I’m having a lot of fun. It’s not without its frustrations (precision alignment being the main one), but the GF team has made this thing so easy to use otherwise, kudos to them.
Next I’d like to venture into cutting leather. Specifically, I need a new wallet. I haven’t found any good tutorials on designing for cutting leather wallets, with stitching holes, etc. If anyone has good resources, I’d love to see them.
Thanks. I realize a good portion of the active folks on this forum have known each other for quite some time, so I’m a bit behind the curve in that regard. I hope to make some friends here as all of you have.
Best forum I’ve ever been on. It is probably more revolutionary than the machine! Things have been a bit tense lately but as more and more units get delivered that is calming down. Looks like you know what you are doing but if you need to delve into another software package or anything there is a whole collection of tutorials here and a lot of helpful folks.
Congrats. Glad setup and first prints went well. Thanks @PFI-Guy for the tutorial links.
Any prior experience working with leather? Chris over at Clickspring has a great video of making a small parts vice. The jaw ends are different as the jaws for stitching have a round over. You don’t have to have a foundry to do your own metal collar and instead can use a screw or another mechanism for clamping, but the collar approach is a quick knock up or knock down for clamping. It seems the pony part of this is the tradition method of mounting it on a platform you can sit on to hold the whole vise and work piece between your legs. Since he is going to be putting a lot of lateral pressure on this metal pieces he’ll be filing, attaching to a solid workbench works better. This is a deep rabbit hole: work piece hold downs according to the various trades. I know it seems like an awful lot to go through just to hold some leather for stitching but it is a main tool for leather working as I understand it. I got the needle and awl and the thread but when I tried to stitch without adequate work piece holding, it looked like garbage.
Neat build video!
From a pin vise to a Panavise, up to a 6" bench vice that can withstand my body weight on the end of a 3’ cheater pipe - work holding tools are some of my most beloved tools.
Of course a stable platform for the big bench vise is a requirement. I have a free standing steel bench with a 2" thick Benolex top in the middle of my shop that weighs around 500 pounds that the 6" and the rolling Mill are mounted to. Stable as a rooted tree stump.
I’m sure you’re already making some right now. Welcome! It’s so much fun using a Glowforge, it’s great to find kindred spirits. Looking forward to seeing all of your creations.
So I’ll be coming to CO in Feb or March. Definitely would like to meet up, along with all the Boulder folks where I’ll be spending most of the time. I’d love to see your work space. My lovely assistant at BAMF (my brother) won one of the Panavises that they were giving out through a drawing. Their booth was next store. He got it and loves it.
I wish I would have realized that the key to getting your Glowforge “early” is buying it from someone who already has one. Did you even get early bird pricing or did you pay retail?
Great! I would be honored to welcome and meet you. My home is open to you Sir.
My schedule is usually wide open, so as your plans develop, please count on it!
