What's new
What's new

Do you use leather in your shop and for what purpose?

crossthread

Titanium
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Location
Richmond,VA,USA
Good morning. I use quite a bit of leather and was wondering if others do as well. When I suggest the use of leather I sometimes get some funny looks from folks. I think it may be considered as a backwoods, hillbilly material. I use it for a lot of things around the shop and have for enough years to know that it is an amazingly durable and useful material. I read in another post where someone was having trouble holding a rod in a vise while threading and my first thought was to put leather between the jaws to pad and grip the rod. Leather is very useful for "soft jaw" applications. I use it for gaskets, soft washers to keep dust out of bushings, simple and easy hinges where applicable, isolation material etc. It is impervious to most solvents and oils and actually thrives in most lubricants. Do you use it and if so do you have any novel applications? Thanks.
 
The free stuff - like tough old discarded pants belt - are peachy keen for gripping stuff you don't want to mar. I have a giant box of cast off purse parts from 57 years of being married :D

I recently made a laminated "friction" disc for the 1 1/2 ton Wright hoist from that box of leather - works great
 
I do like the suggestion

Hey, wait , do you own stock in a leather company, this seems like an ad......

'Leather, its in your shop'

brought to you by the American Leather Council, cutting up dead cows for 123 years
 
I mainly use scrap leather as soft jaws for vises and vise grips. I’m going to follow this thread for more ideas!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Good morning. I use quite a bit of leather and was wondering if others do as well. When I suggest the use of leather I sometimes get some funny looks from folks. I think it may be considered as a backwoods, hillbilly material. I use it for a lot of things around the shop and have for enough years to know that it is an amazingly durable and useful material. I read in another post where someone was having trouble holding a rod in a vise while threading and my first thought was to put leather between the jaws to pad and grip the rod. Leather is very useful for "soft jaw" applications. I use it for gaskets, soft washers to keep dust out of bushings, simple and easy hinges where applicable, isolation material etc. It is impervious to most solvents and oils and actually thrives in most lubricants. Do you use it and if so do you have any novel applications? Thanks.

I have sacks of leather, I use it from the apron I wear, to added heat shield on the back of my welding gloves.
I also use it for welding spatter gaurd, gripping parts to prevent marring or extra grip.
Under parts to reduce vibration, weighted bag over boring bar to reduce vibration.
Way wipers, way covers.
Shoe insoles.
On the steering wheel of my 52 federal work truck.
I guess I am probably dating myself as it was a very common material in the shop when I served my apprenticeship, or my first foreman was in his 70s might have been the only material he knew of.
 
Should have been used more often on some of the boys I grew up with.

I bought two full cow sides from a tannery in Santa Cruz and made two motorcycle bags. Left-over pieces from those bags and belts are in a box.
Don't find much use for the leather because wood and plastics make more accurate soft jaws. Made some woodworking mallets and probably could
cover them with a layer of leather. I do use one of these to strike the draw bar on my mill to release collets. A layer of leather might be
useful and prevent me from turning down the diameter to round again after all the deforming hits.

DSC_0823.jpg

These mallets have a face of delrin and a rubber mat with stitching in the middle. Probably could have used leather instead of rubber.
I watched that backwoods woodworking program on PBS and got the idea for these. The handles fit into square tapered square holes.

DSC_0826.jpg
 
rons:

Nice mallets.

View attachment 284087
Were the handles turned freehand with a graver? Interesting idea to have a cylindrical body for striking a drawbar (provided your aim is good) - distributes the dents over a much broader area than would be the case with any flatface hammer.


View attachment 284088
How is the delrin attached to the face of the hammerhead? Don't understand "stitching in the middle". Are the handles held in their tapered sockets by friction only?

-Marty-
 
After starting this post I was walking past one of my tractors and noticed the sediment bowl was leaking. If any of you have any experience with these you will know that the material used is somewhat critical. Not too soft and not too hard (the bowl is glass). I cut one out of a soft piece of leather and replaced it. Took me ten minutes. Problem solved. Another thing you can do is cut a piece of leather into strips and glue them hair side down to wooden stir sticks. Charge the leather with oil and abrasives such as valve grinding compound, jewelers rouge etc. You can use them around the lathe to put a high polish on something or even take off a half a tenth if your finish is less then "perfect".
 
rons:

Were the handles turned freehand with a graver? Interesting idea to have a cylindrical body for striking a drawbar (provided your aim is good) - distributes the dents over a much broader area than would be the case with any flatface hammer.

How is the delrin attached to the face of the hammerhead? Don't understand "stitching in the middle". Are the handles held in their tapered sockets by friction only?

Turned on a woodturner's lathe. I use the flat section on the top first. If that doesn't work then I use the sides.

Delrin was roughed up then epoxied.

The rubber mat has a cross stitching in the center. Have not seen that before. Very durable stuff.

The handles and head have a taper. Wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Everything done by hand with a chisel.
 
Used to have a sheet of leather that I rubbed gage blocks on, this helped them stick together better than anything I've ever seen.
Of course it has to be clean.
 
Leather shoe laces for securing work to a drive dog when turning between centers.
 
I've used leather for years to pad jaws, increase friction and a host of other uses. I still have a leather belt on my antique WW lathe.

Despite popular belief in some quarters neither leather nor wood are "obsolete".


Now the "special clothing", that's for after hours. :D ;)
 
unfortunately leather is very expensive if you have to buy it. even the chinese ask prices on ebay im not willing to pay.
 
Leather makes a very good way cover. If it's not oiled leather to begin, it will be after a year or two.

Full grain leather, cut round to 3/8" or so up with a punch, make good glue-on feet for various projects.

And of course the usual protective stuff for welding and cutting.

And, like the OP, gaskets. I have a wonderful old oil can (McMaster still has 'em around $200 I think). A new circle of leather restored the oil pump inside; much as it did for years in bicycle pumps.

I've occassionally inlaid a box with it.

My main wish is that the leather on the back of my hands wasn't getting thinner with each passing decade . . . Ieather gloves would be the answer to that if not for all the rotating equipment.
 








 
Back
Top