How to make a press for moulding leather pouches and such

[LumpenDoodle2]

Looking good.

I agree, nothing worse than your printer trying to print onto thin air.    Did you have any shrinkage problems with the filament?   I’ve been trying out different manufacturers filaments, and it appears that some I’ve bought are just awful to use.

[RockyAussie]

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

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

In the past I have mostly had to do this sort of thing in wood but there are quite a few advantages to working with printing plastic. One I like a lot is that if I want to change the mould a bit a little bit of redrawing and a new one gets made while I can keep on working. Another is once I'm happy with the mould I can get many more made whenever I need them and again while I keep drinkin working. As for how many in a day I expect 25 would be easy but I suppose 100+ if I wanted to get all serious.

[Dwight]

OK, . . . now you got my curiosity up, . . . what brand of 3D printer is that you are using?  

AND, . . . how long did it take you to learn how to program it to print what you wanted ?

AND, . . . if I can ask one more foolish question, . . . can you approximate the cost of the two pieces for that handcuff press mold?

May God bless,

Dwight

[RockyAussie]

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

1 hour ago, Dwight said:

OK, . . . now you got my curiosity up, . . . what brand of 3D printer is that you are using?  

AND, . . . how long did it take you to learn how to program it to print what you wanted ?

AND, . . . if I can ask one more foolish question, . . . can you approximate the cost of the two pieces for that handcuff press mold?

May God bless,

Dwight

Sorry Dwight I may have misunderstood your question with regards to the numbers. What I though you were asking was how many pouches do I expect to produce in a day not how many moulds could I print. The printer would be busy for nearly 2 days to print I set and the cost $8.23 for 1 and $12.96au for the other + a bit of power.

The printer is just a Prusa i3 with a few improvements I made with regards to stability of printing etc. How long to learn how to program it....... maybe 3 days of reading online in reprap forums and the like and the drawing stuff is just a bit more playing with stuff in AutoCad .Hardest part was teaching myself to always keep copying the part and move it by having a 2 line reference point to always get back to exactly the same position on any copy. Basically a couple of days or so. There are a lot of simpler and cheaper drawing programs out there that can do the same thing now days. Once the drawing is done you just make a stl file out of the part and then put it in to a program like Cura which is what I use. From there it works out a lot of what you want to print and has suggestions for settings and can be sent to any 3D printer in the world.There is a lot of forums and stuff on line to help with this but really it isn't all that hard. Many people on this forum could use it well as the main thing needed is the ability to conceptualise something and find a way to make it happen. Robots will take over much of the work  in the near future but there will be work for those that can conceptualise what people will want those robots to produce. Regards Brian

[Dwight]

Thanks, Brian, . . . it's kind of funny that today we are having this discussion of printing out pieces for things we conceptualize.

There was a TV show Tuesday night, NCIS New Orleans, . . . where the bad guy hired a machinist to design and build for him an air gun that could fire hard glass bullets.  It was to be used to assassinate a dignitary.  

They used a plastic Colt 1911 .45 as the model.  Somehow he had incorporated a high pressure gas system into the weapon.

I thought it was interesting the concept of a hard glass bullet, . . . driven by an air charge, . . . and it just goes to prove your statement wherein we will be tasked more to conceptualizing the product, . . . than being the one producing the product.

Thanks for the info, . . . definitely going to look into it.

May God bless,

Dwight

[RockyAussie]

On 25/10/2017 at 11:57 PM, LumpenDoodle2 said:

Looking good.

I agree, nothing worse than your printer trying to print onto thin air.    Did you have any shrinkage problems with the filament?   I’ve been trying out different manufacturers filaments, and it appears that some I’ve bought are just awful to use.

I have learnt to keep the filament in a sealed packet when not in use as it does suck up the moisture when the humidity is high. Also I have found it better in Cura to put the filament setting at 1.74 instead of 1.75 as this makes it pump a little bit extra which makes the adhesion to each layer a little more attached. I have found that with some colours that they like a different heat setting and so far my favourite all rounder is the  silver at 212c on my machine. Running a little hot can also give a better adhesion to itself. I run the bed temperature at 65c and as long as I clean the glass each time with a quick spray of isopropyl alcohol I almost never have any problems with the job coming loose or unstuck. Brian

[RockyAussie]

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

Thanks, Brian, . . . it's kind of funny that today we are having this discussion of printing out pieces for things we conceptualize.

