OT -- Gluing Leather

[alexy]

Yeah, I know it is off topic -- animal product rather than plant and all that, but it _is_ a natural porous material, and woodworkers do know about glues...

My dog recently converted his 6' leash into two 3' leashes. Being basically cheap, I was thinking of repairing it by overlapping the pieces about 6" gluing them, along with some pop rivets. 6" less freedom seems like a fair price for him to pay for chewing up his leash.

I probably should be stitching it, but don't have a machine, and doing by hand is not worth it.

Any idea what glue to use? Strong in shear and flexible. And should I glue smooth side to smooth, rough to rough, or rough to smooth?

TIA for any help.

[Leon]

Nuoooo.... In stead of overlapping 6" and loosing 12", join the 2 pieces with a knot. A complicated knot, so the dog can't untie it. ;~)

It would probably be easier to drill 4 or 5 holes and use small machine screws, nuts, washers, and lock washers.

[Victor Radin]

Get a small tube of Barge Cement- made for leather and works well, retains flexibility and has decent shear and pull strength. Most craft centers should have it or ask your local shoe repair place. Overlap about 3" is good, you can shave each side down to form a long lap joint (closest analogy in wood), but rough to smooth side will work. Space your pop rivets about 1" apart, and at least 1/2" in from the end to avoid tear out.

Vic ex-leathersmith

[searcher1]

Overlap, then use Gorilla Glue, then drill 3 holes use the rivets made for leather, you can get these at a tack shop or Tractor Supply. I make belts out of scrape leather and this is what I do, I haven't had one come apart yet!

Rich

[Puff Griffis]

Here is a suggestion for a poor man's stitching of leather. Overlap = your pieces with a lap joint and tape them together. Now go to your = drill press and drill appropriate holes along the edge. Sew together = through the predrilled holes. Now you have a stitched joint that will = hold just fine. Puff

[Morris Dovey]

After reading a couple of the replies I came to the conclusion that if you don't already have the proper glue and leather-fastening rivits on hand; and if you really /are/ basically cheap, it might be cost-effective to pick up some inexpensive lightweight chain at your local hardware store. Transfer the snap hook from the leash to one end of the chain and use a loop of leather from the old leash to make a comfortable handle at the other end.

The rebuilt leash will outlast the dog's teeth.

[alexy]

Actually, I was planning to overlap 6" and just lose 6"! (If I overlapped 36", would I lose 72", making the whole leash disappear? )

And keep his claws clipped, making untying even harder! I'm thinking maybe a bowline?

That's in essence what I was going to do with pop rivets.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[alexy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I take it you have found gorilla glue to be flexible enough?

[alexy]

Thanks, Vic. I'll look for Barge Cement tomorrow. If I don't find it, what do you think of using polyurethane glue, mentioned by someone else here?

[Victor Radin]

I'm not sure about the gorilla glue for leather. My experience with it is limited to wood, and it tends to get pretty brittle in the ooze-outs. I'd be worried about it on anything that flexes like the leash. If you can't find barge, then try some rubber cement (flexible, no pull strength but shear isn't bad) or Liquid Hide Glue- warm it up with a hair dryer and apply to both sides, let sit for a minute or two then clamp & rivet.

Of course, as long as you're riveting it anyway, the polyurethane glue will probably hold long enough for the rivets to be placed.

And you might want to give the leash a thorough rubbing with bitter apple oil. The pooch will quickly learn to chew on anything else.

vic

[Silvan]

Setting up a machine to stitch that little bit of nothing wouldn't be worth it. Sewing machines are bitchy beasts.

Sewing in general is a horrible undertaking. I pity all the traditional women of yore who used to have nothing better to do with their time all day. Bleah!

It's leather. What else suggests itself but... HIDE GLUE! :)

Everybody else already gave you real answers on the glue question. Just FWIW, I've repaired lots of nylon webbing leashes, straps, handles and such with a few pop rivets with small washers on both sides as backing plates. They held up fine. Leather shouldn't be appreciably different. I don't think you really need glue unless you have a giant 200-pound dog or something.

[xrongor]

rope is cheap. i bet you already have some.

randy

[Andy Dingley]

Hide glue is terrible on leather. It's too rigid, so it tends to break off if it's ever flexed afterwards. If you want to go down this route, use rabbit skin glue instead. It's not cooked as much, so it remains flexible.

I use Evostik 528 for all leathery stickages.

It's also very easy to sew leather, if you can find the right sort of heavy carpet thread, a thin awl with a good handle, and a sailmaker's palm. Once you've punched the holes through, the sewing part isn;t so bad.