Turning Your Arbor Press into a Multi-Tool: How I Use the Hideout Craft Adapter Set
In brief: This set converts a standard 0.5–1 ton arbor press into a modular pressing system for leathercraft. One press handles die cutting, rivet setting, logo stamping, and letter stamping — by swapping a single adapter. This guide covers how each one works and what fits where.
An arbor press is one of those workshop tools that looks simple until you realise how much it can do — if you can get the right tooling into it. The problem most leathercrafters run into is that their press came with a fixed ram and no clear way to use it with the variety of threaded and unthreaded tools they already own.
This adapter set is my answer to that. I designed it around my own press and my own bench, and I use it every week across four different setups.
What’s in the Set
The system centres on a 27mm foot adapter with an 80 × 80mm base plate for flat pressing work. Alongside that come two 10mm ram adapters — one M8 and one 1/4″ UNC — which fit into the press ram and lock in place with the side screw. A pair of M8 to M5 thread reducer inserts work with the M8 adapter to extend its range further still.
Between these components, one press becomes several different tools.
How I Use Mine
The Foot Adapter — Flat Pressing and Die Cutting
The foot adapter is the right choice for anything that needs downforce spread across a surface rather than concentrated at a point. I use it for die cutters: the leather goes on the base plate, the cutting die sits on top, and the flat foot brings even pressure down across the whole die in one clean press.
One tip worth passing on: always place a piece of hard plastic or HDPE sheet underneath your leather when cutting. It protects your base plate, gives the die blades a clean surface to press into, and extends the life of both. A scrap of kitchen chopping board does the job perfectly.
The foot adapter is also useful any time you need broad, controlled pressure rather than a threaded tool — setting bonded layers, flattening seams, or pressing components into place.
The M8 Ram Adapter — Rivet Setters and Logo Stamps
The M8 adapter is the one I reach for most often, and it earns that by covering more ground than any of the others.
It has a female M8 internal thread. Rivet setters with a male M8 shank — common with European and UK suppliers — thread straight in. Most logo stamps — including nearly all of mine — use a female M8 socket rather than a male threaded shank. This is where the M8 to M5 reducer comes in: it acts as a male M8 bridge, connecting the female M8 adapter above to the female M8 logo stamp below. Without it, two female-threaded components have no way to join. With it, the connection is solid and the stamp seats cleanly under the ram.
The M8 to M5 Reducer — Bridging Two Thread Standards
The reducer’s first role is bridging the M8 adapter to M8 logo stamps, as above. Its second role comes from its female M5 internal thread: any tool with a male M5 rod threads directly into the reducer once seated in the M8 adapter. In practice this covers some of my logo stamps and a letter stamp, both M5 threaded.
This is why I’d describe the M8 adapter and reducer together as the centrepiece of the system. Between them they cover M8 and M5 tooling — rivet setters, logo stamps, and letter stamps — without changing the adapter itself.
The 1/4″ UNC Ram Adapter — Letter Stamps and Legacy Tooling
Quite a lot of leathercraft equipment uses 1/4″ UNC threading rather than metric — particularly older sets, some imported letter stamp systems, and certain rivet setters depending on where you bought them. Rivet setters are not universally M8, and if yours came from an American supplier or an older UK source, there’s a reasonable chance they’re 1/4″ UNC. Worth checking before assuming they won’t fit.
I use this adapter with my main letter stamp set, threading individual stamps via their 1/4″ UNC rod for consistent impressions that are difficult to replicate with a mallet.
What Does Yours Fit?
If you find a tool that fits one of the adapters and it isn’t listed here, I’d genuinely like to hear about it. Drop me a message through the site. The more uses we find collectively, the more useful this becomes for everyone.
The three thread standards covered — M8, M5, and 1/4″ UNC — handle the majority of leathercraft tooling on the market, but I’m still finding out the full picture, often through customers getting in touch.
Compatible Presses
Designed for most 0.5–1 ton arbor presses with a square ram up to 26.5 × 26.5mm, a 10mm or larger vertical bore, and a side locking screw.
Tooling, stamps, and rivet setters shown in the photographs are not included with the set unless purchased separately.
