Looking for a bell knife skiving machine.

[Danne]

I'm looking for a skiving machine. And I have a couple of questions.

1. If I buy something like this (chinese made?) http://www.sieck.de/en/machines/skiving/leather-goods-and-automotive-interieur/details/5385/ (From my understanding chinese made machines works quite good.) And a new Fortuna or similar are very expensive. (I do leathercraft as a hobby) the question is, what happens in 5-10 years when I need spare parts? 

 

2. If I buy an old Fortuna (some rusty thing not used for years.) can I still buy spare parts for those machines from Fortuna?

 

An old Fortuna I can renovate would be the best solution. I like machines and have worked with machines for many years. Which would make this an awesome project.

[immiketoo]

If the sieck is in your price range, I'd say go for a new machine.  This design has been around for a long time, and I would suppose parts will be available as well.  You could always buy some stock of the consumable parts and hope you guessed correctly.  However, if you're considering a bell skiver, I'd say buy a good one even if you have to save for a while longer.  Tough choice.

[immiketoo]

Alternatively, you could call Martin Sharnagl at Die Ledermacher.  He carries Cobra Leather Machines in Europe, and they have excellent service.  http://www.ledermacher.de

[Danne]

17 minutes ago, immiketoo said:

If the sieck is in your price range, I'd say go for a new machine.  This design has been around for a long time, and I would suppose parts will be available as well.  You could always buy some stock of the consumable parts and hope you guessed correctly.  However, if you're considering a bell skiver, I'd say buy a good one even if you have to save for a while longer.  Tough choice.

Would you say the Sieck machine is one of the good machines, or did you mean I should buy a better machine like a refurbished Fortuna?

[immiketoo]

I think the Sieck is probably fine.  One thing I'd check is if its a single motor or dual motor, meaning does the bell spin at a constant speed.  This makes a big difference in overall performance, but I think its only on the more expensive models.  I am in the market for one of these in the next year or so, and I am debating this as well.  I would opt for a new high end if the money is there, but if not, I'd opt for a new Chinese made model before I got an old anything.

[Danne]

2 minutes ago, immiketoo said:

I think the Sieck is probably fine.  One thing I'd check is if its a single motor or dual motor, meaning does the bell spin at a constant speed.  This makes a big difference in overall performance, but I think its only on the more expensive models.  I am in the market for one of these in the next year or so, and I am debating this as well.  I would opt for a new high end if the money is there, but if not, I'd opt for a new Chinese made model before I got an old anything.

If i'm not wrong you wan't to be able to spin the bell at high speed and the feed in low speed for some leathers. And from the look of most of these machines you can do this modification "quite easy" if you feel like you need to. In short: Remove one pulley and install one extra motor a couple of brackets and a speed controller. And I guess there are "conversion kits" for this too.

[immiketoo]

Cool.  That is info I didn't know!

[Danne]

3 minutes ago, immiketoo said:

Cool.  That is info I didn't know!

I might be wrong, and maybe it's only the machine where they have a configuration with single and twin motors, and you can update the single version. I can't find an exploded view of the Sieck or the Cobra, so I can't say for sure. But i'm certain there are others here who know.