All Activity

I had used multiple layers. Both of these were made from laminated 4-5 oz leather to make the front and back panels. The front panel requires additional work obviously. I cut the window out, trimmed and skived the plug, skived the areas of the panel from the stitch lines to the edges, glued the plug in place, glued the caiman over the plug, then glued the window over everything and stitched it together.

My cousin's husband used to have an antique business. He would often restore antique furniture and sell it. One day, he was pushing a piece of wood through the band saw, and was using his hand to push it instead of the safer (proper)way of using a scrap piece of wood. The saw blade hit a hidden nail, his hand was pulled into the blade and he lost two fingers. The hospital managed to re-attach one of them, but the other was too badly mangled. I don't have any major work-related accidents to report, though working with horses has left me with a few sore joints and scars. Stupidest accident was when I put a pitchfork through my rubber boot while forking manure. Fortunately, I was wearing two pairs of socks and the skin wasn't broken! I think I'd had a very late night the day before, so wasn't all that wide awake! Worst horse related accident - was riding a young mare recently retired from the track. The stable had recently bought her as a school horse. They only teach the racehorses to run in the one direction, so when the instructor told us to canter, she picked up the wrong lead. She was also feeling really fresh, so she took off like she was going out of the starting gate at the track. When she hit the corner of the arena, I think she must have tried to change leads, got her legs all tied up in a knot, and crashed into the wall. Next thing I know, I'm lying in the dirt, my watch is ripped off my wrist, the knee of my britches is ripped open, and I've got a huge bruise above the knee and another one below the knee and everything is spinning (mild concussion). The instructor comes over and asks if I'm okay. I shake my head, which is still spinning. Now this was the funny part. Next thing I know, I look up and HE is up on my horse, checking to see if SHE is okay! Eventually I managed to get back up on my feet, and took the horse back to her stall. I'd ridden that horse several times, and had mucked out her stall that morning, but couldn't remember where it was - had to ask someone! Yeah, definitely a bit concussed!

Our motor do not use buit-in gear box. No need of it

That's a good idea. I use to just put a small piece of leather under the clamps. Those hobby lobby clamps work great tho. There's like 30 or so clamps in a pack for I think $10. Not a bad deal.

I use regular hdpe cutting boards. I sand them with straight or orbital palm sanders with 220ish grit paper. It doesn't melt and clog but makes a super fine dust that sticks to everything if not using dust collection. Definitely wear a mask. Running plastic through a wood planer machine would be terrible on the blades of machine. I have a couple different boards I use. Some for just cutting and some for just punching. Then after sanding them several times and they are just wore out. I grab a couple more cheap ones from the store when I go to town.

You may be able to learn what is out of adjustment by slipping the belt off, and hand wheeling slowly. If there's enough force generated to break the thread, you'll likely feel that at the handwheel and you can see what is binding or yanking. It may be easier to feel if you are stitching somewhat thinner material. I'd also be interested to see what the hook to needle timing is. Beautiful old machine 😍

I have been very fortunate thru the years . . . lots of times and places . . . stuff coulda done me in . . . Safety gear has been part of it . . . staying alert is a part of it . . . not taking crazy chances . . . all have helped out. My guardian angel did his thing a couple weeks ago though . . . I have a table saw I bought without a blade guard . . . got it ordered . . . was using it before the guard got here. I sawed down a 24 inch or so piece of 1 x 4 down to 1 x 3 or so . . . had both pieces from the other end of the saw . . . was bringing them back to me . . . over top of the saw . . . and somehow the big piece slipped or something in my hand . . . fell down to the blade that was slowing down . . . hit it just so it would become a 1 x 3 pine rocket. Thing caught me perfectly on my upper gum line . . . above my teeth . . . below my nose. I looked like the guy who just lost to Mike Tyson or something for a couple of days. Honestly . . . my worst industrial accident ever. I got a hole burned in my thumb by 450 Volts aboard ship . . . didn't really even hurt . . . even though I jumped like a white tail bunny . . . that was the second worst . . . Worked maintenance electrician and mechanic for 30 some years . . . 4 of em in the Navy . . . climbed more ladders than I'd like to talk about . . . used more power tools than I could probably name off in the next hour . . . Got a sneaking hunch my guardian angel will wipe his brow and say . . . "Finally . . . he's here . . . " when I walk thru the pearly gate . . . as he has done a great job for me down thru the years. May God bless, Dwight

