Anyone Make Metal Burnishers

[OLDNSLOW]

I don't mean to be a jerk here but, I hope this person isn't a friend of yours as it seems to me that is highway robbery you'd think was an attorney doing machine work on the side.  Even as JLS mentioned above aluminum is not all that expensive, and most large metal yards will have drops for other cuts that can bought for much less than an entire piece.  

[JLSleather]

Yeah, to be clear -- I wasn't trying to insult anybody.  Far as I'm concerned, a grown man sets his own pricing .. no matter to me.  In my younger days, I wrote some code for various CNC machines, so I know the routine.  Costs something to write the code, then likely costs again for a "set-up fee", price of changing out the toolng and registering offsets, etc.

I have a couple of wooden burnishers that seem to do a nice job, so I'm not even actually in the market for one -- just trying to make a helpful suggestion.

 

[greystoneleatherllc]

I'm still working with a machine shop, to turn some aluminum burnishes, but they are backed up and switching out their cnc with a new larger unit ,

and so this is still in the "round to it file as soon as get caught up"  profit Paying work ticket file,, he is a gun parts manufacture, and understand what I'm looking for.

db  

[karlpv]

On my 9" benchtop metal lathe, I'd only attempt a groove up to 1/4" diameter, and then only in brass or aluminum stock.  And that would be in back gear,  or turning chucked stock by hand, due to the half round form tool likely used.  Lots of force involved.  An alternative to consider might be roughing the grooves with chainsaw files.  They're cheap, and available in a variety of diameters useful as a burnisher.  I've had good results polishing grooves with appropriate  diameter cord charged with an abrasive.  Both would negate the lathe requirement, only needing the burnisher stock to be spun.  Note that both potentially dangerous practices!
My experience with raw aluminum has been that it's soft, and leaves grey and black metal deposits with minimal handling, if not anodized.  But I think hardwood on a metal shaft would be ideal.  Woods traditionally used in the textile and weaving industries come to mind: dogwood, maple, pear, apple, ect.  Most of these take an excellent polish, and become smoother with use.

 

 

~M4324396

[charlescrawford]

I know it's been a while but has anyone found a source to get one of the metal burnishers made like JLS Leather drew up? Still looking to get something going. 

[JLSleather]

These can't be that hard to find.  They closed two machine shops around here, so not as quick as it used to be.  And i used to get work done at the college -- like as in the boys get some actual experience, the college makes a little money, and the customer gets a savings for having the students do it.  But maybe they don't do that any more-- certainly not as simple as it used to be (politics).

And let's face it... this project is a first year machinist student project.  NOT that difficult.  My wife says just buy my own lathe (I think she'd rather see a bill for a new lathe than listen to me complain   ).  But maybe after we move....

The drawing is FREE folks... copyright and royalty free.  Print it and HAND IT to the machinist.  Unless the guy's dull, this shouldn't take more than an hour... HALF that for the second one....

 

[charlescrawford]

We don't have a lot of shops here either. The one I went to was wanting like $200. That's why I posted the update last night. 

[casemaker]

I made a metal burnisher but needed to cut vertical slots in the channels before it would work properly.  It was made on a metal lathe with 1" rod.

I was burnishing veg cases that had 3 layers and it worked well.

One thing I noticed in the drawing offered was the slots appear too deep to just do the edge.  If the leather goes in to far, the tool will mark the surface of the leather.

[Tigdim]

Just to update this old topic. I do have a updated drawing, but neither of the machine shops I talked to were interested in making them. They both suggested contacting other machine shops that have "Screw machines" not CNC lathes. As production rate would be much faster/cheaper.  (These are guys, I work with regularly to make tooling for work; when our machine shop gets behind, which it is most of the time.) 

Just so happens, where I work has 3 screw machines, but I am not a big fan of mixing my day job with hobbies/play. These are production machines that run constantly.

I have a few friends with wood lathes... so it looks like I will be going with a wood burnisher, unless I can get access to a lathe a work, after hours. 

AL Burnisher with Steel shaft.PDF

Aaron

[DrmCa]

My concern with running a drill press as a burnisher would be that drill chucks are not designed for radial pressure and tend to fall off if there is no axial pressure towards the quill.

[JRLeather2]

6 hours ago, DrmCa said:

My concern with running a drill press as a burnisher would be that drill chucks are not designed for radial pressure and tend to fall off if there is no axial pressure towards the quill.

I have run my burnishers in my cheap drill press for years with no problems...

[RockyAussie]

15 hours ago, DrmCa said:

My concern with running a drill press as a burnisher would be that drill chucks are not designed for radial pressure and tend to fall off if there is no axial pressure towards the quill.

I guess you could take the shaft right through and hose the end into a bearing held into a vice at the base.

[DrmCa]

Making that contraption is sounding more and more involved as this thread goes.

[Sanch]

Ok so it seems this was missed by me...i gave.. yeah that's right gave @OLDNSLOWone i made a while back after modifying it to accept a 1/2" diameter shaft, he may still have it and can tell you about the performance...i never got along with it...i prefer Delrin, and have made a few. But I always find myself going back to burnishing by hand with Delrin. It is slick and non-porous you would think that it would perform the same as stainless steel which is what the one that I gave away was made of 304 stainless steel to be exact 1 inch diameter. Although I would be interested in finding out how well aluminum would work my only fear and reasoning behind not doing one in aluminum is that there would be transfer to the leather from the aluminum. If anyone knows the wiser please inform me cuz I would like to know

[DrmCa]

Aluminum would  mark everything it touched.

[OLDNSLOW]

sorry for being a little late here but here is my response, Yes I did try the one that Sanch Gave to me on one of the buffer motors that I have ( a HF ) inexpensive buffer and it did not spin the burnisher straight so that was a big draw back, the other that I found with that particular burnisher is that the groves were not machined deep enough to be usable, and having been busy with a life I have not been able to get back to Sanch since we met at my place.  So in closing with what little testing I did I don't think that at least in this case stainless is the way to go.  I have seen several videos of holster makers that either use aluminum or the standard Cocobolo wood, a word of caution here if you want to try and turn down your own Cocobolo wood be sure that you do it in a well ventilated environment with a fan that can blow the particles away from you, I have heard that it is very damaging to your lungs if the particles reach them!