Matt S

I don't know for certain if latex glues like we might use in leatherwork use natural latex or a similar synthetic substance. I'd be curious to find out. However I do know that it doesn't take a lot of latex for an allergic person to have a reaction so I'd rather not take that risk.

One minor point, Renia Aquilim 315 is neoprene based rather than latex. I can get latex glues pretty cheaply but use Renia 315 in preference in case any of my products come into contact with people you who are allergic to latex.

Anyone got a link to the product? My Googlefu seems weak this morning. $950 for a manual clicker press isn't too bad, considering the price of a Weaver, Lucris or Noya. Assuming it's not one of those tiny ones with two pillars like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Manual-knife-die-press-pressure-cutting-leather-undercutting-machine-manual-leather-mold-die-cutting-machine-1pc/32829732177.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_2_10152_10151_10065_10344_10130_10068_10324_10547_10342_10325_10546_10343_10340_10548_10341_315_10545_10696_10084_531_10083_10618_10307_10059_100031_10103_10624_10623_10622_10621_10620,searchweb201603_51,ppcSwitch_5&algo_expid=c0c7fc0a-494c-4ea8-8e8f-3808fce5ae9e-29&algo_pvid=c0c7fc0a-494c-4ea8-8e8f-3808fce5ae9e&priceBeautifyAB=0

I haven't seen that video before. I'll leave the conspiracy musings where they are (can't pick up a turd by the clean end). It's not exactly a new idea. It's been shown several times on this forum. Some older machines used to come with a 2-speed balance wheel, like the Singer 45k. Sure swapping a large motor pulley onto a machine'll work but there's a good few reasons it isn't ideal. In no particular order: (1) Balance/hand wheels are designed for the hand to manipulate quickly, easily and safely, 40 hours a week. They have rounded, smooth edges raised enough that fingers, sleeves and bracelets are kept well away from the belt groove. No motor pulley I've met has any of these features. In fact it wouldn't be possible to use a pulley as a hand wheel with belt guards in place, which are mandatory in the workplace in many jurisdictions. See also the spoke design of most larger motor pulleys, which are designed to minimise mass and material, but would act as very effective finger tanglers. (2) Balance/hand wheels act to balance the rotational speed of the machine through each stitch cycle. They do this by acting as a flywheel -- having weight around the rim, which stores rotational energy when there is an easy part of the cycle (e.g. thread take-up) and expends it into the machine during a hard part of the cycle (e.g. needle penetration). This balances out the load on the motor. The more weight the wheel has the more energy is stored. Motor pulleys are built to be as lightweight as possible, which will result in a less smooth load on the motor through each stitch cycle. How this affects a modern, cheap servo motor I'm not sure. Maybe it'll cope but I doubt it'll do it any good. (3) Much more difficult to attach a needle synchroniser/position sensor. Very handy gadget that more people ought to use, especially if their machine is a tool of their trade. (4) It's an unsupported (by the manufacturer's warranty) solution/modification. If you get into a crash with out-of-spec wheels on your car your insurance company's probably not going to write you a check and there may be criminal charges involved. A Ford dealership wouldn't put different wheels on your new car than it's specced for, and neither would a Consew dealer put a wheel on your machine that it's not specced for. Sewing machines are a far lower risk proposition than cars but the same principle applies, especially when you're selling and servicing them for a living. (5) It's also not exactly slow slow -- he's only getting about a 3:1 reduction from the motor to the machine. With a 40mm pulley on the motor, a 3:1 reducer (even a £30 home-made one) and the 80mm factory hand-wheel on his machine he could achieve a 6:1 reduction if he really wanted. That's slow. He'd need a 240mm (nearly 10") diameter wheel on his machine to get this same reduction ratio with a 40mm pulley on his motor, or a 300mm (12") wheel with a 50mm (2") pulley. I've seen pictures of a Singer 111 with a 12" pulley added onto its wheel but it looked professionally modified ($£$£$£). Better just to stick all those reducer pulley gubbins under the table where thread, scissors, pens, fingers and your coffee cup aren't going to be under threat. Now I'm no tech and I'm no dealer. Just a user that does most of his own stunts. My experience is mostly sewing leather, which is a lot tougher than a similar thickness of canvas, and I suspect that the chap who filmed that video hasn't got much experience of doing so. If it works for him, that's great. Not my cuppa tea though. Not something I'd recommend very quickly to others. And very probably not a conspiracy by sewing machine salesmen.

Blimey who made that table, a boy scout with a blunt pocket knife and a bottle of Red Bull?

Hi Nightshade, What happened immediately before it jammed up? If there was a thread jam you might have a fragment of thread in the shuttle race, which has such a tight tolerance that even a short length of thread can cause it to jam up solid. If there was a needle crash it's possible that the machine is been put out of time, or even that there's a piece of needle stuck somewheree. I'd suggest you don't force it any more --it can cause more problems than the one you're trying to solve! If it were me I'd unthread the machine completely, pop the motor belt of the wheel and gently rock the wheel back and forth as far as it'll move while watching the shuttle hook very closely. If you're familiar with the operation of the machine you'll start to get an idea of where the problem lies.