Not really a shop accident, but for the last 17 years my "shop" has been horse barns with broodmares and youngsters. We had purchased a mare that hadn't been handled much. I getting to know her and trimming a hind foot when she decided to jump through/over me. She didn't make it and broke 3 long bones in my foot, although I didn't know it at the time. A veterinarian friend stopped by the next day and offered to take some x-rays. He determined the foot was broken. I made an appointment with a foot/ankle surgeon and took the x-rays along. During the appointment a thunderstorm knocked out the power and they said I'd need to come back for x-rays. I told them I happened to have my own x-rays in my backpack. The surgeon was impressed and said he gets x-rays from podiatrists that don't even look like a foot. I told him that equine vets have experience radiographing patients that are less cooperative than me. So he put me in a walking cast and sent me on my way. Twelve years later the mare and I are like two flies on a donkey's ass. She produced a pretty black filly this year and is pregnant for next year's foal. She's in her late teens and this might be her last foal. She will retire here as a babysitter of weanling foals.

When I first got my business license I had a county inspection - some work place guy and a fire dept inspector. Not pain in the a** guys, they just wanted to know what they’d up against in a fire or industrial accident. I’m a one man shop so mostly formality probably. Really pretty cool guys. The work-place guy noticed I didn’t have a workplace safety poster in place. He said to just send him a picture when I got it and he’d sign me off. I came up with this. He said it was official enough for him and one of the best he’d seen.

Success! I was able to remove the cover underneath the shuttle assembly (not sure if that's the correct terminology) and move it around until it started picking up the bobbin thread. I did some test sewing and it appears to be working well! Any thoughts on the horizontal play in the main shaft that is connected to the motor pulley? At the top of the cycle it moves about 1/4 inch and then "clunks" back into place as it continues the cycle. I can't think of any reason why it would do this and want to make sure using it like this isn't going to cause undue wear. Once I'm confident that it's operating correctly I can start work on the motor, trundle and speed reducer. I do believe you're correct on the age. The serial number ends in 86, which I believe is the manufacturing year. I did see that old post about you having an english translation for the mechanics manual. I didn't realize you did the translation yourself. I'm sure they were very appreciative! If you can locate it I would be very grateful if you would send me a copy. The old owner removed the motor and trundle connections so any pictures of that setup would also be greatly appreciated.

Try dying a piece of the leather before you do anything to it, this will tell you if it's the vinegaroon or something you're doing to the leather (highly likely).

I presume the needle is hitting the needle plate? That will happen if you put sideways pressure on the workpiece, been there done that! You have to guide the piece not force it.

