A Little Luck in the Stamping Press Department

[bikermutt07]

I have mostly shyed away from stamping because of being worried about messing up my piece.

After a lot of searching I came across this little press in the .5 ton variety.

It's not a great press. It's made in China these days and has some slop to it. I can deal with that for a hobby and a sticker price of just under 60 bucks. One of the cool things about it is it already has a dye hole drilled into the ram and it comes with three dyes I will probably never use.

Kudos to Amazon for some super fast shipping. Now when I opened it up I checked all of my border type stamps against the hole in the ram. Nothing fit. That's ok.

Recently Tandy came out with this handy little dye set for their letter and pictorial dyes.

It retails for about 30 bucks, I think. So, I picked one up figuring I would have to do something to make it fit into the press. Turns out they fit perfectly into the ram.

It's such a spot on fit the the little ball catch on the dyes hold them in place. I thought about drilling a hole in the ram for the ball catch but the largest dye will need to rotate to accommodate the foot to stamp fitting.

Now I just need to make a proper base plate and referencing fence of some sort.

Since this press fits this dye set, I can only assume it will fit Tandy's other dyes. But man are they expensive.

I hope this helps someone in the same boat as me. 

[Mark842]

Do you have a tap and die set? That would be my solution to not having to line up the "little ball catch". I'd just drill a hole in the side of the ram, tap it, and throw a bolt in it like they have in the tandy hand press to hold the dies in.

I have one of these in the shop that I just use for pressing the 3D type small stamps. I just have a little 4" square steel plate I throw on the bottom. Depending in the leather I'm stamping sometimes I use a cutting board base, sometimes a piece of rubber base. Just depends on the thickness of the leather and how deep you want the impression. A little practice and they work great!

Edited January 1, 2017 by Mark842

[JerseyFirefighter]

I use a harbor freight 1 ton press for stamping. I put a 6x10" 1/2" steel plate over the included base plate and it works just fine. I get drilling the ram if youre constantly using one stamp, but ive found stamping multiple letters or stamps it's ridiculously faster to just line them up on the strap and fire off one after another just using the solid ram against the stamp. 

[bikermutt07]

I don't know why I didn't think about drilling and tapping it. Guess the ball catches siderailed my train of thought. I don't think it will be necessary though.

[Mark842]

11 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

I don't know why I didn't think about drilling and tapping it. Guess the ball catches siderailed my train of thought. I don't think it will be necessary though.

Unless your trying to adapt it to hold dies for snaps and the like I have to agree with JerseyFirefighter (thank you for your service). I just use it for 3D stamps and such and never felt the need to do more than sit the stamp on the leather and press...

[billybopp]

Arbor presses are indeed handy, especially for 3D stamps and letters.  There are a few modifications that you can make to them that are pretty helpful too ... First, take out the round plate and replace it with a thickish flat piece of steel to give you a good flat sturdy work surface.  Second, build up a work table around the press that's at the same level as the plate so that you can lay your work out flat at least to both sides and keep them flat as you move your work around.  Third, on your work table, you can add some slots for movable fences to keep things like belts straight as you move them through.  You can even add markings on top of the fences to help keep spacing even.  Fourth, you can add a strap and spring around the handle-shaft to raise the ram after every stroke which can make repeated patterns a little less work on your arm.  I'd also consider, as mentioned above, drilling and tapping the ram to hold handled tools for things like border stamps, etc.

I think you'll love using the press.  It's a huge help for arthritic or otherwise hampered hands.

Hope that helps!

Bill 

[bikermutt07]

Those are great tips, Bill.

I'm in the planning stages of reorganizing my play room right now. It's not very big so I have to plan the areas out carefully.

I'm thinking of having the splitter and press on a single bench. Flush mounting the press is something I hadn't thought of. I had already thought about a guide fence, but flush mounting the press will make that much easier.

