DIY denim buff

[dikman]

Now that I have a machine (the W117) that can actually sew through 1/2" of stuff, I started thinking. I had a couple of pairs of old denim jeans, so started cutting discs out of them and punching a 3/8" centre hole. I made a jig that would allow them to rotate under the sewing foot and stuffed as many as I could under the feet, then started sewing concentric circles with #138 thread (#69 probably would have been adequate, but I wanted to see how it performed with the heavier thread - it worked well). I ended up with two wheels.

I had a motor (1725 rpm) that I fitted with a burnishing wheel so figured that would work well. I turned a suitable arbor down with a 1/2" shaft, threaded on the end. Only one slight problem (!) due to the direction of rotation the nut tends to unscrew itself! Using two nuts to locknut it fixed that. It actually works well, and I made the arbor long enough that I can fit extra wheels on if I stitch up any more. It also has the advantage that I can now fit any sort of wheel (grinding, buffing etc) on the motor as long as it has a 1/2"bore.

 

[fredk]

Excellent