Machine Used To Cut Leather?

[KelseyR89]

I'm thinking about buying a machine to cut my leather so I don't have to do it by hand. I have never heard of a machine like this, but I'm sure one has to exist! Actually, now that I think about it I saw a thing on a youtube video once, but theirs was more like they had a metal cookie cutter type thing and they just pressed it into the leather with a machine and got the cutout. Is that realistic for 3/4 oz leather? Here's the link, the cookie cutter part is at 48 seconds.

Anyone have a machine that cuts leather or know of where I could look for one?

Also, I have one other question! I hand stamp quotes into my products and it can be quite time consuming! The attached picture is my most popular one and it takes me 20-25 minutes just to stamp the quote. Is there some kind of device where you can pop all the letters for one word in, stamp it, take the letters out and do the next one? Or where you could do a whole sentence? That would be so amazing!! Again, never heard of that but just think it would be awesome.

Thanks!

[electrathon]

Letterpress printing type. Stelmaker has an article about it.

[thefanninator]

The cookie cutters are dies and they're using a clicker press to press the dies and cut the leather.

Here's a small one:

http://www.tippmannindustrial.com/clicker-700-die-cutting-machine-p-117.html

[DANDTON]

About the machine, there are 3 different kinds:

First: cookie cutters, as thefanninator said, you need make knife mould, and the machine press on the mould, then you will get a cutted piece, the advantage is: You can cut lots of layers of leather one time, because the mould have heigh. But the shortcoming is the cost of moulds are very expensive.

Second: Laser machine, this machine can cut only one layer of leather, you can design pattern in our computer with AUTOcad, PDF, AI and so on, the machine will cut along the vector line you designed. The advantage is: You can cut the leather quickly after design without waiting for making knife mould, but the shortcoming is: If you can't adjust it well, there will be black edge (burnt by laser), the black edge is about 0.5mm-1mm, the newest machine will reduce the black edge enormously, but no matter how, there will be black edge. So it was used only on crazy horse leather or chrome tanned leather with dark color, natural color vegetable tanned leather is not OK.

Third: Rolling knife machine, this kind of machine can only cut a layer of leather one time as Laser machine, but it cut the leather buy rolling knife, so there is no black edge at all. But the shortcoming is: 1, you should change your knife frequently; 2, the price is very high because its complex construction, about 5-6 times than laser one, 7-10 times than cookie cutters.

[zuludog]

I don't know much about large scale manufacture of leather goods, but I have worked on product development in the food industry for many years, and on the wholesale and retail sides of outdoor sports equipment & clothing. Here are a few considerations

The first thing that springs to mind is economy of scale. I, too, am sure that such machines exist, though I don't know exactly what. I am sure, though, that they will be expensive, as a brief glance at the tipmanni link shows. Then you'll have to add the cost of die cutters, installation, a decent workshop and so on. From your other Thread, you may want to add a heavy duty sewing machine

The cost of all this must be spread over your finished product & sales to bring the retail price down to a reasonable level, and you'd have to sell a helluva lot of wallets to do that. Which is, of course something that existing companies already do

You might be able to manage with just the dies, and adapt a hand operated drill press stand, but that will mean finding out the hard way if it works or not. Or you could just pound them in with a mallet. I can't imagine the dies will be cheap, though.

You have, presumably made templates/patterns from aluminium sheet, instead of measuring & drawing each piece at a time - haven't you?

Now, I don't know everything, and no offence meant, but if you don't even know the correct name for dies, describing them as cookie cutters, and you don't know what sort of machine you want, I suggest you are not ready for that step, and need to do more homework & get more experience.

In Britain there are various development agencies & advice councils for small businesses, both on the accounting & business side, and helping with grants, loans, and choosing & sourcing equipment. I don't know if there are such things in USA, your job is to find out

Handmade goods sell because they are handmade. I can go into a store and buy a perfectly good & serviceable wallet quite cheaply. You are making & selling a unique item. You could probably get away with die cutting. but once you start doing machine printing & machine sewing, you lose that image in the mind of the purchaser, and that could have two effects on your sales

If customers realise your wallets are no longer handmade, they are free to shop around, either to another 'manufactured' item, or to another supplier of handmade products

You will be competing with established large scale manufacturers, who will quite probably beat you on price & delivery times

You could emphasise the handmade & unique nature of your wallets by offering different (shorter!) quotes, and/or stamping each one with a makers mark or a serial number

Sorry I don't have any quick fixes, but perhaps this will give you something to think about

[DavidL]

Many high end companies use die cutters to cut out patterns, probably more than 70 percent at minimum use them.

Customers are willing to trade off a few things for price, hand stitching is one of the more popular ones people look for and if it was made 90 percent by hand its still a good ratio. The marketing in the long run has more effect than if it is machine made (majority hand made is best unless you are trying to meet a price point) especially for small one man businesses. There are a lot of ways to go about it.

Dies are also not expensive as you think they can be bought for 20-100+ dollars a piece for steel rule (cheaper made). forged dies are more heavy duty and cost more. They aren't razor sharp on purpose and last a while before they need to be sharpened again. Also I think the larger height dies are better 1/2 inch vs 3/8th inch and are same price most of the time.

Do keep in mind that dies that are bent to shape will have rounded edges and those that are cut and welded in the corners will have 90 degree corners.

