Skivers

[toxo]

More tweaking today. The safety guard was way too high for the leather to climb once it left the blade so I bashed it a bit so it can work by feeding it in rather than waste an inch so I can pull it. still some work to be done and pieces to replace but it's working as it should.

Most of this afternoon was taken up by the vacuum system. There's a sort of elbow by the blade and I'm not sure which way it should be pointing. There isn't much room in there. I think I'll end up cutting the elbow off at the table level unless someone tells me different. The other frustrating thing about the vacuum is that it doesn't come on if using the skiver at low speed.. There's a chain connecting to the treadle and I tried various links to no avail. One link is on all the time, the next one up doesn't start the vacuum at low speed. I think the answer is gonna be some sort of airline switch.

[toxo]

On 12/22/2021 at 11:25 AM, RockyAussie said:

Show me some pics of the pins in the shaft as well. To be safe I will try and get some pics on here showing the gear section behind that shaft. You will need to take off the top cover and check that there is some grease in there and that the cogs are not all broken in there. Having that shaft not connected does not sound good. This is what

that shaft should look like -

This gear box at the back shows a top cover plate that can be removed with three screws - Inside you should see oily grease and if it looks dodgy you will need to clean it all out to inspect.

 

Please help me out here Brian. There seems to be something wrong with the clutch mechanism. Maybe somethings missing but I can't stop the sharpening stone turning and I can't get my head around the way the clutch is supposed to work. You can see in one of the pics that a pin or something is sheared off.

 

[toxo]

OK got some good stuff done today and everything's working well except the whetstone turning. I will try to get to the bottom of it but for the amount of use it'll get it's not a big deal if it stays the same. Messed around with the vacuum, changed the shape of the nozzle and tried it in different places. Ist time, saw the leather coming off the back of the knife so positioned the nozzle there, well blow me down everything came off the front of the knife so changed it and it caught everything except one piece but that was probably down to a different speed. First off skived 2mm VT down to 1mm and that was ok except the backside was very slightly furry so I sharpened the blade and it was really good. It even took a piece of 2.5mm VT down to 1mm in one pass. Well happy. Now I have to clear up the bombsite that used to be my project room so I can do some proper work.

[RockyAussie]

On 12/26/2021 at 9:44 AM, toxo said:

There seems to be something wrong with the clutch mechanism. Maybe somethings missing but I can't stop the sharpening stone turning and I can't get my head around the way the clutch is supposed to work. You can see in one of the pics that a pin or something is sheared off.

Sorry for the delayed answer mate ...been having a bit of a holiday. I don't see any pics with the broken pin you mention. The clutch should disengage normally when you lift the lever up and it should want to sit in the hollow beneath it. When the clutch is engaged it should look like this pic

To disengage it you should only need to push it upward like as shown

To engage you just pull the lever forward and push it down ( in this pic note that there is a tab underneath that can be adjusted to hold the lever higher up if needed). Is the pin on the back of your lever missing??? Does is disengage when you hold the lever up??

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by RockyAussie

[RockyAussie]

On 12/24/2021 at 4:45 AM, toxo said:

Most of this afternoon was taken up by the vacuum system. There's a sort of elbow by the blade and I'm not sure which way it should be pointing

Here are a couple of pictures from the set up up on my Fortuna that may help ....

Re the vacuum ...consider just letting it run always when the machine is on. Just put a switch to turn it of or on when you need to sharpen perhaps. The Fortuna and the FAV machine I have have the vacuum always running when the machine is running.

 

[toxo]

3 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

Here are a couple of pictures from the set up up on my Fortuna that may help ....

Re the vacuum ...consider just letting it run always when the machine is on. Just put a switch to turn it of or on when you need to sharpen perhaps. The Fortuna and the FAV machine I have have the vacuum always running when the machine is running.

 

I'm gobsmacked. The most important pics for my question and I didn't post em. I still don't know how the clutch lever engages/disengages the stone. The only way I can see is if the pulley cluster is in two separate sets and the sideways movement of the lever separates or brings the two sets together but my pulley train is as one and I can't separate any of it so how does the damn thing work???

I have no idea if there's anything missing from the shaft but in the interim I drilled out that sheared pin and replaced it with a round headed set screw to no avail.

On the vacuum side I experimented with the position of the scoop and ended up putting it where yours is. The good thing is I managed to fine tune the chain switch so initially the vac doesn't come on but there's enough speed to sharpen the knife. If I want to skive a little more pressure on the treadle starts the vac.

Apart from the clutch thing it's all good.

 

 

[toxo]

11 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

Here are a couple of pictures from the set up up on my Fortuna that may help ....

Re the vacuum ...consider just letting it run always when the machine is on. Just put a switch to turn it of or on when you need to sharpen perhaps. The Fortuna and the FAV machine I have have the vacuum always running when the machine is running.

 

I think I've got it. The pulley train IS in two parts (see the pic) and the clutch can only move part of the train backwards but my train seems to be one solid unit so can't move back. So much pressure has been applied to the clutch shaft causing it to deform. I can only assume (hope) the bolts numbered S141 need adjusting to bring things back to normal by letting the two stone pulleys to come forward and thus be free of the drive.

[toxo]

Great news (for me)! A bit of judicious force with a screwdriver, a faint crack and the two pulley clusters came unstuck. Everything is now working as it should.

[AzShooter]

I tried to skive today with a utility knife.  Big mistake.  7 stitches late I'm taking a little break from my bag work.  I can't hold a needle in my left hand.

The good news is I got Stohman's book on stitching and am learning a few tricks I never new.

[Scoutmom103]

Ouch.    I cut my finger in early Nov. sharpening knives I was using to cut tomatoes.   Sorry to hear you have that many stitches.    When they removed the stitches, I found using Vit. E cream (I purchased it at Walmart) on the scar was helpful as it continued to heal and close up.