Counter boring tool for leather brake pads on my 3" Foden steam wagon

[thehomeengineer]

Hi All
Been a while since I have posted so happy New Year to you all and hope this post finds everyone well.
Haven’t been doing much in the workshop for the last 6 months due to other commitments.
But thought I would share how I had to rivet leather brake linings to my Foden steam wagon rear cam brake shoes.
The leather is approximately 1/8” and I wanted to ensure the rivets sat below the surface of the leather to prevent any scoring of the drums. To achieve this I first marked the leather for the rivet holes and then punched them. A branding iron was then turned from a piece of mild steel with a pip to locate in the punched hole and the outer diameter to suit the rivet head. The pip on the end of the iron also doubled up as a depth stop so all the counter bores were the same depth.
I have added this link to my web page for photos etc. so if interested please take a look Practical Engineering
Many thanks
The Home Engineer

[olderdan]

Good to see you back and a happy new year to you.
Before looking at the link my first thought was burning the leather which hardens it under the rivets just where needed. BTW what was the source of the brake shoes themselves?.

[PJs]

Nicely done and Happy New Year too! Beautifully executed and like Olderdan says...burning works well in this application!

Thanks for sharing this and your link.
PJ

[Philip Davies]

Had another look at your website, but regret I couldn’t view other pages.