sinpac Report post Posted November 24, 2019 Greetings Leather Brethren, It's been a while. I am have a melt down on this splitter. I followed the manual instructions. I have a 1/64" from the top roller to the knife blade and when i put the adjustment lever to 6 irons I have an 1/8" from the bottom of the blade to the bottom roller. What is happening is, when I feed the leather in, it does not split it all goes under the blade. Between the bottom of the roller and bottom of the blade. The top set screws on top of the machine have never been touched. Can you guys help me out here please. Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bruce johnson Report post Posted November 24, 2019 Id raise the bottom roller up first. I go about /16" unless somebody is going to be feeding skirting in to make 3 oz in a pass. Having more room underneath allows more split to come off, but also gives more room for thinner leather to slide under. Also make sure the blade is up to the stops. Also might need more spring tension on the bottom roller. Another thing and it looks like you are good, but make sure the bevel side is up on the blade. I sharpened a blade for a guy and when he got it back he put it in upside down. After about an hour and half on the phone trying to trouble shoot it for him, the light came on. He turned the blade over and split like a champ. That has happened a few times with ones I have got in too. Won't split piece of crap, bad blade, wavy splits, etc. Turn it over and runs. BTW, the manual most people find on line usually says not to touch the top adjustment. I do it all the time, but I run with scissors too. I am pretty sure that manual is from the originals when most of these were leased machines and very few were owned. Landis didn't want worker bees messing with them and then having to send mechanics to readjust them. If you are consistently running thinner leather through than shoe soling, you can bring that top roller down, bottom roller up a tad and it will feed a ton better. You will have an easier adjustment range than all the way to the left too. . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sinpac Report post Posted November 24, 2019 It was splitting before, but one side of the roller was a tad higher then the other. so of course i started jacking with it. I am mainly using this for wallet backs and pockets. what would be the setting for that Bruce. Oh BTW. It's been a while. Good to see you are still here. I was hoping you would chime in, Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bruce johnson Report post Posted November 24, 2019 Chris, Since 90% of these are now getting used for something other than stiff sole leather, I set them up individually to average needs. It depends on what thickness you are starting with and where you want to end up. I start with the bottom roller first. I like to have just enough space under the blade to let the split amount pass. I have found that most of the time the 1/16" space is about right - allows 4 oz to easily pass. That seems to be good for average use - If a person is regularly converting 14 oz skirting to 3 oz wallet backs, then I'd open it up more. On the other hand if a person is just leveling high spots on something, I'd have a tiny gap, just enough to keep the teeth off the blade edge. If there is too little room then you are fighting the spring tension more than necessary. The bottom springs have to compress to allow the thicker split to run under the blade edge. I run a pretty tight tension to help feeding. So I go 1/16" unless it is one extreme or the other. Then I go to adjust the top roller. The space between the top and bottom roller is what feeds the leather. The top roller has to put some pressure on the leather to allow the milling on the bottom roller to grab the leather and push it. Too much space and there isn't enough compression and the leather may sit while the rollers spin out. Not enough space and thicker leather won't get pulled in or really compresses those springs and cranks hard. Spring tension is what I do last. I want enough tension to force that bottom roller to grab the leather and push it. I like them cranked fairly tight. The downside is if you are set up to be routinely taking off 4oz and want to split off 8oz, then those springs can sure enough take up 1/16" of compression but maybe won't like it if they are super tight. Personally, Id do two passes of 4 oz unless it was enough pieces to warrant changing blade to bottom roller spacing. I fiddle around with tensions until I get the feel I want and then do minor tweaks on tension if needed so they feed evenly side to side. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sinpac Report post Posted November 25, 2019 Thank you Bruce, that was just what I needed. thank you, I'll post up after I get it setup. Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sinpac Report post Posted November 25, 2019 (edited) Update: I ran the bottom roller .015 to the bottom of the blade. Left the top roller alone. bottom tension cap might be 1/16" off the frame. The blade is shape enough to perform outpatient surgeries. Shazam.......... Thank Bruce. Edited November 25, 2019 by sinpac add comment Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cashondelivery Report post Posted December 26, 2022 30+ year leather crafter and just bought my first one, little rough, but it'll look brand new when I'm done with it.... Before I even brought it home I stopped my a machine shop to have the blade sharpened and one of the blade holders was broke ( still worked ) so I'm having a new one made to match the original ... So on to my questions. . Is there a parts manual available, a user manual and are parts readily available ?.... Whats it worth ?....Its all there, little rough, needs a good cleaning, really needs some oil, and apart from the minor issues listed above I picked it up for 800...Considering what Weaver wants from theirs I thought it wasn't too bad a deal. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bruce johnson Report post Posted December 27, 2022 3 hours ago, Cashondelivery said: 30+ year leather crafter and just bought my first one, little rough, but it'll look brand new when I'm done with it.... Before I even brought it home I stopped my a machine shop to have the blade sharpened and one of the blade holders was broke ( still worked ) so I'm having a new one made to match the original ... So on to my questions. . Is there a parts manual available, a user manual and are parts readily available ?.... Whats it worth ?....Its all there, little rough, needs a good cleaning, really needs some oil, and apart from the minor issues listed above I picked it up for 800...Considering what Weaver wants from theirs I thought it wasn't too bad a deal. $800 is an OK price. You will always find the guy who found one at a junk auction or flea market for $150 and the next guy paid $1000. Yeah, $800 is fair. If anyone was building the Landis 30 today, it would be a lot more. Here is the only thing I have ever seen online for the Landis 30 - https://www.bootmaker.com/Landis_Model_30_splitter.pdf Parts are not readily available new that I know of other than blades. Harris at Pilgrim Shoe was talking about getting some of the commonly broken parts for the American and Landis splitters cast up. He retired and I don't think it ever took off. That is the problem with parts - the things that are prone to breaking are usually already broken on the parts machines. Eli Schlabach in Illinois probably has the most parts. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cashondelivery Report post Posted December 29, 2022 Bruce Thanks for the info…will post pic when finished. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cashondelivery Report post Posted January 13, 2023 not able to post pics of finished project...too bad, turned out beautiful Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Northmount Report post Posted January 14, 2023 7 hours ago, Cashondelivery said: not able to post pics of finished project...too bad, turned out beautiful You need to resize the photos to fit the restrictions here. See this thread for helps and suggestions. As well, lots of additional info on the web and tools for resizing photos. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
