Now this is right in my wheelhouse.
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In my neck of the woodlands a press can usually be had at a local estate auction for next to nothing. I’ve pretty well stocked my wood shop at auctions and usually saw all the same guys at every auction until they got theirs stocked too.
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Thanks! I’ve seen people use a C-clamp to press stamps into leather. There’s also the mallet method where you hammer them down. It takes practice but all doable.
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No dye. The leather just turns darker when it’s compressed. I’ll finish this wallet up and put some antiquing dye in it so the design will pop even more.
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That’s exactly what I have. I just cut the ram rod off and welded up some 1/2" thick steel plates top and bottom. I also cut the legs down so it sits on my workbench. I bought the pneumatic jack with it so I hook it up to my air compressor when I’m using it as a clicker. Works great!
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Fine work! Thanks so much for posting settings!
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Thanks! I should post a photo of my second attempt. I melted the Delrin. It’s not pretty. Haha!
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that turned out amazing!! would love to do something like this when my Pro ships… Thank you for sharing!
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhgfdjitgjn YES! I’ve been racking my brain to find out how I could do this. Thank you sir, thank you. I hate the smell and look of the etching on Leather, too much carcass skin powder everywhere. So here I go!
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You could also use it for tooling patterns by doing a light etch into a larger plate, think the inverse of this, and then press that onto a larger piece of leather. People do that a lot for tooling designs that they repeat frequently rather than having to constantly manually transfer the design with a stylus.
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That’s the other reason why I wanted a laser. Transferring designs is so tedious.
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My first stamp had some flaws so redoing it again for the 4th time. I wasn’t getting as deep of an impression as I wanted so here goes! I lowered the power and doing three passes. I think I nailed it this time.
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Will it take ink for letterpress on a Vandercook?
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I am planning to working with leather with my Glowforge pro. I have a hydroponic pneumatic press up to 30 tons and want to explore making forms i can use to press thin metal. Would you recommend the Delrin for making those forms? My original though was hardwood. I am hoping to do laser cut out work in fabric. very exciting to see what others are creating!! Thank you for the share.
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Andy_Mock, what were your final settings? Looks amazing. My settings continue to melt… :-/
Hey there. I’m using .25" Delrin.
CUT:
Speed=120
Power=Full
Focus: .147
Passes: 3
ENGRAVE:
Speed: 600
Power: 90
LPI: 195
Focus: .147
Passes: 3
Set the engrave to ignore when doing the cut. After the initial cut, I do one more pass cut just to be sure it’s completely cut out and run the engrave right after. When the engrave is complete, set the cut to ignore and run the engrave again but with two passes. Always run the cut before the engrave.
This has been working pretty well for me. Hope this helps!
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Thank you so much! I’ll give it a shot.
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Ive got question…Why make the stamp and do the press instead of scoring or engraving the design directly onto the leather? Is it just the preference in the outcome and appearance? Just curious
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Using a stamp and press is traditional in leatherwork, but custom stamps (traditionally made from brass) get expensive quick.
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Two reasons: 1, I think it looks nicer embossed into leather and 2, if I’m making multiple pieces it’s a lot faster using a stamp.
I save the laser engraving for custom one-off pieces and don’t have to charge for making a stamp.
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