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Hey Donnie, I made them for the dremel but if you have access to a lathe and simply need info, drop me a line. my website is also below. Chris

http://cgi.ebay.com/TIPPMANN-SEWING-MACHINE-BOSS-HEAVY-ONE-/220833675682?pt=BI_Sewing_Machines&hash=item336ab679a2

Happens to the best of us when trying something new. As for the Doc Martens, it's the same as the Atom Balm and Pecard's Dressing. It's a conditioner for after the project is done, won't seal the leather. Almost all the true sealers are going to an acrylic or lacquer based top coat finish. Think of it like woodworking...build, sand, oil/stain, vanish/lacquer, wax.

No worries, since I'm feeling lazy, I'll link to a post I made yesterday abut my post-dye finishing process. This is just my method as everyone has their own tweaks and tricks: http://leatherworker...ndpost&p=208964 For starting out, you can get a cheap sprayer with the Tandy Preval unit and glass jar (both for about $10) to spray the resolene on. Later you'll want to check out a cheap airbrush like the single action ones at Harbor Freight. For products, my favorites are: Fiebing Leather Dye (NOT LeatherColors) or Fiebings Pro Oil Dye if you can get it. Resolene makes a great protective sealer. Pure Neatsfoot for the oil. For the conditioner and weather"proofing" (it's more like weather resistant, nothing is weather proof) I use Pecard's Motorcycle Leather Lotion and the Motorcycle Leather Weatherproof Dressing. The last two you can get in a kit from Pecard directly for $18 that will last you quite a while: http://www.pecard.co...Code=kits-small I recommend the small kit for folks trying them out since it comes with the lotion and both colors of dressing (natural and black). The large kit only comes with the natural but in a bigger tub. Side note: I mistyped originally when I said Fiebing Motorcycle Dressing, it's made by Pecard.

What I meant by that statement was that Eco-Flow being water based pigment will partially desolve/not inhibit a spirit or oil based dye from being applied on top of it. The stronger dye will simply add more color to the leather and blend with or cover the existing dye. Unfortunately, with the mink oil applied such is not the case anymore as the silicone and lanoline in mink oil may inhibit additional dye from penetrating (end up splotchy/streaks). For the oiling stage next time, try Pure Neatsfoot Oil. It's a more natural product and doesn't inhibit dye from penetrating the leather should you decide it needs more color. In fact, when doing true black pieces, I'll do a coat of neatsfoot between my last two applications of dye to get a deeper penetration. For now, at the stage you're at, your best bet is to simply finish the project and press on to the next one with more experience behind you. So to finish off what you have I would: Oil & Tan to desired color Buff with a soft cloth to remove residual color/oil seal apply weather resistant top coat dressing mount it up & put some miles on it. start designing the next one - include some tooling & lacing next time for more fun! Cheers, Chris

Not a bad start! As for Eco-flow dyes, keep in mind they are water based so spirit and oil based dyes will go over them with no problem. (Doesn't work so well the other way around though). The Mink Oil doesn't seal the leather though, it will simply act as a conditioner and and help keep the elements from breaking down the leather as fast. You did have a good idea by putting it in the sun though as sunlight will 'tan' leather just like our skin. Keep in mind though it will also burn just like us too. Do the sun bit in small time increments like 15-30 minutes and oil in between. It's a great way to get a "natural" reddish-brown color going. As for the rub off, you can eliminate much of that by buffing the leather with an old t-shirt or diaper cloth. This will burnish the fibers of the leather and pull out any excess surface color. Then after it sits for a few days to let the oil set up, apply a coat of the super sheen and let dry overnight. Rub in another coat of the oil and apply a top dressing like Atom Balm or Fiebing Motorcycle Dressing and you should be good to go for a season or two - unless you're like me and change things as you go along. The above is just out there to help with the products you have now, on future attempts you'll want to pick up different supplies for the dye & finishing process. Hope this helps, Chris

I think it totally works and looks good. I agree with Bill though, not sure if there is enough money to convince me to hand sew a bag with that many seams. Kudos to you for sticking with it.

I've been hearing about the "Pro" tools from Tandy as well. Hopefully it's something they plan to pursue, polishing the plated ones after regrinding them is a pain. SS would be much nicer to work with.

