DigitalM
Established Member
As an experienced noob (dad DIYer trying to get into hand tools) I ask a lot of stupid questions on here, and get a lot of very patient, awesome answers, for which I'm internally grapefruit.
And so, in order to show that I'm not just some gobby silly person, and do actually do stuffs, I am posting my recently finished Leather Pony project. Before anyone mentions gimp masks and lederhosen, I should point out that this device is really just a clamp to hold leatherwork projects during stitching, and is nowhere near as "special interest" as the name suggests.
The highly-UKW-active among you will notice that, despite getting some great advice on hinges, I simply couldn't source anything appropriate, and as this is not some piece of show furniture, I just went along with my original craptastic whack-a-big-hinge on it plan.
The leather pony is constructed from oak (the thick upright block - reclaimed from a double-glazed door) and ash, sourced from Wentworth Timber Centre showroom for something like £5. The jaws are lined with some leather offcuts. Oh, and a craptastic brass hinge that was something like £4. So, £9 or thereabouts? Posh versions of these have a screw clamp built in, but for versatility I'm just going to use a ratcheting bar clamp. I may build something in to handle this based on my experience of using the thing.
Go easy on me, this is literally the first thing I've made out of something other than MDF, ply or pine!
The final photo shows the thing at a jaunty angle to demonstrate the fact that a couple of 15mm x 5mm circular neodynium magnets were rebated into one jaw, and a couple of slightly larger rectangular metal blocks rebated into the other. I had wondered if this would be enough to apply enough for clamping pressure as the pippers are really hard to pull apart! However, they're not really, once the two 2mm thick leather faces are taken into account. However, all was not in vain as they are easily strong enough to stop the thing from flopping apart with a horrible clack if you stand it up or move it around, so this is great while the thing doesn't have a built in clamp, and works well enough to hold small jobs in the jaws while you reach for or adjust the clamp.
And so, in order to show that I'm not just some gobby silly person, and do actually do stuffs, I am posting my recently finished Leather Pony project. Before anyone mentions gimp masks and lederhosen, I should point out that this device is really just a clamp to hold leatherwork projects during stitching, and is nowhere near as "special interest" as the name suggests.
The highly-UKW-active among you will notice that, despite getting some great advice on hinges, I simply couldn't source anything appropriate, and as this is not some piece of show furniture, I just went along with my original craptastic whack-a-big-hinge on it plan.
The leather pony is constructed from oak (the thick upright block - reclaimed from a double-glazed door) and ash, sourced from Wentworth Timber Centre showroom for something like £5. The jaws are lined with some leather offcuts. Oh, and a craptastic brass hinge that was something like £4. So, £9 or thereabouts? Posh versions of these have a screw clamp built in, but for versatility I'm just going to use a ratcheting bar clamp. I may build something in to handle this based on my experience of using the thing.
Go easy on me, this is literally the first thing I've made out of something other than MDF, ply or pine!
The final photo shows the thing at a jaunty angle to demonstrate the fact that a couple of 15mm x 5mm circular neodynium magnets were rebated into one jaw, and a couple of slightly larger rectangular metal blocks rebated into the other. I had wondered if this would be enough to apply enough for clamping pressure as the pippers are really hard to pull apart! However, they're not really, once the two 2mm thick leather faces are taken into account. However, all was not in vain as they are easily strong enough to stop the thing from flopping apart with a horrible clack if you stand it up or move it around, so this is great while the thing doesn't have a built in clamp, and works well enough to hold small jobs in the jaws while you reach for or adjust the clamp.
