How to make a press for moulding leather pouches and such

[mikesc]

Wow..you pay 4 times the price even I pay for threaded bar at those dimensions..unless you are talking "stainless" ?

[RockyAussie]

9 hours ago, Double Daddy said:

I, myself, went with a vacuum setup, in the same fashion as the one by Particle and a few others...veneering bag and Harbor Freight pump along with misc. hosing and pieces...super-easy to use (can mold multiple items at once) with good results. Additionally, I've seen some fine work many of the craftsmen on here have delivered using vertical presses like Plinker and Dwight have shown above.

Brian, I look forward to seeing how your build goes...

Thanks @Double Daddy I hope to get it done tomorrow and load some pics by Monday. I would have liked to use the vacuum but I don't know how to do it then keep the shape compressed while drying while I do more. Minimising the leather usage and lining up are other issues as well.

I said earlier 38mm was close enough to 2".........I was tired ......I meant to say 1+ 1/2". Sorry. Regards Brian

[RockyAussie]

7 hours ago, mikesc said:

Wow..you pay 4 times the price even I pay for threaded bar at those dimensions..unless you are talking "stainless" ?

No I wish it were stainless. Bunnings hardware price here in Australia on all but the scissor jack. And people wonder why our prices barely compete.

[Itch]

On 10/11/2017 at 5:12 PM, RockyAussie said:

Like you I have mostly only ever done moulds with wood and I have not done any with pla before. What worries me is the very tight fit for such a high wall. If it fails I will try a little wider opening and make it a little higher and more rounded off. I hope to have it work out as the advantage with the 3d printing is that although it takes hours to do them they all come out the same and you can keep on working on other stuff while that is happening. If that fails I'll probably just get a heap of outer shell parts laser cut out of aluminium or something.

Thanks for mentioning the quick release I will check for that in my design. Regards Brian

Whenever I go about something like this I will stack leather to make a mould .. A lot of the time I will take scrap leather pieces and stack ,glue ,and a few brad nails to make any shape that I am looking for . Hope this helps .. 

[Wedgetail]

4 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

No I wish it were stainless. Bunnings hardware price here in Australia on all but the scissor jack. And people wonder why our prices barely compete.

It's commonly called the Australia tax.

How does it work? Let's do the math.

Take the price of something overseas, in its local currency.

Add the shipping cost to get it here from international (measured in kidneys), including any import duties and taxes (at least GST applicable, which is 10%)

Convert it from the local currency to AUD (currently about US $0.75)... so multiply base cost + import tax + shipping by 1.25

Add a minimum markup of 20%

Then add another 20% to total that for the Australia tax... which is an extra gouge at the price because it costs too much and takes too long for someone to get just one of that thing from overseas.

Then add GST, which is a government tax of 10% charged on to the end customer.

Australia tax... It's how we go from $12 per sqft leather to $29 at some (actually quite popular) suppliers here.

[jimi]

Don´t know if this helps but i maybe you could use a check valve to keep the bags air tight while you move on to another bag?? 

https://www.veneersupplies.com/categories/Vacuum__Press__Items/Vacuum__Press__Parts/

[Josh33806]

20 hours ago, Wedgetail said:

It's commonly called the Australia tax.

How does it work? Let's do the math.

Take the price of something overseas, in its local currency.

Add the shipping cost to get it here from international (measured in kidneys), including any import duties and taxes (at least GST applicable, which is 10%)

Convert it from the local currency to AUD (currently about US $0.75)... so multiply base cost + import tax + shipping by 1.25

Add a minimum markup of 20%

Then add another 20% to total that for the Australia tax... which is an extra gouge at the price because it costs too much and takes too long for someone to get just one of that thing from overseas.

Then add GST, which is a government tax of 10% charged on to the end customer.

Australia tax... It's how we go from $12 per sqft leather to $29 at some (actually quite popular) suppliers here.

YUP!!!

[motocouture]

 

23 hours ago, Wedgetail said:

It's commonly called the Australia tax.

How does it work? Let's do the math.

Take the price of something overseas, in its local currency.

Add the shipping cost to get it here from international (measured in kidneys), including any import duties and taxes (at least GST applicable, which is 10%)

Convert it from the local currency to AUD (currently about US $0.75)... so multiply base cost + import tax + shipping by 1.25

Add a minimum markup of 20%

Then add another 20% to total that for the Australia tax... which is an extra gouge at the price because it costs too much and takes too long for someone to get just one of that thing from overseas.

Then add GST, which is a government tax of 10% charged on to the end customer.

Australia tax... It's how we go from $12 per sqft leather to $29 at some (actually quite popular) suppliers here.

Yep!!! That’s why my Aussie family always want to go to Home Depot when they visit here  Milwaukee tools and Lego seem to be popular exports back 

[RockyAussie]

Ok Its DONE. Not sure how it goes for moulding what I want yet but we now have a poor man's (whoopps I meant persons) clicker press at least. See the pics.

1st is to drill pilot holes into the jack for later attaching the jack. 1/8" size bit should be fine.