One thing to consider when painting leather that is to also be dyed is whatever color the leather is under your paint will come through in "tones" unless you layer the paint on heavy. Opaque and Solid pigment colors will fare better but any color that is opalescent or translucent will portray the 'base' color in it's overall tone. Consider it like this: painting white over browns will cause the white to look greyed out or muddy until it has enough layers to block out the base color. Black dye over tan leather will have a warmish tone to it which is why dying the leather blue before dying black will help give it a more natural looking cool tone. Long story short, it takes a bit more work but if you can keep the areas to be dyed and painted separate (doing them one at a time and not over one another) will keep your colors more true, especially if you lighten the leather beforehand by using Oxalic Acid or lemon juice. Here are a few examples: Before paint - notice how light the leather to be painted is (yeah, there was an oops in the upper right corner of the anchor I had to go back and lighten): After acrylic paint was applied: Hope that helps, Chris Just for fun, here's another two examples using the same process:

Thanks capsterdog, good find. Sadly, it simply illustrates what many have sad in recent years...Tandy has taken a decent collection of tools and reduced the available options while decreasing their quality at the same time. Looking at the impression pictures on many of the larger tools it's easy to see the impressions are nowhere near as clear or defined and seeing as how technology has just gotten better in the same time they can't necessarily fall back on the "bad pic" defense.

Check out the top posts here: Biker & Motorcycle Gear forum you'll find 3 out of the top 6 are seat tutorials. As for the leather, that varies with your budget, skill set, etc. Tandy Leather Factory and Springfield Leather both carry hides and Wickett & Craig has nicer stock but you have to buy an entire side. Many folks will use somewhere between 7/8 - 9/10 oz leather for the top and 5/6oz for the sides. Vegetable Tanned (Veg-Tan) is the leather to use. As for wetting, you'll want to do a search on the forum for threads about "Casing" and "Wet Forming", "Wet Molding", they will all discuss the amount of moisture used and how to form the leather around the foam. Sponged on and sprayed on (water bottle) are the most common. You don't want the leather to be soaking wet all the way through as it will take quite a while to dry and the moisture that can get trapped between the leather and foam can cause it to mold in there, bad juju. Just wet the grain side of the leather enough to make it pliable, it will turn a much darker shade of brown than when dry. Let the leather rest and soak in the water to about 1/2 it's thickness. You can always add small amounts of moisture to the leather as you work if needed.

Good looking seat Rickey. On the pebble tools, definitely go with the Hidecrafter ones from Springfield. The Tandy ones don't have quite as good of definition to them as the SLC ones. I bought 10 of the 04 and 3 of the 03 and ground & polished them to various shapes and sizes so they are now my most used backgrounders. Folks seems to take notice of the background more now than when I used the traditional cross hatch pattern. Chris

Thanks, i thought about a liner but seeing as how the quad is likely never to come out of it there wasn't a real need. I did slick the inside down and dye & seal it though. My normal process is the one I use on motorcycle gear to make it seriously weather resistant. Here goes: 2 decent coats of neatsfoot oil, dry overnight Spray 1 coat of resolene (50/50 cut with water) let tack up for 1-2 hours, buff residue and spray second coat of same mix. dry overnight Apply generous coat of Fiebing motorcycle leather conditioner, buff until oily feel is gone and leather is pliable again With the leather still warmed by the buffing/room temp, apply and rub in a good coat of Fiebing Weatherproof Motorcycle Leather Dressing (natural or black depending on the dye color). Let it soak in for a bit and then buff. After lacing/stitching, I'll apply a second coat of the leather dressing over the whole thing including the new lacing. I also use the dressing to lubricate the lace during lacing. Thanks Sam!

This was a quick piece that I made last week, my mom asked me to make a Scripture cover for my Borther-in-law's birthday. I had made a similar one in black for my nephew's baptism. They are practicing LDS (Mormon) so the cover had to fit the specific set of Scriptures he carries. Their Scripture set is made up of 4 books and can be found in 1, 2 & 3 volume sets. Fortunately my BIL carries the single 1 book collection so I only needed to make one cover. The CTR shield is general LDS symbology and stands for "Choose the Right", his initials are below. He asked for brown instead of black and knowing his personality knew he'd enjoy something with a distressed, aged look versus something that looked brand spanking new. To get the color variation effect, I started with Fiebings Dye Prep next was Light Brown spirit dye applied with a dauber and then followed it up the next day with Dark Brown Pro Oil dye hand rubbed with wool scrap. My normal 4 part finishing process topped it off. Enjoy! Chris

I believe this is the one I have seen around $40-50 when they do their big sales: http://www.harborfre...ress-38119.html Even at $69 it's cheaper than buying a motor, chuck and misc. parts plus your time to make them go together.

