Seamless Leather Tube.

[Shaunny Rotten]

I've had a request to make a seamless leather tube, roughly 1" in diameter and 2 1/2" tall made from 1/8" thick leather. I was thinking of cutting out a circle, with a hole in the center the same size as my dowel form and nailing the center of the leather ring to the form, then using various implements of force and destruction pushing the form and leather through a hole in a board that is 1 1/4" wide. The thought is that I can stretch the ring into a tube.

Has anybody ever tried something like this?

The easier way would be to just cut a rectangle of leather and scarf joint it using some contact cement to glue it together but that would still leave too much of a seam for my customer.

[GrampaJoel]

I'm no help here, but I would like to see the end results.

Joel

[WyomingSlick]

Hmmmm, I suppose you could go to a slaughter house and pick up a cow tail. Rough cut a piece to size, remove the hair, and veg-tan it.

Wahlah - you have your cylinder !

[cubefx]

Just wet form It over the wooden dowel and then cut it to size.

[benlilly1]

I can't see where the extra leather folds are going to go pushing it through the form? You're going to have extra bulk to deal with. Do you know how this tube is going to be used?

[Shaunny Rotten]

I can't see where the extra leather folds are going to go pushing it through the form? You're going to have extra bulk to deal with. Do you know how this tube is going to be used?

I have some leather that has formed rather well in the past and has a lot of stretch to it. The hope is that I can stretch it into shape more than compress the extra leather down. What I'm going to have to do is (assuming it goes even remotely close to how I want it) soak the leather until it is completely saturated, tack it to the form and then draw it through the die plate, allowing the leather to dry while still through the die plate. The folds and extra bulk would have to be left on until the piece was completely dry, and then trimmed to length.

The entire process sounds futile, I'm aware, however I'm willing to give it a try. Even if it fails I'll have learned something.

As for the end use, It's part of an illusion for a magician I've known since high school.

[oltoot]

I have done this enough with case bottoms of larger scale but never one this small. First be sure if dimensions given to you are Inside dia or Outside dia?.and the heigth measurement does too.

Now, assuming that theses are all ID? proceed as follows : 1) cut the dowel approximately 12" then mike it to be sure. Find a base board that is the thickness that the total heighth needs to be. Desired depth + the thickness. It is OK if you use one that is a little thicker. 2) Then drill the outside forming board clear through, It takes a Hole saw, with a hole that is equal to the width of the dowel + the thickness of the leather X 2 3) Now sand both the inside of the hole in the baseboard and the outside of the dowell really smooth with the bottom of the dowel smoothed to a baby's bottom smoothness. 4) Now slope the inside of the drilled hole in the baseboard, marking carefully a ring around the inside of the hole = the inside ht + the thickness of the leather + ~ 1/8. 5) then rasp and sand this down the target being a uniform forcing cone in the top of the hole drilled through the baseboard.

Now to use it. Cut the piece but DO NOT cut the hole and make the piece of leather big enough but not too big. I would guess that for this a 16" square would be plenty. Now rub the outside of the dowel and the inside of the hole in the baseboard with white saddle soap or Ivory soap. Wet the piece thoroughly in HOT water. till it is as soft as its gonna get, Now take the leather out of the water and immediately form it roughly over the dowel with it seated proportionately using the center mark. Now force leather and dowel into hole in baseboard utilizing a twisting motion. When the leather has been forced to the bottom of the hole, twist the dowel back and forth, smoothing out the bottom. Set it down on clean flat surface. Go dig out your old blow dryer and blow dry the leather protruding above the hole. Then remove every thing from the baseboard, then remove the dowel and wash soapstains off of the leather. If this goes well you can just set it out to dry and wait patiently while it does. If this handling is too much and it seems to lose its shape, put the dowel back in and rub it back to shape, You might even need to slip it back in the mold hole. Now you can cut the hole in the base and cut it off to desired dimension, stick the dowel back in for any cutting or punching. REMINDER be sure the water is HOOOT, If you couldn't get the leather forced fully in and shaped to the desired sizes, You can cut the hole in the baseboard another 1/8 to 1/4 and try the forming over again, This may not produce as pretty and smooth surfaces as the 'just big enough' approach outlined above. It may result in a corrugated cup but that can produce some interesting striations. PVC makes good molding material if you are lucky enough to find pipe or fittings that have the necessary dimensions as you can't really subject a piece to much size modification. AND don't forget how much time and work it takes to make the molds so you can price accordingly. To make the second item that utilizes all these pieces is usually muuccch easier and faster and you can price accordingly.

[Shaunny Rotten]

Oltoot, thank you. You have pretty much typed out exactly what I was thinking.

[Tree Reaper]

If I was doing that I would use 1/4 inch steel plate and force a piece of round stock mild steel through the hole with the leather around the end of the round stock and use my 10 ton shop press to force it through.