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That buckle has quite a bend where it comes out of the belt. That may be causing some of it.

This is a couple of photo's of the bobbin assembly from a fellow member who recently bought a 341 machine from them. Yours looks like a Juki style. kgg

The majority of the people here are experts and professionals. Professional leatherwork - there should be a proper noun for that. I mean, farmers call themselves 'agriculturists', I discovered some time ago. I don't blame them. When we say 'farmer' the layman sees someone in overalls standing in a field, but an agriculturist brings a different vision to mind. Farmers are as expert in their field as doctors in medicine. So they deserve that respect. As do leatherworkers. So a name that commands that respect is long overdue, maybe. In medicine, everyone is a doctor but individuals specialize - neurologist, surgeon, ophthalmologist etc. So a leather professional, who is a saddler, cordwainer, etc. That would command the respect that is deserved. My two bits.

Here you go dikman. Hope it helps. The anti cut gloves are recommended.

Two months ago I made another belt incorporating the advice given here. These photos are after two months of wear. Here I used strips of 6 oz leather cut from a half hide, starting from the back. The belt has a strip of 0.6 mm reinforcement sheet sandwiched in the middle with a margin of about 5mm from the edges. I hand stitched the belt (in addition to glueing). Overall I am not dissatisfied with the end result. It is, at the very least, a functional belt. There is none of the bunching up from my first post, only some deforming of the tongue where the buckle sits. Eventually I intend to make a simple belt single layer belt out of a piece of 8/9 oz side to see how that works out. The thickness seems to be the cause of me misjudging the belt's length a little. As you can see my standard wear hole is the second one instead of the (ideal) third out of five. For this buckle this 12 oz thickness is a bit too much I feel, so my next attempt will use two 4 oz strips.

Today's effort. Reinforced underneath and drilled two 1/2" holes through, then made another toolbit with a different piece of angle iron, this one has minimal radius inside. Made a knife edge to push into the corner and tried that. As expected, and like Toxo said, the inherent springiness of the band stops it from staying at 90*. I'll have to weld up a piece less than 90*, only a minor problem. I'm going to sharpen the toolbit in the second photo and try quenching it, I'm pretty sure it's from an old mower blade so should be hardenable. Overall though I'm pretty happy with it as it can bend the strap without much effort.

I do have a 4 needle chain stitch with approx. 5/8 spacing. if interested let me know . Price under $1,ooo. for head. using needle 1 and 3 will give about 1 1/4" If interested let me know. Not sure about spacing will check. tx Lynn

you have to pull out the foot bar. You have to loosen / remove theses 3 screws too - see rec circel. Alos make sure you removed the return spring that pulls back the presser foot (not meaning foot pressure spring)

to me it looks like a Juki 555 fabric / tailoring machine of some kind

Where are you located in Tennessee? I live in Molino, not Molina.

Certain leather work or crafting has titles; ie cobbler = repairing footwear, cordwainer = making footwear, saddler, and others. But what about bag-makers, leather armourers, board-game makers, and such. We need to make up names to cover those crafts

How much would a basic laser engraver cost? Just one to burn simple things into the leather. Not too deep or anything

Checked tonight for a second spot to attach the return spring. I don't see one. I did try turning the attachment point around, which almost works but then one of the levers bumps into it when you select long reverse stitches. I'd like to replace the factory spring with one that has less stiffness, but I haven't been to a hardware store in a while. Maybe it's time to start forming my own springs.. It only engageswhen I want to wind a bobbin. I wrote that part a couple months ago, and it actually hasn't bothered me since 😀 And I actually use the winder more than I used to. That is, when I think of it and when I think I might be using the same color bobbin thread for a while. I switch colors a lot.. I looked at this tonight. I don't see a good option outside of making my own label for the knob. Or drilling a new hold for the pin that acts as the final stop for the knob. I'm setting it so that the stitch length goes to zero as the pin runs into the final stop. I suppose instead I could figure out where a 4mm stitch is and line the knob up at the 4. 🤔 Ok. Seems reliable with a round eyelet. I can see benefits both ways. Here is the hook assembly. I assume this is NOT the singer 111 style. I wonder if the singer style has a larger outer hook diameter..

Here's what I use:

Nice work. Randy

Was planning to keep it intact, and just tape the thread to the top plate for measurement. But when I took it apart to disable the Mode button (so it will always stay set to grams), it looked so easy to repurpose... kitchen-scale.mp4 Here's a link to the original 500g kitchen scale I bought. And a screenshot: Drilled two holes in the upper right and reused the original screws to mount the load cell there. Added hot glue to keep the wires from being damaged from being tossed around Taped over the digits to the right of the decimal place so they don't distract. Some other posts regarding measuring bobbin tension: gymnast uses a dynamometer RockyAussie measures with hammers Why measure? Because we like numbers 😃 gymnast: how much bobbin tension?

Sorry, I do not agree with your assessment. 🤪

I just say I used to build plastic model kits, most seem to understand that.

10 Hail Mary's should suffice.

Well thats better than the funny looks I get when I say 'I model', or 'make models'. Now reduced to 'I build Airfix model aeroplanes, I've never growed up'

Yep, that had already occurred to me, my intention is to make up tooling so I can use it both ways. That should hopefully cover most contingencies.

sorry, sorry, sorry, I called the tang the scales I'm sorry did I mention that I apologise and I'm sorry

When I'm asked what hobbies I have I just say I dabble in leatherwork. People can make of that what they will.

Paracord is normally wrapped straight onto the tang, I guess it's simple and possibly looks "tacticool". If you glue leather onto the tang first it will bulk it up and make it more comfortable to hold.

Thank you Fred and Chuck for the replies. I’ll give it a try.