I've found that wool wheels work better at much higher speeds than the wood burnishers. Wool wheels work best on 1750-3450 motors whereas the cocobolo burnishers seem to work better at a slower speed, around 1000-1100 rpms. This is the advice I've given many customers and it seems to work well across the field. A $40 Harbor Freight drill press works perfect as a burnisher motor as it's inexpensive and the pulleys have that speed setting already installed. For dremel sized burnishers I generally recommend the 1/2 way point on the variable speed dremels (which is about 8-12k rpm depending on brand). The smaller diameter combined with lighter pressure (you can press on a drill burnisher much harder than a dremel one) requires a bit more speed to produce the same friction heat and maintain it. Chris

Hey Winterbear, I sell them for $80 (about half the price of a full size solo bag since they are half the size) plus shipping. The bracket is only guaranteed to fit the Honda Aero and Spirit 750 models though as the foot pegs can be different on various bikes. What I can do though is to punch the holes for a bracket if he has a different bike and then he can make or get a bracket for his bike and then use chicago screws to secure the bag to bracket. Hey Aaron, thanks for that info. I tried two shops already and they didn't want to do it. I have cut granite before with my die grinder but this is a bit thicker and a longer line than that so I'm not sure I'm in the mood just yet to try. Chris

The bench will be flush top, although at this size the granite will be the top so there won't be much to flush against it. I'm going to try and clean up the edge some so that I can flush it with the countertop that will be next to it giving me 6 feet of flat surface...hopefully that works out as planned.

Thanks to Jim who posted a week or so ago about granite slabs in So. Cal for those that wanted to pick them up I have a nice new one that will reside on the new workbench I'm building for my new work area this month. Once mounted and framed it will be 27" x 47" x 1" thick of tooling area goodness!

As for the wow factor, I believe so. Also, don't forget to ask Matt or Glenn about how the "Overstock" leather looks. I just received 2 sides I ordered after talking to Matt who said the overstock was looking very nice due to a recent run they did for a big name designer purse & bag maker. Matt was right and they are gorgeous, in fact the quality is as good if not better than their "A" grade I have bought in the past. Here's a picture of a tank bib blank I did from their B grade not long ago. My bibs start out as 28" x 24" blanks so as you can imagine I don't have the time or use for a side that doesn't have a ton of usable leather. The blank in the picture is drying after tooling and it's known that cased leather shows it's "spots" better than dry...this piece has nothing but goodness to show. and here is a pic of the finished bib installed...as you can see, it tools and wet forms nicely and the grain shows nice and even.

One thing most folks may not know is that W&C just finished their annual cleaning and machine tuning (the do the whole tannery once a year) that requires a two week shut-down of production. Normally if the order involves something the maintain regular stock in, 9/10oz carving sides for example, it takes about 2-3 days for it to ship. If it's something they have to cut, skive or dye it's usually a week or so before it ships. It's my understanding that right before the shut down that they don't prep as much stock before hand so they have less to move/shift around and then it takes a week or so to get caught up afterwards. So aside from the first 3 weeks of July, they are pretty much on par for delivery times when ordering direct from a tannery in small lots. I normally try Matt first as he's easier to get a hold of, Glenn is pretty responsive as well but Linda seems to be the busiest of the three. She may be the one who works with the like of Louis Vitton and such, who also order from them. Never had a bad conversation or experience with any of them. As for the billing and money pull, that's normal. It takes billing about a week to process the orders coming in but as a show of good faith, W&C will always ship when your order is ready, even if the billing hasn't processed yet. I order 2-4 sides from them per month and after doing so for the last year I've gotten used to how things work. Funny thing, they simply do things how every company used to do them, we've just gotten used to the Tandys & Amazons of the world with their instant processing. Personally, I'll wait a few extra days for the quality.

That almost sounds like a trip to Al Bane's shop. I went there for the first time Saturday and was in leather sewing playland...9 sewing machines all set up with different weight threads and needles and then there were all the setters, skivers, etc. Fun place to hang out and work.

+1 to Art's response. For spraying top coats and easy cleaning the 250 is the way to go. Inexpensive and easy to use. Next up would be the 200 and then the Anthem 155 after that it's worth the money to move into an Iwata or similar. Here's a good shop that I have bought 3 different airbrushes from: http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/badger.aspx they carry accessories and replacement parts too.