National Clothesline

Do you wish you could press the wrinkles out of a suede or leather using a manual drycleaning steam press? Well you can!

All of the same warnings given previously about not using live steam on any suede or leather when the head of the press is down apply equally to the manual press.

Live steam applied to a suede or leather locked in a steam press normally used for pressing cloth garments will usually cause irreversible damage to the skin, such as causing it to draw up and shrivel up. The thinner and more delicate the skin, the more likely it is for such damage to occur with resulting claims.

With the manual steam press, no steam is released until the operator depresses the head steam valve or the buck steam valve.

For the operator of the manual press, it is almost an automatic reflex to depress the head steam valve.

So the best thing to do in this case is to place your right (or left) hand behind your back, preferable tucked inside your belt, before lowering the head. This will keep you from inadvertently depressing the head steam valve when pressing suede or leather on a manual press that is set up for pressing cloth.

Of course, if your press has a handy valve you can use to cut off the steam to the head you can use that to be safe.

However, a trick of the trade to remember is that suedes and leathers will press out better if you heat the head by applying steam through the head plate before bringing the head down on the suede or leather.

Caution: If you try this with the head in the raised position, do not depress the head steam valve with your hand or the steam will rise and cook your arm.

To avoid this problem, you can loop a wire coat hanger over the steam lever and pull down on the lever, keeping your hand and arm safely below the rising hot steam, or you can release the head steam with the head down before you place the suede or leather on the buck for pressing.

There is another way to use the manual press for pressing both cloth items and suede and leather items safely.

This involves lowering the steam pressure coming into the press. This can be done at the boiler or by installing a steam regulator with a by-pass valve in the steam line coming to the press.

When you press cloth garments, the bypass valve is opened and the plant steam pressure required for pressing cloth is allowed to pass through the bypass valve in the steam line to the press. When this bypass valve is closed, the plant steam will pass through the steam regulator, which should be set to reduce the steam pressure to no more than 40 pounds per square inch. This low steam pressure is safe for pressing suedes and naked leathers.