Leather, wood and glue.....

[StevieB]

I know there are a couple of members here who work with leather so I am hoping for some advice and guidance as a complete newbie to this craft. My son (for complicated reasons) is after a number of small boxes, which I can cut from 3mm plywood and assemble. However, he would like a lid to be part of the design to prevent the contents from falling out. Being 3mm ply, I cannot easily attach fixings to this or hinges. I cannot go to thicker timber for this project. After playing with some ideas and using google images and pinterest (which I find to be a fantastic way to gain ideas) we have identified this type of thing as a possibility:



I have sorted press studs and can see how these will work, but am struggling to know exactly what type of leather would work and how to attach it to the back of the box to form the hinge. Ideally the leather would need to be soft and flexible (a piece of ply is glued to the inside of it to make a solid top internally to the leather). Looking at leather suppliers, I am guessing 3mm leather will be too thick and hard so I need to go for 1-1.5mm, but looking at the image the leather seems to be as thick as the timber sides, which would be 3mm? In terms of glue I would guess epoxy but happy to be convinced of alternatives - the box will be regularly opened and closed so it needs to be strong enough to cope with this. I would also like the glue to be fast curing - I always struggle with epoxy and invariably the 5-10 minute stuff I identify still has a setting time of hours to fully harden, but I suspect superglue will not be up to the job of daily usage. I could superglue and then rivet, but that adds an additional complication as it could only be done after the box is made, whereas the press stud will be fitted before assembly. So I guess my questions are:

Any recommendations for leather suppliers at a reasonable price? I do not need a whole cow, but a range of colours would be good if I can get smaller sizes of soft flexible leather.

Any recommendations on glue for leather to plywood?

Thanks!

 

[AJB Temple]

Leather: charity shop for old coats and handbags that you can cut up.

Fixing leather: drill small holes along where you want the hinge to be and stick the leather on using sadlers' twine or heavy duty cotton. You can do the same to attach the press stud to the wood at the front.

Dab of superglue on the knotted off ends keeps it all neat.

 

[RogerS]

Hopefully our resident leather guru, Michael - MY63 - will be along shortly.

 

[Cabinetman]

Plus 1 for charity shop leather, I have used PVA in the past, piece of wood on the leather to spread the force when cramping, you could use magnets as they do with presentation cardboard boxes sometimes.
Also you could slit/groove the edge of the ply and glue leather in to form a hinge. Ian

 

[StevieB]

Thanks chaps, all good suggestions - hadn't considered charity shops I must admit, will have to have a trawl in town!

 

[MY63]

Sorry I have not replied earlier.
3mm leather would not bend easily, I would reccomend 1.0 mm to 1.5 mm I am sure I have some off cuts somewhere depending on how many you want. If you are not in a rush I may be able to give you some colour options. I have six colours on my bench at the moment.
I would suggest Sam Browne studs rather than press studs as they dont work too well on thinner leather. Contact adhesive will fix the leather to the wood you may need a little extra to fold over.
Leather is expensive as it is generally sold by the hide which is way more than you need.

 

[StevieB]

Many thanks for that kind offer. For now I have managed to order a couple of seconds from artisan leather at a princely sum of £4 and they also do free samples so have told them the application I am after and hopefully they will send a selection for the price of postage. If that does not work then I might well take you up on that offer, but thank you again!

Any specific type of contact adhesive you would recommend? I did look at Sam Brown studs but the slit in the leather worried me in terms of continual usage. The studs are certainly cheap and readily available however so I will order some and see how I get on.

 

[MY63]

If the lid is going to fold over I would consider adding a piece of wood on top to give more support. Most contact adhesives work with leather, I buy mine from Abbey England but it is in 500ml tins.
If you want to use press studs consider doubling up thinner leather at the front, this will give you finished leather inside and out. If you are going to glue in a piece of ply then I would double up 1 mm goat skin at the front and back. There is some thin nylon on the market used as reinforcement if you wanted belt and braces on the hinge.

 

[StevieB]

Thanks for this - depending on postal delivery times I hope to have a play this weekend or early next week if not.

 

[novocaine]

take a drive down a few country lanes, you'll find an old sofa by the road side at some point. there is normally 2 hides worth of leather in a 2 seater sofa and even on cheap tat it tends to be of decent grade.

 

[Lons]

Nice project, have you considered using velcro or magnets as an alternative to press studs though the studs are very cheap. A rare earth magnet could be let into the ply from inside so it doesn't show on the front and thin steel such as from a biscuit tin sandwiched in the leather assuming you double up the thickness.

 

[HappyHacker]

I have acquired a few leather sofas over the years for free or for a few £. People want new ones and it costs money to take them away. The last acquisition was two large leather sofas only two years old for £2 and my petrol. They had to take a window out to get them out of the house, they had bought two smaller ones and needed them moved. Look on free cycle, local facebook and ebay.

I used to have a dog that liked to push his toys down the sides and then dig them up so no point in paying money for them. I spent a fortune on duct tape to cover up the tears.

I have a cut leather from one of them and still have it somewhere as I have not found a use for it yet other than as a strop.

 

[AJB Temple]

Good point re sofa, though disposal a bit tedious.

We had some supposedly hand made cream leather Italian sofas from House of Frazer when we lived in Cranleigh. The frames gave way internally in less than a year. Full refund. The 'beech' frames were in fact mainly MDF when the assessor came to look. When HoF took them back they said they had reclaimed from the manufacturers and the sofas were going straight to landfill. Terrible waste as the leather was superb and all they needed was some oak or beech inner frames making properly. I didn't think to cut and and keep some of the leather :shock:

 

[Woodster]

Thin leather on its own may not produce a very effective lid. You could however glue some ply to the underside of the leather such that the ply sits inside the top of the box. You could in addition glue two more bits of ply inside the box to stop the lid being pushed further inside. Just a thought.

 

[StevieB]

Thanks all - will keep an eye out for spare sofa's! To answer a couple of the suggestions - at 3mm the box sides are too thin for magnets; yes there will be a ply top inside the leather to retain shape/alignment. Studs arriving today, leather posted so hoping to have a trial run soon.

 

[Lons]

at 3mm the box sides are too thin for magnets;

You can easily get rare earth magnets in various sizes from 0.5mm upwards Steve, I used a couple of rectangular ones at 1.5mm thick in a box with sides less than 3mm. They worked very well which is why I offered it as an option. Mine was a bit easier to fit though as I made the ply from my own veneer and the magnets were fully enclosed and hidden.
Just a thought maybe for possible future projects.

 

[StevieB]

Thanks - hadn't realised you could get them that thin, last lot of circular ones I got are about 5mm thick and were the smallest I could find at the time. Will bear it in mind if the studs don't work as intended.