The Pain Of One-offs.
On holiday I saw some belts with a sign: ‘Genuine Leather € 5’, so I brought one home intending to replace the buckle with a silver one, which I have just recently completed. One-offs bring new challenges, so I hope you will like a brief account of the work in progress.
The design was laid out on graph paper, making it easier to verify the dimensions of the various parts, but they were also checked with callipers and adjusted to fit. The inner frame made of 6.0 x 2.0mm strip was bent up without scoring the corners and joined at one of the short sides. I then made seven rings from 3.0 x2.0mm material and cut them up to form the outer parts. In each case the strips had been passed through slightly undersized holes in a round draw plate so as to bevel the edges. I couldn’t bring myself to solder them piecemeal, so I went for doing most of it in one go.
To minimise cleaning up, I decided to solder from behind so the completed frame was fixed to the soldering block, best side down, with drops of superglue at the corners. The first layer of half circles was then arranged and each one also tacked down, with one drop the glue well away from any joints. After fluxing and placing paillions of solder, it was time to arrange the second layer. These parts did not balance well, so for extra support I used left over pieces of my 3x2 and these offcuts were glued down as well. Then the remaining joints were fluxed and solder placed.
This assembly was now quite stable, but with 36 joints I was quite anxious not to lose any paillions by heating it up too quickly. So I recruited a mini- hairdryer, which settled down the flux in a few minutes. Luckily using two torches to apply the heat as evenly as possible, I was able to complete soldering without mishap, leaving only the crossbar for the leather still to add. The prong was drawn down for hardness and attached without soldering. The whole thing was given a slight curve by pressing it down on a log.
I quite liked the tramlines left by the drawplate, so the front was finished with only a soapy brass brush. The back was quickly cleaned up with a frosting wheel. Below:
The Plan,
Soldering Gear,
Leather tools: Punch, Skiver, Craft knife, Screws.
Finished Belt.
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Originally Posted by Mia
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