How to make a press for moulding leather pouches and such

[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.