Burnishing Using A Dremmel

[lightningad]

dont keep us in suspense!

what have you found?

[Toolerlass]

Woo hoo i've just found something that works okay though it wouldn't work in a tight spot. I was sitting at my desk and it was staring me in the face. Saves the hassle of trying to drill a dead center hole!

Drawer nob hehe

[lightningad]

good idea…i'll have to try that one!

[Toolerlass]

:-) might look around and see if i can find a smaller nob. First time in my life ive ever said that lol

[papaw]

Great ideal using a pull nob, I've been using old wood thread spools.

[Dwight]

Looking at the knob, . . . you'll have to watch your speed with that thing.

The bigger the tool rotating, . . . the faster the edge speed becomes, . . . one of those annoying laws of physics, you know.

Also make sure you take some beeswax and break it in using some scrap leather, . . . work it till you get a smooth patina on the knob, . . .

Looks like you hit a winner, . . .

May God bless,

Dwight

[shtoink]

I made one similar for my Dremel. Not from a drawer pull, but from a chunk of scrap Lignum Vitae from a side project for another member in here.

I chucked it up in the lathe to put a hole down the center and, at the time, the drill chuck arbor in my tailstock wasn't straight. Sherline replaced it for me, but that's another story. After getting a hole into it and shoving a chunk of metal in one end so it'd be usable in the Dremel, the tiny amount of offset was exaggerated greatly once it started spinning at the lowest setting of 5000 RPM. I ended up using a round rasp end ran it up against it while spinning to help even it up and later putting it back in the lathe at a higher RPM. I'm certain the the free-hand cutting I did to cut the groove didn't help with it being eccentric either, but it ended up being functional in when finished.

It's ugly as sin and I'm slightly ashamed of it, otherwise I'd post some pictures. Poor thing looks like it was a jr. high school wood shop assignment that was slapped together in the 15 minutes before it was due. Despite it's ugliness, it spins true now, burnishes an edge nicely, and taught me a few things along the way. As an added bonus, the Lignum Vitae can take a ton of heat without damage, though the same could not be said for my scrap leather I was testing on.

[Toolerlass]

Hahaha the things we do just to avoid a bit of elbow grease :-) its amazing how inventive we can be when it comes to reducing the amount of hard labour required :-)

[horseplay]

I'm more of a newbie to the business but my dremel is a must have! I actually had a cordless one but have since upgraded to a variable speed corded dremel with flex arm. I use it to sand edges and then burnish them with the dremel burnishers made by leatherburnishers.com. It takes a little practice but I now have beautiful edges with much less time involved.

[Halitech]

another thing you can do is get a small electric motor like from a small pump, leave the pulley on it and wrap it with canvas. Attach it to a table or bench and turn it on and then you have both hands free to hold your leather piece. Obviously this is better for smaller pieces and you want to make sure you get a motor that has a lower rpm so it doesn't turn too fast