Had some mishaps over the years, always due to being an idiot with a tool or using it without the proper guards. Personally, I don't like trying to make machine's "idiot proof" as it seems that they keep coming up with better idiots, but if something had a guard when it was new, it's better to keep it in place and adjust your job rather than take it off and forget about it. Ultimately, no guard will compensate for someone not keeping their mind on their work or trying to do it faster than is safe. It's better to treat the machine like it would kill you if it could, like a tiger on a chain, not a kitten to play with. I was cutting up some 3x3x3 hardwood blocks a few years back and didn't plan ahead and cut them to length before I sized the height/width on the jointer or planer. Being in a hurry, I made the idiot decision to run the short blocks through the table saw. One bound up and kicked back into my face, making a comical *ploink* noise and I later found it had a dent in the side where it hit the floor AFTER hitting me. It momentarily dislocated my jaw, knocked my safety glasses off my face, vision went blurry for a bit, and I was bleeding pretty good. Got a ride to the hospital and was EXTREAMLY LUCKY that it just skipped off my face doing no bone damage, no bruising, and I only needed 14 stitches and some superglue to get put back together. Also fortunate that the ER guy on duty that day specialized in facial sutures, and he dug some wood shrapnel out of my face. Got a neat scar out of the deal, but better than that I gained more respect for using a table saw correctly and I replaced the missing blade guard. I finished the blocks later (belt sander), which were being cut into some support rests for a tool, and the one with the buzz mark across the side where the blade caught It I kept visible for a personal reminder. Speaking of table saws, long before my time my dad worked with a leather shop that did silver work as well. He was doing some silver work on a mechanical die press and it took the last 1/4" off of one thumb. He went to the hospital but didn't bring the severed bit, so they had to pull the bottom edge of the wound up under the nail (which he said hurt the most). For the longest time, he had one thumb shorter than the other, which made for some fun stories, until one day he cut 1/4" off of the OTHER thumb while using a table saw. This time the doctors didn't want the bit and stitched it up like they had the other thumb, so for many years he kept the severed bit in his desk in a little jar of formaldehyde. He used to say when he was buried he wanted us to burry ALL of him, but when he passed we couldn't find it (I miss him anyway and don't mind if he wants to haunt me). Speaking of thumb's, another time I was making adjustments to a band knife splitter, which required the machine to be opened up but running so I can see how it was moving and make adjustments. While I was sitting and giving it a moment to run, I noticed one of the blade wipers was vibrating. I thought that it was covering the blade and I stuck my thumb on it to see if the vibration would stop, and when I did it slid back letting the blade slice into my thumb about 1/2". The guy I was with wanted to call 911 but after I had a chance sit and to breath through the wooziness, it didn't seem so bad once I taped it up, so I finished my work for the day and went home. When I got there my visiting father-in-law helped me re-dress it and told me 'Nope. You're going to the hospital.' Once there, the nurse messed around with it cleaning it out and by-golly that was x10 worse than when it happened. They recommended stitches but too much time had passed (6 hours), so they would have to cut it back open If I wanted it to leave less of a scar. I was more concerned with infection than cosmetics and they confirmed that I didn't NEED stitches, so they taped it up and gave me some antibiotics. As it healed, I realized I had cut through a nerve as the end of my thumb had lost feeling, but it closed up fine and didn't hurt. After 3 or so years I've got about 90% feeling in the end again. I've gotten nicked by non-moving band knives plenty of times over the years, but I still cringe when I think of getting my fingers that close to a moving blade again.

Try 20 feet with an extension ladder sliding out from under me. Landed on my feet, crushed right ankle that the MD couldn't even bother to look at the x-ray or radiologists report. Came down between 2 rising stem gate valves on 6" lines. Right side of my shirt was ripped open, slight scratch on my chest. Could have ripped my shoulder off if I had been a few inches further forward. Very thankful that didn't happen. The ankle was bad enough, limped for 15 years. Still can't bear to lace up an ice skate to go skating 54 years later. For years, too much or too little exercise on that ankle resulted in severe pain. Had to keep moving, but not too much, We have lots of safety standards. They are there for a reason. If I had waited for my fellow worker to come back and brace the ladder before I stepped down onto the rung, this wouldn't have happened. He was called away because a couple 1000 scfm air compressors had tripped and had to be restarted immediately else the whole utility plant that supplied steam, compressed air, 54MW of electricity, utility water, boiler feed water, cooling water would have been lost and the whole process including a refinery would have shut down. We were in a isolated location 100 miles from the electrical grid. I should have just sat there and waited!

I managed to get my finger caught in a rotating bit on a spindle moulder. That didn't look so pretty. But nothing was really harmed, so just a bit more scars to the collection. :-) I have always been a bit scared of the Z-blades for the moulder, those things are aggressive, once a board got caught while I was shifting it around, smashed the end into a wall and made a big dent in the mortar covered wall.

