Machine Skiving Technique Help Needed

[RockyAussie]

8 hours ago, MtlBiker said:

Remember, I'm a beginner with this... are you talking about reducing the angle of the feed stone, or just loosening the pressure?

Just reduce the pressure. When it is too tight it makes it hard to get a clean start without cutting in too deep.(Hard veg will need to be a bit tighter)

 

8 hours ago, MtlBiker said:

And if you recommend rarely lifting the presser foot, how do you start the second skive past where the first skive was?

With good settings and a sharp blade it does not matter. Its quicker to rotate the job clockwise but sometimes it is safer to go anticlockwise. When you offer the skived edge into be skived you hold back away from the guide a little and curl up the edge so that you have a start on top of the bell. If you don't have a roller in that can be a bit harder to do as you have to overcome a fair amount of resistance at the start with a standard foot.

 

8 hours ago, MtlBiker said:

And how do you skive a rounded piece of leather?  I found it almost impossible, when I tried, to turn the leather through the skiver to follow the curve.  Is there another trick?

Your knife has to be very sharp and not have any rough feel at all. The pressure setting have to be just right for the leather being skived. Being able to go slow with the feed without the bell going slow as well does help. On Fortuna's and FAV's etc the bell runs at a constant speed always with the feed stone being independent from the bell speed. If you were using a router on wood would you be happy if the spindle slowed down when you slowed down? Many people have opted to put a separate motor drive on these 801 skivers to have the bell run separately. The new Cowboy versions in Australia are now selling with an independent motor set up for this reason.  There are a few tips that just may help in this video I did on circular skiving awhile ago-

The skived pieces above are for the wedding ring boxes I make which if you go to my profile and look in the about me section you can see the topic which shows how to make them.