[Axeman]

You guys got me thinking about this and I happen to have a similar one in the shop. I use a 3d Coyote/Wolf track for my makers mark. In the past, I used a snap in handle (all tandy tools) and a deadblow hammer to emboss my "paw". The last axe mask I made, I used the arbor press with my 3d stamp (no handle) and it worked GREAT. Perfectly embossed. With the deadblow, I had to whack it a few times and it still didnt always come out nice. Its an Arbor press for me from now on!! Thanks to all!

[strathmoredesigns]

Know this topic has been quiet for a little bit, but figured it's relevant, so I'll ask. I've been thinking about picking up a Harbor Freight 1 ton press which usually runs about $60. There's a 20% off general store coupon in this month's circular that's good until April 30. This would knock the price down to about $48. I don't have a ton of experience with Harbor Freight so I don't know if they have coupons like this or better sales all the time? What do you guys think, is this a good deal or do you think it's likely something better could come along soon?

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by strathmoredesigns

[garypl]

I bought the 1 ton press from Harbor Freight and it cost about the same.  They sometimes have coupons up to 50% off selected items, but I needed a press and the extra $18 was not that important at the time.

I drilled a 3/8" hole in the end of the ram and installed a set screw to hold stamps in place.  The rivet setter fits perfectly and I bought a bushing at Lowes to use with smaller diameter stamps.  I made a needle holder from a piece of 3/8" bar stock to hold standard machine needles when I want to punch holes in thick leather.  The presses are handy to have around and you will find other uses for them as well!

[Thornton]

Bikermutt,

I'm sure you have figured this out but the screws on the front and left side will remove the slop.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Thornton

[bikermutt07]

1 hour ago, Thornton said:

Bikermutt,

I'm sure you have figured this out but the screws on the front and left side will remove the slop.

Actually, I haven't played with it very much. Seems like they would. It will set line 20 snaps just fine, though. Funny I bought the line 20 die set and I have to use the hand setter anvil for the dome caps. If I use the press anvil the cap gets so stuck in the die I have to destroy the snap to get it out. Thanks Tandy.

I'm sure some dremel work would fix it, but Dangit.

[Studio-N]

a friend of mine in Houston makes these which also has good application on an arbor press.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/399184025/arbor-press-round-pressor-foot?ref=shop_home_active_1

Edited March 7, 2017 by northmount
Replaced link

[strathmoredesigns]

I was interested in getting one of those feet. Do you have to do any major modification to attach it? At this point I'm more thinking of it as a tool to help with stamping than setting snaps and rivets and such.

[Brianm77]

Here is one of the projects that kinda got me into leatherwork.  The name and number are done with letters from a printing press in an arbor press. 

[bikermutt07]

58 minutes ago, Thornton said:

Bad also.

Let me try again.....

https://www.etsy.com/listing/399184025/arbor-press-round-pressor-foot?ref=shop_home_active_1

Edited March 7, 2017 by bikermutt07

[Thornton]

21 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

Let me try again.....

https://www.etsy.com/listing/399184025/arbor-press-round-pressor-foot?ref=shop_home_active_1

That works. Thank you.

[Northmount]

Original link fixed.  For as long as the page stays active!

Tom

[Mattsbagger]

I am waiting for a burnisher for my drill press from same shop. I will do a quick review when I get it and have a chance to run it a bit.

[Mattsbagger]

I got my burnisher last night. Seems very solid. And good workmanship. Tried out on a few pieces and seems to work nice. I'm running it on a HF drill press at slowest speed. Will update if I have any issues. 

[bikermutt07]

31 minutes ago, Mattsbagger said:

I got my burnisher last night. Seems very solid. And good workmanship. Tried out on a few pieces and seems to work nice. I'm running it on a HF drill press at slowest speed. Will update if I have any issues. 

Cool. I had read a post once about a guy using the harbor freight drill press. Said he had to replace them every two years or so. He said he didn't mind though, just part of overhead. He even keeps a nib spare.

[Brianm77]

Lol, that is pretty funny.  A good drill press is not that expensive especially if you use it that much. 

[bikermutt07]

3 hours ago, Brianm77 said:

Lol, that is pretty funny.  A good drill press is not that expensive especially if you use it that much. 

He just uses it for burnishing.