Cutting Leather?!?!

[analogman]

I have a job in which I need to cut a number of leather items to all the same dimensions. I have a CNC router with a Chinese spindle, but no knife attachment or like that.

Anyone ever cut leather with their CNC? Or have a way to do it?

thanks

[dertsap]

do a search on vinyl cutting , I know there are special blades that you can get for cutting the vinyl but I'm not sure if they need to constantly index the tool to the direction of the cut

[Pplug]

I think you could do it if you use a down spiral bit. Wetting the leather might make it easier to work as well. but you would have to test that. I think the hardest part would be to keep the leather from moving when the bit is traveling. The best thing you could do is have a stamp for each part and press. Laser cutting would also be better.

[FandZ]

I thought about this and my first thought was you should use a vacuum table top to hold the leather down. But thinking more on it I would think the upper edge may still be able to move and would be frayed on the top. A better solution may be to sandwiching the leather between two particle boards. That may work better.

[Geof]

The simple (?) solution is to get a water jet cutter, not abrasive water jet just plain water jet. But this is not the cheap solution.

I think Pplug has the correct method, as far as I know most leather shapes are cut with steel rule dies on a clicker press.

[analogman]

Originally Posted by FandZ I thought about this and my first thought was you should use a vacuum table top to hold the leather down. But thinking more on it I would think the upper edge may still be able to move and would be frayed on the top. A better solution may be to sandwiching the leather between two particle boards. That may work better.

Interesting idea! I will give that a shot and see what happens. Thanks!