dirtclod

Thanks for showing how you do that. Now i just need to get some blades and give it a try.

Thanks for the pictures. It makes sense on how it works now.

Neat ldeal . But i guess i'm just stupid because i don't understand exactly how it works. Can you take some pictures when you cutting and beveling something ? I think i could get it then.

Nice job !! I really like the clown !!

Nice job !

Ohio Travel Bag has these http://www.ohiotravelbag.com/FlipBook/hardware%20catalog%20p210/index.html . They might work.

Here's Ferdco's address http://www.ferdco.com/ . Their a Juki dealer and are super nice folks to boot. In the list on the left where it says swap board their are few Juki machines for sale by private parties. I have a Juki machine and love it.

Well the way i read your first post was he might as well hang it up because he had done a terrible job. Maybe i was wrong but that's the way i read it. If a person wants to start off on bigger project than coasters then that's their business. Their paying for the materials. Making mistakes is part of learning. A person needs some praise to. And i do get it. If all you ever get is negative feedback you have ruined any confidence they ever had. Back when i was doing carpenter work a guy i worked just about ruined me. It was let me take a look at that before you put it up, or you did that wrong can't you learn anything. I was so beat down by the time i finally quit and went top work for another contractor i had no confidence in my self of being able to do anything. But he brought back by telling me he had hired a carpenter not a laborer. Sure i screwed some things up but he never flew off the handle. In the end i think i turned out to be a pretty good carpenter, made a living at for several years anyway and was never fired.

Skippy looks to me like your doing a fine job. Is it perfect probley not, but the way i look at things if everthing you made was perfedct their would never be any room for improvement. I bet if a person had somebodys work that are real good at tooling in their hands and wanted to nit pick they could find mistakes. Might not be a lot but their are mistakes. No body is perfect. I know for sure i'm not !! Do i ever make something that gets cut up and hits the trash can you bet i do. But thats part of learning and it doesn't matter if your just starting or have been doing it for years it happens. You did take on a big project with a double gun rig. But it's your money and your time to do with what you want. All i can say is make what you want no matter what anybody else says. I do agree with what was said about looking at your first work a year or so down the road. You will see improvement. I seen some of the first breast collars i made a few years ago wondered how in the world i ever sold any of them. When i started doing leather work i was thrown in the deep end of the pool. Never had done any kind of leather work except for a Tandy billfold kit that wasn't finished years before. All i told was don't mark on the leather with a ink pen, this is how to edge, this is a round knife it's sharp and this how to use a strap cutter and i started repairing saddles. Couple of years later i was lucky enough to have a saddle maker take me on and show me the way he built saddles.Sense then i have adapted other ways of doing some things just because they work better for me. And i'm not above borrowing a ideal from somebody else. But i tell who i borrowed from and why.

I'm pretty sure i read where Weaver was sold. Looks like the new owners want to get all their money back as quick as they can.

I use a 22 ounce maul to drive my punch's with. As far as the dimples put a file folder, piece of a creral , cracker box under your leather. You can make a dye out of a piece of leather the same as your belt. Be sure to add the enough lenght for the tail along with your holes.

Hi David, the wooden strap cutter works the best for me when i need to cut light weight leather. It uses injector razor blades. You can get one at any place that sells leather supplies.

Nice work Nicole. Their alot nicer than any i seen the iron workers use when i worked construction. Do you make any of the harness for the belts ? I used to make quite a few of them for iron workers and carpenters. John

Several years ago i had a guy come my shop and ask to have his name brand designer billfold repaired. I told him i couldn't fix because the oustside was made out of plastic. He had a fit called me a lair. Said he had paid several hundred dollars for it and it had to be leather. The inside was leather but the outside was plastic. As P T Barnum would say theirs a fool or was it a sucker born ever minute. People that buy things like buy the name trying to impress their friends. It's like paying extra for a gold American Express card. It does the same thing as a green American Express card but it's gold it and cost more in fee's. Their status symbols for want a be's. Have you ever noticed that people that have lots of money or people that want you to think they have lots of money write name in a scribble ?

First thing i would try is putting a new needle in and see if that helps. Is the needle in with the groove to the left ? Is the needle the right size ? If you have tried all of those i would loosen the tension up and try to sew on a piece of chap leather folded and slowly tighten the tension till had it sewing fine on that. Then it should male a nice stitch on ever thing else. Just a couple of days ago i went and took a look at a guys machine it was breaking the thread and skipping stitches and he had the tension screwed as tight as he could get it on the top and bottom. Loosen them up and then seen he had tightened the bottom so much it had caused a spring to come unhooked. Fixed the spring it sewed fine. One those might help or might not.

I seen this ( the fiber ixtles that then is washed with small portion of lemon and salt until it gets a bright white compare) on this site, right above the pictures of the belts. http://www.piteadofino.com/piteado_fino_017.htm That might work.

You need to move it closer to the fork unless you want a center fire rigging. Look at the pictures of saddles with a flat plate rigging that have been posted on here and you will see what i mean.

Nice job !! That is one P.O. fish..LOL.

Bondo Bob i don't think i would use the dry wall screws on a saddle becuase their pretty brittle. Put one in a vice and bend it will a pair pf pliers. It will break right off. I use screws but i try to get stainless steel ones for use on a saddle because their alot stronger. John

Why don't you make your own pattern ? It doesn't look like theirs a whole to it and it should be easy to make out of some poster board.

I use a 2, 3, 4, and 6. The 2 and 3 i use most of the time. But the 4 and 6 are really nice for when i need a nice round edge on something real thick.

Natalie, i don't think your going to find one machine that sew really thin leather to really heavy leather. I have a Juki Pro 2000 that will sew two thickness of chap leather to 7/8 inch heavy leather. It's a great machine but it won't sew really thin leather.

Everybody has to start some place and you have a nice well lit place to start from. I would of killed for a place like that when i started..LOL.

My machine is Juki Pro 2000 and i sew everything on holsters, belts, chaps, saddles, saddle bags just about every thing i make and i sew setting down. In the past i stood to sew because that was the only you could sew on the machine i had. Setting is better !! Espically if your sewing all day long.

A # 4 beveler is pretty wide. Try a #2 #3 and see what happens. I think your taking to much off.