fulveland Report post Posted June 15, 2015 Does anyone one here have a mechanical die cutter, or has everyone switched to hydraulic? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wishful Report post Posted June 15, 2015 yes, I use a manual arbor press from harbor freight. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fulveland Report post Posted June 15, 2015 yes, I use a manual arbor press from harbor freight. Nice Wishful! I have been a bit intiminated by the hydraulic presses. If anything went wrong I would be completely lost as to what I should do. I figure worst case with a mechanical one is I grow some new muscles Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Constabulary Report post Posted June 15, 2015 oooooh this is the type I´d like to own - nice, small and vintage Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
King's X Report post Posted June 15, 2015 Though I have never seen one like that pictured here, I use a hydraulic conversion I designed for table top and it has worked out great. I am considering changing it to air hydraulic now to save the arms. There is nothing to it plus if you have any problems or questions, you have this forum to get help. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Chee Report post Posted June 15, 2015 Does anyone one here have a mechanical die cutter, or has everyone switched to hydraulic? That's a cool looking antique. They have modern versions of those now. Weaver leather makes two different sized versions of that as well as the Lucris MA II press (http://lucris.com.au/au/pages/clicker-spec.php). I've used both the hydraulic ones as well as the manual ones and the manual ones are much better. I can explain why they're better if you like. They are also more expensive. Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LumpenDoodle2 Report post Posted June 15, 2015 Now, that's a 'proper' press. I sometimes use the husband's 10 ton hydraulic press, but it has no soul. If you get fed up with it, just post it over to Scotland, I'll find a use for it. Postage might be a bit on the high side, though.......... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fulveland Report post Posted June 15, 2015 I can explain why they're better if you like. They are also more expensive. Andrew Thank you Andrew. I would love to hear why they are better. I have very little experience with presses. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
biglew Report post Posted June 15, 2015 i use both types... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Chee Report post Posted June 15, 2015 Thank you Andrew. I would love to hear why they are better. I have very little experience with presses. So the hydraulic presses are great mainly cause they're cheap. You can get one fully set up for maybe $200. That will let you clicking dies pretty quickly. There are a few problems with them. The first is that they don't have a stop. You keep applying pressure until the die cuts through whatever you're cutting. There always the danger of cutting too far and messing up your cutting board or ruining the die. Probably not going to happen but it could. Next is that when you crank on the press it is adding pressure to the hydraulic press. It's much slower to click a piece out because each stroke only advances the press a slight amount. This makes a hydraulic press much slower. Not a big deal if you only have small number of pieces to click. It's more cumbersome if you have more. The first two aren't really that big of a deal. The biggest problem is that the press goes up and down and does not swing away to the side. This makes it difficult for you to place your die right where you want it over your leather. So properly positioning a die is more difficult. Also, because the max width between the posts on the hydraulic press is usually something around 12" you can't click anything that's larger than that. With a hand press like the Lucris or the Weaver, you adjust the press to a certain clicking depth. So if you always use the same height die (say 1-1/4") the press will always click through the material with a single crank of the handle. Makes things faster. Since the pressing head swings away, it allows you to more easily place your dies on the leather. And because there's not post to fit between, you can actually click larger dies. It just takes a few more presses. You can click one side of the die, slide the die and leather over and click the other side of the die as well. The only issue I these presses is that they only handle 5 tons of pressure. So if you have complicated dies that have to cut through very thick leather, it might be a problem. So far I haven't had any problems though. All in all I think the hand presses are better than the hydraulic presses in every way except for one; the price. The Lucris goes for something like $1600 new. Not sure what the Weaver goes for. You can get the hydraulic presses fully set up for like $200. Anyways, hope this helps. Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomBanwell Report post Posted September 8, 2015 Thanks, Andrew. Very useful information for someone like me looking to buy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
biglew Report post Posted September 9, 2015 Thanks, Andrew. Very useful information for someone like me looking to buy. just to mention for clicking i use a tippman clicker and for embossing smaller item i use a 3 1/2 ton arbor press... but for plates over 4 inches i use a 20 ton manual hydraulic Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
