain]

Sylvia - did you get your stuff yet? And may I ask what you use your arbor press for?

[Sylvia]

Yes, I did. It took a great amount of effort to make holes in the 10oz leather. All it really did was put a divot in the front and squished out a bit on the back, no hole when I did it by hand. Then I tried with all my weight (and I am no skinny minny) jumped up and down too. No hole. I finally got a whole when I helped it along with a 4lb single jack hand sledge...and smacked the handle, which I don't recommend since it buggered up my rubber on the handle. The hole was still not cut properly... still divoted and I had to pull the slub thing off the back. It left fibers behind, in my opinion you should save your cash. pics attached

The arbor press was originally bought for those stupid 3d stamps Tandy sells, but I used it for my short logo stamp too. Now that it has a hole drilled I can use it to punch, stamp, chisel, etc. As long as a handle will go up in there, I'm good.

[meagain]

What about the set the guy used in my link above? Would that work? He seemed happy with it - IDK

[Sylvia]

That's not the same machine. It's one he bought off of ebay, probably an older one. I know for a fact that the Tandy tubes he's using do not fit... because I tried.

[RavenAus]

I received my dies for the line 20, line 24 and 8mm rivets today :D. It's an absolute joy to be able to set snaps straight off without worrying about the cap suddenly being at a weird angle or just not setting right at all because the dratted thing had shifted just as I hit the setter.

Tried them all out and they are fantastic. Never want to manually set another snap again!

[Sylvia]

Tried them all out and they are fantastic. Never want to manually set another snap again!

I totally agree. So much more fun. When I first got mine I sat down with several "bracelets" and set snaps for 20 mins. It probably would have taken less time if my leather wasn't slightly too thick requiring me to skive a bit first. But I got 25 of the things done in no time.... even with skiving and manually punching holes. Life is good.

[billybopp]

No doubt, if you do any appreciable number of rivets or snaps one o' these gadgets is money well spent. I figure mine may have paid for itself in messed up rivets and snaps .. Even more in terms of the time saved!!

Bill

Edited August 25, 2014 by billybopp

[RavenAus]

I tried the rivet setter with my usual 8mm rivet through a piece of 2.5mm scrap veg. There was about 5mm sticking out the top. It still set perfectly, something you couldn't do with a hand setter

[meagain]

OK OK - I'm going to get this. My ONLY issue is I wish it didn't have threads. But I'm seeing dies on Ebay that I believe will go with it.

Well I have a question for you all. I want to do something with impressing a round hole. Not going through but just pushed in a bit. I want to make a round indent to set a Swarovski Flatback crystal so it's recessed into the leather a bit vs. sitting on top. This press should allow me to make the same depth throughout the item. Would anyone have an idea what I could use for such a thing in this press? I'm fearing I won't be able to do it - whereas with the Tandy, I could put an oddball tool in there and cinch it down.

[Sylvia]

Meagain: The threads for the screw in dies is 10-26. If you buy from ebay or elsewhere make sure the threads are that size and it should be ok. If they can't tell you the tread size/type... then don't buy unless you want to take the chance it won't fit, or they are willing to let you return them if they don't fit.

As for your crystal issue... I suppose you could use the piercing dies for that but not use the die for the bottom in that set, use the rivet set bottom or one of the others... that would make your divot but then you would need to know how far to press and that would take practice.

[meagain]

Sylvia - what do you mean exactly by 'piercing die' I think I'd like a perfect round impression that's maybe 4mm. 5mm max. A perfect circle with flat bottom Else if I could make a circle impression then use another tool to flatten the bottom out of it. But that's tricky and work. But I'm not sure what a piercing die is.

[Sylvia]

Meagain: A Piercing die pokes a hole (as in piercing an ear...) that's what David calls his hole dies. They are cone shaped and the bottom die has a hole in it so the top die can push the leather out the bottom. (not great for our leather cutting and hole needs) BUT If you didn't have the bottom die, it would just leave a funnel shaped depression. Scroll and/or click back to page 4 (I think) to the pictures I posted about the results of the hole punching test on thicker leather, you'll see the divot it makes on the front of the leather.

[RavenAus]

Your best bet would be to get a local metal shop to make a set of dies for that Meagain. You might even try your local college or uni that do engineering courses as they would be a good test piece for the students. Failing that, ask locally to see if anyone has a metal lathe

[Sylvia]

Raven has a great idea. I've used University students for auto repair before and it was very inexpensive compared to the local auto shops. Since their work is supervised by the instructor I felt very comfortable having them do the work.

Maybe if you can locate a Machinist in your area since they typically have the necessary tools and are used to working with precise requirements. You'll need a clear idea of exactly what you want the die to do and be able to articulate that to the machinist. Expect to spend a little more on the custom dies. Just having that hole drilled and tapped for a set screw in that arbor press of mine cost me $30 here locally.

[meagain]

Ordered today. Can't wait to do some practice rivets. Weight of worry off my shoulders.

[silverwingit]

A quick note and a link to an Arthur Porter video on the GoldStar press.

Some months ago I was tantalized by the discovery of the GoldStar press. A cautious consumer, I contacted the man offering the machine on eBay. I was concerned that the press seemed to be able to use only GoldStar hardware items (rivets, snaps, etc.). I have tons of hardware in my inventory and didn't want to buy a press that was incompatible with some or all of it. The seller wrote back and actually took the trouble to buy some Tandy hardware to test it. The press wouldn't work with the Tandy hardware. I was totally impressed with the honesty of the seller, but opted out of the apparently amazing deal. I didn't want to start over with new hardware or to be constrained to only one vendor.

Interestingly Arthur Porter has recently posted a youtube video comparing the Tandy and GoldStar presses. Very informative as usual.

http://youtu.be/7n6tP07iEj0?list=UUeVcStwlRuJYgTia-sZ9Drw

Thanks,

Michelle

[paprhangr]

I also purchased the Goldstar press, works good on Tandy rivets too

But does not punch holes . I got the Tandy hand press with the alot cheaper Black River Laser hole punch dies and Tandy mini screw in punches Works great for punching holes