Securing leather and magnets into silver parts

[joshd1410]

Hey all. I've had good replies to every thread I've posted on here so I may become a bit of a regular now! Such a great place to get answers.

I'm attempting to make a range of men's leather bracelets with magnetic clasps, hopefully hand carved by me if I find the time! Anyway I've made a few leather bracelets recently using end caps which are basically thin pieces of tube with a ring on the end (£1 each for an incredibly thin piece of tube with a ring soldered on! That's a complaint for another time though....). So far I've been using E6000 glue to secure the leather inside the tubes. Actually "secure" might be the wrong word because every time I've tried to glue them in at least one of the ends comes off with a little light wear. Has anyone got any input on this? What is the best way to secure the leather inside these silver tube ends?

Also a very similar issue but regarding securing the magnets inside the silver now. I've not yet attempted this but I can already see potential issues. My worry is that if I simply use glue eventually the pull of the magnets will end up pulling one of them right out of the space. Obviously the magnets need to have contact with each other to be at their strongest and hold the clasp closed (as far as I know, could be wrong). I had thought of making some sort of bezel to hold them in but if I done this and folded the walls over the magnets then they wouldn't come into contact with each other properly as the bezel walls would be between them. This would surely mean that the clasp is not as secure as it could be. Any advice on this would be great, thanks!

[Paul Kay]

w.r.t. the magnetic clasp part of your question, could you not buy a pack of these, or similar, and dismantle one to see how they are made? Though I have never used them so don't know if they also suffer the problem you are concerned about.

http://www.cooksongold.com/Base-Meta...rcode-N2F-007S

[enigma]

Superglue works pretty well for securing leather into end caps, just make sure you rough over the leather first.
As far as the magnets go I would just buy them, you can superglue them which is fairly secure depending how strong the magnets are but you can't heat them so not a million options really.
Personally Im not a fan of the magnetic closures as they aren't very secure- I did offer a few but none of my customers have gone for them.

[Dennis]

Following Sara's advice, I would only add that gel superglue is a good option, because it dries slightly elastic instead of brittle.

As far as magnetic closures are concerned, they can be glued, but two part rapid Araldite will be much stronger. The containing tube needs to be a little taller than the magnet, at one end and a little shorter at the other. This ensures that they always match up and can't slide sideways.

Surfaces to be glued hold much better if roughened first.

For some jewellery, the magnetic catch and end caps are joined by jump rings so that it is used rotated through 90 degrees. This way the overlapping tube resists the pull. Dennis.

[CJ57]

I'm still a lover of Araldite. I had a 3 strand leather necklet glued into substantial ends made by me but the leather was looking a bit hairy and I wanted to renew, eh no pulled and pulled and it wouldn't budge

[Dennis]

I agree Caroline, but some people complain about the mixing of it.

I have also had reason to undo it many times for replacement. If you can rig up a way of keeping it under tension, then the metal can be heated gently with a mini torch until it pops apart.

Pearls can be grasped in a wet tissue and the metal in a third hand to do the same thing. Dennis.

[CJ57]

Thanks Dennis, I hadn't thought of heating it. I should be able to hold the ends in pliers and just pull the leather out or I suppose I could just burn it out and stink the house out!

[enigma]

I always use heat to get glued ends out, I heat gently with my small torch and grab it with gloves on just as it starts to smoke.

[MMM Jewellery]

I think the most secure way to fix metal to leather is rivets, or failing that trapping between a backing plate and some teeth. Glue will always fail after some time as the soft material moves and the surface degrades. WRT the magnets- you really want them shaped so one is raised, a bit like a plug, and fits inside the bezel of the other.