2nd step - I found a cup 5/16" cup head bolt I think would be good to use and drilled the top out to receive it.

3. I then used a small triangle file to square out the hole to lock the cup head into the jack.

4. It was necessary to take a little of each side of the cup head to fit up into the jack.

The jack must be fully wound up to give enough opening to push the bolt through.

It should now look as below

Next I cut the stair tread into 3 equal lengths.

After giving the boards a little sanding on the orbital sander I marked out the positions for the holes. In order to get every thing at the same distance from the edge I decided to stand the board on its edge and use my square to scribe with as shown below

Next step is to drill out one corner and watch to keep square. I decided to use the long drill bit I use when I do a little fencing for the cows. I broke the screw tip on one recently and checked for 1 at Bunnings. The cost there was about $60 something dollars so I got a whole set of 6 out of China for about the same. The come in a nice wooden box and all and go from 10mm up to 20mm. They have imperial sizes if you want as well.

Next step is bolt all the boards tightly together and drill out the last 3 holes.

Time for an advertisement. Check out my Wild Harry site and buys heaps of the best made leather goods in Australia. Well........ I cant post any more pics than this in the one posting.

 

 

[RockyAussie]

Back again. I hope you all bought heaps.

The next step is to drill out the top hole for attaching the jack

Next attach the 4   3/4" rods that have been cut in half to now 18" lengths.

AS seen above the bottom plate is bolted up and in the following picture the middle moving board located over the rods.

Now the top board is located and then tensioned to get the unit to sit squarely and flat. A little adjusting up and down in one corner should do the trick

Now the jack can be attached to the top board and carefully positioned to attach to the middle moving board. I used a felt pen to mark the holes with.

Pull the top board off to give access to screw the jack down to the middle board.

A centre punch mark done here to keep the screw holes true. I pre drilled for the screws as the timber is very hard.

The unit is now ready to bolt back together

Now below then unit is bolted up and square checked and ready to test.

Time to go and buy some more stuff Fantastic world class leather goods from Wild Harry. Next steps will show the testing

 

[RockyAussie]

How to use my new press for small scale clicking. I never made it for this purpose and if you do so I would recommend finding a metal plate to cover the knife in order to protect the timber. The boards and the rods etc are easily up to the job but if there is a weak point it would be the jack. I decided to use a kitchen cutting board for the base as shown below.

Below pic shows the knife fully in and with a typical clunk. I was not sure about that. I did not line up in both directions to the centre as well as I should and had to readjust it back a bit to the middle more.

Pressure lifted off

I removed the cutting board to inspect.

It went in deeper than I expected. Note the knife mark line in the cutting board.

Well that's about it for now until I print up some moulds so I hope that some of you find something that is of use to you in this and I wish you to find fun in making your own if you do. Regards Brian.

 

[LumpenDoodle2]

Great job with the press, it's certainly going to do the job for you, but I must ask.

You fence to entertain the cows?   Competition sparring, or just old fashioned duels.

[Dwight]

Yessir, . . . good lookin job, . . . and it looks like it "will do the job".

Also, . . . for everyone here, . . . thanks for the detailed instruction.

May God bless,

Dwight

[TxLeather]

Great job!

[plinkercases]

Are you going rig it to be driven by a drill and socket? if you could do that for the major movement then use a tire iron for the final pressure....

Never thought about using it as a clicker but there you go... I think I will look for a second hand jack now.

Nice pictures and step by step as usual and I am looking forward for the molding tests. Curious to see how the 3D printed mold parts work out.

[RockyAussie]

13 hours ago, LumpenDoodle2 said:

Great job with the press, it's certainly going to do the job for you, but I must ask.

You fence to entertain the cows?   Competition sparring, or just old fashioned duels.

Mightn't be competition sparing but here a couple of pics of my Molly (The quality inspector/guard dog) trying it on with Jet the brangus bull.  Here below she's thinkin (not real smartly) to scare Jet.

A big leap into the air should do it.

Woooops where is the brakes....up here?

Actully I was just goin this a way.

Bit busy right now I'll take care of that matter some other day.

Now my new dog in training is a bit worried about the size of these critters so Molly shows him that they aint all that bad.

So far he has shown a great willingness to be a taste tester for staff at lunch times. I guess his got a lot of growing to catch up here.

End of story. Brian

[RockyAussie]

3 hours ago, plinkercases said:

Are you going rig it to be driven by a drill and socket? if you could do that for the major movement then use a tire iron for the final pressure....

Never thought about using it as a clicker but there you go... I think I will look for a second hand jack now.

Nice pictures and step by step as usual and I am looking forward for the molding tests. Curious to see how the 3D printed mold parts work out.

That is my plan indeed. I hope to be able to inset a bolt head and use a socket in the battery drill and if needed I can then just switch to a hand ratchet to finish off.

I'm thinking that if I wanted it to do clicking more so (I don't as I have 2 hydraulic machines already) I would be tempted to put in 2 jacks side by side and use one jack for small jobs and 2 when the knife is larger. Bit slow but way faster and better than doing by hand.

