Tim Deagan - Modern Leatherwork for Makers: Traditional Craft Techniques Meet CNC and 3D Printing

Copyright 2017 Tim Deagan. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Published by Maker Media, Inc., 1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111

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August 2017: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2017, August 26 First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680453201 for release details.

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To Tracy and Peppernothing makes me prouder than the family weve made together.

Tim Deagan likes to make things. He casts, prints, screens, welds, brazes, bends, screws, glues, nails, and dreams in his Austin, Texas, shop. Hes spent decades gathering tools based on the idea that one day he will come up with a project that has a special use for each and every one of them.

Tim likes to learn and try new things. A career troubleshooter, he designs, writes, and debugs code to pay the bills. He has worked as a stagehand, meat cutter, speechwriter, programmer, sales associate at Radio Shack, VJ, sandwich maker, computer tech support specialist, car washer, desk clerk, DBA, virtual CIO, and technical writer. Hes run archeology field labs, darkrooms, produce teams, video stores, ice cream shops, consulting teams, developers, and QA teams. Hes written for Make: magazine, Nuts & Volts,Lotus Notes Advisor, and Databased Advisor magazines.

Tim collects board games, Little Mermaid stuff, ukuleles, accordions, tools, watches, slide rules, graphic novels, art supplies, hobbies, books, gadgets, and sharp and pointy things. He owned, and escaped from owning, a 1960 Ford C-850 Young Fire Equipment fire engine (though he kept the siren). Tim paints, sketches, sculpts, quilts, sews, and works leather. Tim has climbed antenna towers, wrecked motorcycles, learned to parasail, and jumped out of perfectly good airplanes.

Tim has been, or is, a boy scout, altar boy, Red Cross disaster action team captain, volunteer firefighter, flyman, Wocista, Flipside burner, actor, Austin Mini Maker Faire flame and safety coordinator, lighting tech, ham radio operator (KC5QFG), musician, and licensed Texas flame effect operator. Tim has studied Daito Ryu Aiki Jujitsu with Sensei Rick Fine, and Tomiki Aikido with Sensei Strange.

Tim loves his wife, his daughter, his dogs, and his friends, and feels very lucky indeed to be able to write all the lists above.

I ve always loved making things. Some of the earliest things I remember getting excited about were the craft activities at the summer camps of my childhood. Of all those crafts, the one that I never stopped pursuing was leatherwork. Theres something enticing about the sensory experience of leather. The look, smell, and feel are unique and appealing in a way that always makes me want to touch and handle leather items I encounter. Making my own objects out of leather is even more satisfying. It can be cut, shaped, molded, stamped, sewn, riveted, dyed, painted, carved, and tooled. Even simple objects made of leather seem to have an appeal that isnt there with other materials.

I collect tools and skills. I own 3D printers, CNC machines, vinyl cutters, a lathe, a mill, a box brake, a laser engraver/cutter, MIG/TIG/gas welding gear, an embroidery machine, a plasma cutter, and dozens, if not hundreds, of other tools. Every time I see a new tool, it seems to glow and hum with the potential of all the things it could make. I cant help but work myself into a frenzy of excitement trying to learn how to use it to create things.