Dixon has some dies that they sell that are precisely measured by machine and then hand done. They laser groove your pattern onto a wood block and bend the die to the pattern and place it in the groove - Wood form die.

[TwinOaks]

Now, I don't know everything, and no offence meant, but if you don't even know the correct name for dies, describing them as cookie cutters, and you don't know what sort of machine you want, I suggest you are not ready for that step, and need to do more homework & get more experience.

This.

Something you may want to try is to use some "Hammer Dies". They are essentially the same as Clicker Dies, except built a little beefier, and you use a hammer to make them cut through your leather.

Between this and your post on sewing machines, it appears that you are 'chomping at the bit' to do leather work. While I'm glad to see such enthusiasm for our craft, be careful. It's quite easy to have several thousand dollars tied up in machines. You need to realize that unless you have a full shop with employees, that typically only ONE machine is going to be making money at any one time. That means your amortization of cost will be spread out over even MORE time. To give you a real life example: A few years back I purchased a used Tippmann Boss for $900 (financed). Once I had it, I had to learn to use it - which was two or three days spread out over a week....just to get to the point of "proficient". Next a part of each item had to go to cover the cost of the machine. I was selling goods through a friend's store, and rolled my "profits" back into the machine. I paid off the PRICE in 3 months, but I didn't recover the actual COST of the machine until close to 6 months after that.....at the same production rate!. When your products have to pay for themselves (as in buying more leather to replace what you used), and still stay competitive.....there isn't all that much to put into anything else. So keep learning and practicing, developing patterns, do more learning, ask lots of questions, and make full use of the fact that this website is the single largest compendium of leather knowledge on the planet.....it's interactive and the members happily will help you.

Advice is someone telling you "don't touch that, it's hot". Experience is touching it anyway and getting burned. Wisdom is seeing the blisters on someone's fingers and deciding not to touch the hot item.

We, the members of this forum, are offering all 3.

[stelmackr]

As electrathon said, If you would like more details on lettering on leather, please see:

http://aaleatherbigb...her Article.pdf

Hope this helps.

Bob Stelmack.

[pgivens]

Something like this might be a cheaper/easier alternative to a full letterpress setup. It's not as good obviously but it would allow you to stamp a couple words at a time rather than one letter at a time.

[Handstitched]

G'day,

I have an early USM GSB-2 20T cutting press just sitting in my workshop. Quite an old machine, but fully operational, but I haven't used it...yet. Its only been sitting there for about 5 years .

Like the one in the pic, but nowhere near as nice looking.

The original price was $7,250 aud. I bought it for $800 aud from a former leatherworker. And only $30 bucks to transport it.

I also paid around $1000aud for a stack of assorted cutters of different shapes etc.

Quite a bargain. BUT, It needs 3 phase power, and where live in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia ( the bush) theres no 3 ph. power or infrastructure, so I would need to get a hefty 9-11KVA 3ph generator to start it, due to the size/weight of the flywheel & oil pump attached to the motor.Once started, it would only need half that.

Depending on what sort you buy, this particular machine would need 55ltrs of oil ( about 12 gal. in your measurement) for an oil change.

When I bought it, the seller advised me to keep it serviced regularly ( depending on use).

He also suggested that each and everytime I turn it on "put a few dollars into a tin" to go towards servicing ( or repairs) .

Mine is an older machine, but a newer machine may not need as much attention. (?)

Just do some number crunching, work out the economics, and benefits etc. before purchasing.

HS

[KelseyR89]

The cookie cutters are dies and they're using a clicker press to press the dies and cut the leather.

Here's a small one:

http://www.tippmannindustrial.com/clicker-700-die-cutting-machine-p-117.html

Very helpful - thank you! I will look into this a bit more.

[KelseyR89]

About the machine, there are 3 different kinds:

First: cookie cutters, as thefanninator said, you need make knife mould, and the machine press on the mould, then you will get a cutted piece, the advantage is: You can cut lots of layers of leather one time, because the mould have heigh. But the shortcoming is the cost of moulds are very expensive.

Second: Laser machine, this machine can cut only one layer of leather, you can design pattern in our computer with AUTOcad, PDF, AI and so on, the machine will cut along the vector line you designed. The advantage is: You can cut the leather quickly after design without waiting for making knife mould, but the shortcoming is: If you can't adjust it well, there will be black edge (burnt by laser), the black edge is about 0.5mm-1mm, the newest machine will reduce the black edge enormously, but no matter how, there will be black edge. So it was used only on crazy horse leather or chrome tanned leather with dark color, natural color vegetable tanned leather is not OK.

Third: Rolling knife machine, this kind of machine can only cut a layer of leather one time as Laser machine, but it cut the leather buy rolling knife, so there is no black edge at all. But the shortcoming is: 1, you should change your knife frequently; 2, the price is very high because its complex construction, about 5-6 times than laser one, 7-10 times than cookie cutters.

Thanks for the info. That's what I was worried, that the dyes would be extremely expensive to have made. I mean, I guess they would last a really long time, but if they're outrageously expensive I don't know if that's doable. Have you ever heard of using a ScanNcut for cutting leather? This guy in the Youtube video is cutting 2mm leather with it and this is something I'd love to have! He actually starts cutting the leather around 3:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG2_rZSHPgM

[stelmackr]

Correction to Typography on Leather article:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qgV6aH_FkHa5lBX_kNceroW2elQju_XW/view

[Northmount]