11 hours ago, TxLeather said:

Great job!

Thank you

[RockyAussie]

12 hours ago, Dwight said:

Yessir, . . . good lookin job, . . . and it looks like it "will do the job".

Also, . . . for everyone here, . . . thanks for the detailed instruction.

May God bless,

Dwight

Thanks Dwight.... as I said I hope it helps some.

[RockyAussie]

On 13/10/2017 at 9:06 AM, Itch said:

Whenever I go about something like this I will stack leather to make a mould .. A lot of the time I will take scrap leather pieces and stack ,glue ,and a few brad nails to make any shape that I am looking for . Hope this helps .. 

Thanks for the thought there Itch. I have done similar in the past and I may need to do something like that but fingers crossed .....I can get it to work. Having the printer do it over and over while I do something else would be great.

[gigi]

Go Molly!  

My clicker press is similar, but uses hydraulic (bottle) jack and return springs. I think your design is better because the scissor jack is acting both ways (up and down) and you have more flexibility (bigger range).

Thanks for sharing!

[LumpenDoodle2]

Awww.....  Molly showing off (and almost mucking up), but the young'un will have learned something.    

Doing metal detecting, I've met many bulls of all temprement and size.   On one farm, it used to be fine to go on the field with the bull (I came up to his kneecaps).   He was a lovely canny chap.   When their new bull arrived,  my request to detect was greeted from the farmer's wife by "any field but the one with the bull, this ones a wee bit full of energy".  Farm speak for hyper aggressive.

Anyhoo, the press certainly seems to have the 'oomph' for the job. 

[RockyAussie]

On 16/10/2017 at 5:45 AM, gigi said:

Go Molly!  

My clicker press is similar, but uses hydraulic (bottle) jack and return springs. I think your design is better because the scissor jack is acting both ways (up and down) and you have more flexibility (bigger range).

Thanks for sharing!

@gigi although it works it is a little catchy as yet. I'm thinking I might go for a pneumatic ram on top possibly. I made one awhile back out of a 4" aluminium pipe and and some other stuff. Other than just wanting to learn how to do it I never really had a use for it but this might be it. Time will tell I guess. Brian

[RockyAussie]

For those interested to see the 3D printed mould for the handcuffs here are some pictures to see. The first 2 pictures show the inner mould printed OK but did take nearly a full day to print. I will point out that this is not a veg tan leather and is a retan of some sort. It would have been a bit easier on a unpainted smooth veg.

These next pictures show the printing of the outer mould which failed. Where I had put a 6mm(1/4")wide hollow to give the leather some relief on the fold it got caught up at the top of the hollow. It gets a bit funny when you print in the air without supports some times. Fussy B things.

Went back to the drawing board and made a few changes as follows. Note: I decided to leave out a few of the support holes and made the top and the bottom of the mould splayed more on one side and reduced the hollow to 5mm wide. One side of the mould can now do a bit of pre shaping if needed.

Oh and for you 3D people the fill is 30% and the wall thicknesses and top and bottom etc are 2mm. The tube holes are to give extra resistance to crushing as they as well get a 2mm wall. Next one I will try 20% fill and 1.6mm wall thicknesses to save some printing time.

Had to watch this layer to make sure it didn't fail again and I did have to push some raising spots down a couple of times. Turned out alright.

Next pic shows the press had no trouble pushing the leather in to shape. Did the jack turning down by hand mostly.

Notice the water being squeezed out of the edge of the leather. 

I left the mould in the press overnight in this case to dry as this mould was made to test my sizing and design first before making the more elaborate moulds that will have allowances for clamps to be clipped into whilst in the press.

As usual I should not have worried so much as it came out pretty well as the next round of pics I load should show. Can't fit any more pics in this load so I'll be back later.

 

 

[RockyAussie]

In the next lot of pictures you can see the making of the handcuff pouch after the moulding. This is about 27mm deep (1 1/8")

For you Aussies it is black Allaska (buffalo I think) from East coast Leather. Reckon they'll give me a discount on the next order for the plug ???

The inner mould came out most easily first.

Here you can see where I did not sand down my hardwood all that well on the press and it left a few grain marks in the top. Blunt sandpaper and too far from town.

This picture shows I could have reduced the leather overhand a fair amount on my first cutting.

The next picture shows that I have trimmed the overhang off neat with the relief line and cut out the back as well.

Now I have stitched a strap to the back which I forgot to photo and proceeded to glue the pieces together. I did some edging first as well.

following pics show it stitched and edged and polished and this prototype is now ready to check if the handcuffs will fit.

With a bit of luck I will find out tomorrow. 

That's it for now. Brian

 

[Dwight]

Excellent, Brian, . . . I would have had to go with wood, . . . chisels, . . . files, . . . etc, . . . and it would have taken at least a day to produce the same type product.

Computer printing it sure is a lot less physical labor, . . . 

How many to you expect to produce in a day with that setup??

May God bless,

Dwight