There was a TV show Tuesday night, NCIS New Orleans, . . . where the bad guy hired a machinist to design and build for him an air gun that could fire hard glass bullets.  It was to be used to assassinate a dignitary.  

They used a plastic Colt 1911 .45 as the model.  Somehow he had incorporated a high pressure gas system into the weapon.

I thought it was interesting the concept of a hard glass bullet, . . . driven by an air charge, . . . and it just goes to prove your statement wherein we will be tasked more to conceptualizing the product, . . . than being the one producing the product.

Thanks for the info, . . . definitely going to look into it.

May God bless,

Dwight

Why not ice instead of glass? Just make em in the freezer. Could even just print the tray. Ahhhh tooo many project and so little time..... back to that radio controlled robot Brian

 

[Dwight]

I don't recall the movie or the show, . . . but there was one some time back, . . . used an ice bullet, . . . 

Been too long, . . . too many shows and movies in between, . . . but we didn't think of it first, . . . 

And, . . . you need to leave the gun in the freezer until you need it, . . . could pose a small problem.  

May God bless,

Dwight

[billybopp]

Three Days of the Condor, 1975, Robert Redford, Faye Runaway.   I think they did a piece on ice and meat bullets on Mythbusters and they sadly didn't work so well in the real world.

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

I don't recall the movie or the show, . . . but there was one some time back, . . . used an ice bullet, . . . 

Been too long, . . . too many shows and movies in between, . . . but we didn't think of it first, . . . 

And, . . . you need to leave the gun in the freezer until you need it, . . . could pose a small problem.  

May God bless,

Dwight

 

[LumpenDoodle2]

10 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

I have learnt to keep the filament in a sealed packet when not in use as it does suck up the moisture when the humidity is high. Also I have found it better in Cura to put the filament setting at 1.74 instead of 1.75 as this makes it pump a little bit extra which makes the adhesion to each layer a little more attached. I have found that with some colours that they like a different heat setting and so far my favourite all rounder is the  silver at 212c on my machine. Running a little hot can also give a better adhesion to itself. I run the bed temperature at 65c and as long as I clean the glass each time with a quick spray of isopropyl alcohol I almost never have any problems with the job coming loose or unstuck. Brian

I’ve invested in a board called printbyte (I think that is how it is spelt).   All my problems with the item separating are a thing of the past (touch wood).   It’s so good, I bought 2 pieces, so that I just remove the whole bed, and put it aside to cool, and pop on the spare bed.   Once cool, the job just pops off.

[RockyAussie]

58 minutes ago, LumpenDoodle2 said:

I’ve invested in a board called printbyte (I think that is how it is spelt).   All my problems with the item separating are a thing of the past (touch wood).   It’s so good, I bought 2 pieces, so that I just remove the whole bed, and put it aside to cool, and pop on the spare bed.   Once cool, the job just pops off.

Thanks @LumpenDoodle2 that is a good idea and I will get onto that idea asap.

 

1 hour ago, billybopp said:

Three Days of the Condor, 1975, Robert Redford, Faye Runaway.   I think they did a piece on ice and meat bullets on Mythbusters and they sadly didn't work so well in the real world.

Ok then ....I guess the velocity musta vaporised the bullets......how bout one of them ninja star things in ice and fired from a spear gun style slingshot??.

Hey wots this real world stuff about anyway?????

[Double Daddy]

A more recent film (late 90's) to try the "ice projectile" concept was Most Wanted, a complete flop of a film staring Keenen Ivory Wayans and John Voight.

[RockyAussie]

Good news.....I got to try the handcuffs on Friday and they fit both models well. The Armoury person was happy. Now I've got a question. After looking online at anything similar that I can find on wet moulding, every one that I have seen waste large amounts of leather on the curved edge. I have now done a couple of more casts taking more of the edge each time and I still dont seem to be having any problems yet. Does anyone here have similar experience with this method and can tell me just how much more I can get away with??? At present I am wasting about 16MM or 5/8" as can be seen in the below picture.

