nemesis_3003 wrote on Sep 25^th, 2003 at 12:35am:


I never would have thought of that.  If you have a few spare dollars and live near a Tandy Leather store, Tandy sells a neat hole punch shaped very like a pair of pliers with a rotating head that punches holes of different sizes.  Or, you can get a set of hole making punches.  They look like metal punches but have holes in the end.  Put the leather on a wood block, center the punch, and whack it with a hammer.  Makes a neat hole.  OR, you can take a fired .22 caliber casing, put the empty end down on the leather, hold it with pliers, and whack it with a hammer.   I made "O" rings for an MG's electric fuel pump using this method.  The material was tire (tyre) inner tube, an empty .22 casing, and an empty .308 casing.  The "grommet" or "seal"  worked perfectly.  It was a weekend, my friend's wife's MG was out of action, and there were no parts stores open.  And certainly no stores that carried spares for an MG.

Trebuchet

When making appliqué braids like the one above, I have to make holes. Lots of holes, all lookin neat and being regularly placed. Preferrably fast, too, or it will take me all day just to make the holes! (Making the appliqué braid is time-consuming enough...)

My favourite method to make holes is to set up a suitable hole punch in my drill press, set the drill press on lowest speed and simply "drill" the holes! It´s as smooth as drilling in butter and the holes get very smooth and well-defined in the edges, being cut rather than punched. There is also considerably less wear on the punch (and my ears!).

I can definitely recommend it.

Lasse C

***Nodeo, ergo sum***
Quid "nodeo" significatne?

lobohunter wrote on Oct 7^th, 2007 at 5:29pm:


This may be the simplest method of all... not to mention least expensive.

Trebuchet

how does having a strong heat source and a nail and a heat proof surface at hand beat sticking  a hole through with a sharp object that most of us willl have in our pockets ? Or making a tiny fold in the leather and snipping it with scisors.
Both of these are far simpler than the hassle of having dangerous hot nails around - lobo has a forge so for him most of the kit is To hand. But for the rest of us It just sounds a bit dodgy :-)