How I make crocodile skin leather belts

[RockyAussie]

This is the process where I make our 19mm (3/4") crocodile skin belts. I must first say that this is more of a manufacturing style of post and I will try to give small scale alternative methods where and if I can. The first step in making these belts is the cutting up into strips the crocodile as this sometimes affects the numbers of backing and fillers that need to be made to go with them.  As a general rule I keep back the tails of the skins after other products are made for the purpose of making the belts. My strap cutter is not wide enough for the full width of a tail normally and this must be done in one or sometimes 2 runs through.

Note that there is now a wide sweep after the cutting and this makes it difficult to manage running the next part through the belt cutter.

To overcome this we take a bit out to straighten up a little better

This time we can use the fence guide on the strap cutter

As you can see it still has a fair amount of curve but this is overcome latter on in the processing.

After this we need to join them up into lengths long enough for the belts. We now end for end the pieces to find comparable size scale size and angle to hide the joins as much as possible.

He3re a very sharp knife and and experience is a must. There should be at least a 1/2" of overlap at the join.

Contact glue is then applied and given some time to tack off. Normally several are done at a time.

This is then carefully lined up and

pressed and tapped into place making sure that no excess glue is left behind.

This process is repeated until all the sizes are made up for the order.

That is the upload limit for now so I will be back with more later. There will be a link to a little video on the belt sanding as well.

 

[RockyAussie]

I should have pointed out that the first cuts of the croc and the backings starts at 22mm wide and is later cut down to the 19mm width.

Here shown joined up there is over 200 pieces for a couple of customer orders

As many of these colours have to have matching edging I will separate the black edged ones with black backings first and go onto the skiving stage of the tops next. This is done on my Fortuna skiving machine with the aid of a roller foot that helps to prevent craze cracking in the glazed crocodile skins.

The skins are supplied at around 1mm thick and therefore do not need to be split any thinner in this case. 

The thickness at the skived edges is taken down to about .5mm in order to make 1. Cleaner and better for gluing. 2. allow the croc to flex over the filler more easily and improve the profile. 3. thinner edges make for better edge coating results.

Next the backings are cut and split down to around the 1 to 1.1mm range

And then moved on to the embossing of the sizes and customer branding.

The sizes are done quite quickly by making the size stamps onto blocks that I can lift out on the run from the holder and put in a new size that gets preheated on the top of the embossing machine.

The metal box holding the size stamp is held in with a strong magnet and a pair of pliers is used to get them in and out.

The next step is making up the fillers that give a high profile to the finished appearance. For this I have used some splits from earlier larger width belt job.

I used my belt combiner machine with 3 knives for this job but a strap cutting machine would also work fine.

Following this I have then taken them to all of the belt lengths of the orders.

Will be back later......Cows need to be fed.

 

 

[RockyAussie]

The tips on the fillers could be done on the clicker press but in this case I've decided that cutting them could be just as quicker by hammer and punch

After this they get split to 1.4mm thickness (yes.... I know I should have done this before cutting into strips)

After that they get their edges skived. A strong magnet helps to make this easy and quick.

I do this one side at a time as I like to get the tip done along with the edge skive.

Now the fillers are ready to attach to the backings. They get sprayed all together on a purpose built spray table that I can tilt toward the operator for better application.

They now can be lifted off and placed for another operator to peel apart and attach as shown below.

Next the croc pieces are glued up along with the combined filler and backs. This takes some practice to not have the croc flip up while spraying.

These are then carefully placed together as shown. If it were not croc and only leather tops, they could be fed together straight into the combining machine all together. Normally my hand that is holding the camera here would be walking along holding one side down whilst the other is pressing down the croc into place.

I think that is about the picture limit now again so I'll be back later.

 

 

 

 

 

[jimi]

Thanks for taking the time to share Brian...Very informative.

[RockyAussie]

After they are together I press down around the edges with my cow horn slicker very firmly as this particular belt style is not stitched and it is very important that the adhesion and edging methods used are done well.

they are now ready to go through the combining machine that will take about 1.5mm off each edge as it goes through. note that the roller on the front helps to press in the profile a little as well as it runs through.

Here at the back you can see the edge strips being removed.

After they are all combined  they go up to the clicker press to have their tongue and buckle holes done.

Purpose made jig holders keep the knife in place as they get press cut into shape. How these jig holders are made can be seen in this link -

After the holes are done the edges all need to have a bevel sanding and that is done on another one of my purpose built machines made for this purpose. Basically it is 2 bench grinders set in a table that allows me to move them closer and further apart as well as adjust up and down and angle in and out and back as well.

That's it all for tonight I will add more tomorrow. See this link of the edge sanding machine in action if you wish - and say you like it (even if you don't)

 

The back is set and sanded first

Then the top checked and set how much removal is wanted as well.

Edited August 3, 2019 by RockyAussie
forgot something

[mikesc]

Extremely interesting, thanks Brian. :)

[RockyAussie]

5 minutes ago, mikesc said:

Extremely interesting, thanks Brian.

Boring as hell for many I'm sure  but for any interested in working with croc I reckon they will like it some. I am starting to make waaaaay to many typos so until tomorrow ...goodnight to you all.

[Handstitched]

Well, thats quite  interesting, thanks for sharing  

 I got some Croc back straps from Cairns QLD some years ago , however,  the straps were a tad short,so,  I put my thinking cap on , voila,    <Uncle Fester 2.0 . I made them into Ranger belts with veg tan ' embellishments'  .

HS 

 

[chrisash]

Great work Brian, one question , do you do your own dyeing or is it done at the tanners, I guess you must run quite a large number of workers based on the large number of things you produce

[garypl]

Brian, you never cease to amaze me with the fixtures and equipment you design to use in your shop.  Really interesting!

Gary