Following pictures show the handcuffs in the pouch.

[plinkercases]

What kind of leather did you say where using?

[RockyAussie]

4 hours ago, plinkercases said:

What kind of leather did you say where using?

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 to mould on an unpainted smooth veg. The thickness of the moulded part is 2.8mm (7oz) at the moment. It is fairly hard and takes some wetting/working to get soft and mellow enough to mould. Here in Australia I get it from East Coast Leather and they call it Alaska. Partly I have chosen it due to price and strength and resistance to shrinkage as would be the case with full veg. There would also be a reduced need for maintenance as far as replenishing oils etc. Brian

[garypl]

Brian, I tend to make one off items so when I mold I leave extra around the edges - probably more than necessary.  See pics of a pouch I just molded.

sounds like you are going about it the right way, but if you cut off too much of the edge you may have problems getting the piece of leather positioned just right so it comes out of the mold even.  Cuff cases look great!

Gary

[gigi]

Great work!

What machine did you use for sewing? You removed the belt tab on the back-side?

[RockyAussie]

3 hours ago, garypl said:

Brian, I tend to make one off items so when I mold I leave extra around the edges - probably more than necessary.  See pics of a pouch I just molded.

sounds like you are going about it the right way, but if you cut off too much of the edge you may have problems getting the piece of leather positioned just right so it comes out of the mold even.  Cuff cases look great!

Gary

Thanks for the answer Gary. At this stage the way the mould I made works so far I have cut back and cut back again and still no creases etc. I have made up a new pattern with offsets at 2mm increments to see how small I can get away with. I was just hoping that someone might have experience working with moulds similar to these that might know likely have far I can go. I need to give a quote and get them to test the prototype as soon as possible so I was hoping to save a little time. I might just jump to a 1/4" off and see what happens. I'll let you know. Brian

3 hours ago, gigi said:

Great work!

What machine did you use for sewing? You removed the belt tab on the back-side?

@gigi The machine I used is a 441 with a new footplate thanks to Uwe. The tab is still there but I have gone to a bit more refinement than previously.

[the deacon]

Hey Brian,

I am curious. Every time I have tried wet moulding a leather case, the open edge of the leather gets pulled out of shape as the mould presses. How do you overcome this?

 

thanks

[RockyAussie]

3 hours ago, the deacon said:

Hey Brian,

I am curious. Every time I have tried wet moulding a leather case, the open edge of the leather gets pulled out of shape as the mould presses. How do you overcome this?

 

thanks

The top open edge is difficult to not get pulled downward toward the bottom where a lot more pressure is being applied so I generally put the outer mould piece down at an angle at the top so that it pulls the sides tight before the bottom comes into play. This is done by hand a fair bit before going into the press. In the mould above the sides are very tight and and I do get a 2mm to 3mm gap in the middle where it has pulled downward. Thankfully that has been allowed for and it all comes out fine at the end.

[the deacon]

Thanks Brian.

I was thinking about adding a peg to my mould that would line up with the punched hole for the snap. This may stress/elongate that hole, but could also help mitigate pull down.

[RockyAussie]

3 hours ago, the deacon said:

Thanks Brian.

I was thinking about adding a peg to my mould that would line up with the punched hole for the snap. This may stress/elongate that hole, but could also help mitigate pull down.

 

I had one printed in for that purpose originally but it broke off under the tension. I thought about drilling it out and replacing with a suitable nail size but as you say the hole would likely stretch longer and out of shape. It may be worth a try though.

[noobleather]

Awesome project and pics.Great to see how you go from the original  idea to the finished product.I would like to do something similar one day and will definitely be revisiting this thread.

Cheers

[RockyAussie]

8 hours ago, noobleather said:

Awesome project and pics.Great to see how you go from the original  idea to the finished product.I would like to do something similar one day and will definitely be revisiting this thread.

Cheers

Thanks and I'm glad you liked it. Hope to see something from you where it helped one day. Give us a call if you need any assistance.

[noobleather]

Thanks Rocky will do