That armored tee-shirt saved you. Sucked up the energy of the spinning bit. EDIT: 7th grade wood shop teacher was missing a couple of fingers and had a scar on the same wrist, having almost lost the hand. Years earlier his necktie got caught in a wood lathe. Maybe that's why I don't have all the great war stories you guys do ...

I was wearing a tee shirt which wrapped it up , had to cut the bit out of the shirt .

Just to be clear you tried to dye it after you glued it to the wood?

Good evening, I'm working on a medieval sword scabbard with wooden core. I am at the final stepsn and I need to dye it. I want it black and, to mantain historical accuracy, I chose vinegaroon which I made by myself following the tutorial here only got a small part of the steel wool in contact with air, a little of rust has developed. I dyed my piece. At first, leather became deep black and I was very satisfied...but the next day it turned grey, and had lots of blothces and spots with no colour. I tried adding more and more but no difference. Tried a light sanding, nothing. The leather covering is made with 1.2 mm vegtan calfskin, which has been cased and glued to the wooden core. I used a bone folder to shape it and adhere to the wood, using hot hide glue; leather got burnished after the process. My guess is that the process closed the pores of the leather preventing the solution to penetrate...after a light sanding I noticed a better penetration but little change in colour. Pics attached: at the bottom the scabbard; the strip next to it is a piece of the same leather...this got a nice and even colour, but with a gray tone (which darkens a lot after applying some conditioner). Will try also applying black tea to darken the colour on a scrap. In the meantime, i'm preparing a new batch of vinegaroon using degreased iron wire pieces which have not the problem of floating, so no possibility of rusting. Thanks a lot in advance!

Close shave. Did it wrap around your shirt?

Thanks for your replies. Im going to search for Adler and GA5. it would be a bit difficult I guess

Hello everyone! First time , I've read the rules but if I am missing something let me know! I've had leatherworking as a hobby since 2022 now, and I've been enjoying it a lot. After 3 years of sewing by hand I wanted to look into a sewing machine. After doing some research and looking around locally at what was available (the more crucial to the search of the two), I found and fell in love with this Adler 105-27. But as any young man who has fallen in love. I am not sure how to get it to work. I have watched videos and read posts on how a sewing machine generally works, so I am not completely out of my depth... Sadly I seem to have chosen amachine on which there is not a lot of information online. I've found the manual online, and read through some posts about the 105 but was unable to come up with a solution by myself. I did read that the 205 and the singer 45k are models similar to the 105, but am not sure of that enough to use the manuals for the fixing of my machine. The problem I am running into is that my top thread seems to be breaking after a couple of stitches (2 or 3). I've lowered and increased the upper thread tension, exchanged the needle. But to no avail. I've included a slowmotion video of the side of the machine whilst stitching and a couple pictures of the machine in question. In the video the top thread seems to be jumping around a lot during sewing. Not sure if this might be the culprit. If anyone is able to offer me any advice I would be very grateful! If there is any information that I have not included let me know. Thanks in advance! Video of stitching in slow motion, shot (poorly) on my Iphone:

Had a 1/2 x 2 1/2 carbide door panel bit come out of a running router , hit me in the stomach . Got some minor cuts and lost a shirt , wasn't my time as it should have come out my back ....

I was a roofer, worked on church steeples, and was also a cement finisher and cabinet maker, all of which were dangerous jobs. I fell 3 feet from a steep ladder, and that was a life-changing event. you never know. LOL

I didn't want to tag this onto the sewing machine accidents post so I'll say it here. Many years ago an engineering pal told me about the day when when a 1 1/2 inch by 12 inch grindstone came loose at full speed. It whizzed around the workshop 3 times causing much damage before coming to a stop such was the inertia. My worst nightmare accident is getting a tie caught in one of those. You wouldn't be able to stop it in time. Makes me shiver. Is why ties are banned.