That's some great work Stew, welcome to the forum! Checaflo is a great teacher -- he knows his stuff and demonstrates it without excessive ado or pretension. I'm heard it said that the mark of a great teacher is being able to explain complicated subjects in a very simple way and he does this very well. You got a very good price on that Seiko. I have its cylinder-bed sibling (LCW-8BL) -- really excellent machines, easily worth 5x what you paid. Let me know how you get on with the G60, I'm shopping for a new servo and that's on the shortlist. I'd be particularly interested in learning how you attach the synchroniser as my Seiko has a different attachment method to the synchroniser for the servo I currently have.

I also have an old skiving machine and it came with this tool for removing that nut: I'm not sure if it's the "correct" tool (I imagine a fully enclosed ring spanner with 4x teeth to be about perfect) but it fits perfectly. There are no markings on my one and the opening is around 18mm across though TBH I'm not sure how they're supposed to be measured. I've always known this as a "hack spanner" but apparently Google doesn't know that phrase so apparently it's a localism or I'm just plain wrong. The accepted word for this sort of tool appears to be a "hook spanner", quite widely available from the usual gettin spots.

Silly question: have you tried with or without fabric/leather in the machine? There are differences in loop formation when there is or isn't material under the foot. Pictures and video would be great. Have you tried turning the machine over without the needle plate in place? Can you see what's going on?

I've warmed them a little with a heat gun (to about 70 degrees C for veg tan) and not noticed any ill effects on the stamp. If I get a chance I'll try one out at a temperature suitable for chrome tan and get back to you. My big concern is using a gas torch to heat the stamp, even a little one like that. Not so much the overall heat energy but how localised it is with the zinc alloy that they seem to use. I've heard of Ivan screw creases melting when put in a flame. Do you have a hot-air gun? That might provide less focused heat.

If you use leathers with little or no grease Evo Stik works just fine. There's even water-based glues that will work for that application. I like Renia 315 wherever I can get away with it but I've used PVA, Copydex and Fiebing's leather cement (a modified PVA I think) before, all to good effect. Bonding bridle back-to-back I can get away with using water-based glue if I can shave a bit off the back, since most bridle leathers aren't nearly so waxy once you get beyond the surface. I use a lot of heavily waxed/greased leathers and I have no choice but to use the 441 for a really solid bond. It's not as bad in practice as the safety-sheet says. The important thing, as with all risks in life, is to reduce the dangers with the use of common sense to the point at which the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Yes theoretically I could die from toluene exposure but equally theoretically I could drown in the bath. I have an extractor fan in front of which I do my glueing which theoretically changes the air in the shed twice every minute. Large areas of glue are placed outside to go tacky in the open air so they're not off-gassing into my breathing air. The glue dispenser is closed as soon as I'm not using it. The jar of solvent in which I clean brushes is tall enough for the lid to be closed with the brushes in, so again it's not off-gassing. I wear a respirator rated for filtering organic vapors any time I'm using any but a very small amount. Safety-sheets carry a lot of important information but they are partially an arse-covering exercise -- just like the ones they provide in boxes of aspirin. There are people who have died after taking an aspirin so, even if that's just once out of the millions of times a year people in the UK take aspirin without ill effect, they put that in the small print so the manufacturer and distributor can't be found liable in the event that someone does cark it after taking a 5p aspirin. Evo-Stik can work very well. Which version do you use? I mostly used the red label DIY type. Tried the green label "professional" stuff a few times but didn't notice much difference, nor could I figure out from the label, the safety-sheet or the company's website exactly what the difference was supposed to be. I found that thinning the stuff a little increased the quality of the bond and the nice thing was that I could pick it up from any DIY store if I ran out, though I would try to find somewhere with a quick turnover so I got a fresh tin. I have some of the blue-label repositionable stuff but never got on with it, too thick, like a paste.

Beautiful job @Evo160K -- truly a great piece of work. I'll bet that machine didn't look so good when it came out of Kilbowie!

Harry, check out Howstik 441, available from Abbey in 1l or 5l tins. This is what I use regularly for leather-on-leather where Renia 315 isn't suitable, though I haven't had occasional to use it for leather-on-metal. 441 is miles better than Evostik, which I used to use -- it's thinner (therefore wets out better), shrugs away grease much easier, bonds stronger, is cheaper, and is less likely to go off in the dispenser. It can also be reactivated with a few passes of a heat gun. It thins with normal contact cement cleaner/thinner, which is about £6/l from Amazon. The only thing I don't like with it, apart from the fumes, is that it's not much good for bonding vinyl. Abbey also list Solibond 949, which is a neoprene (polychloroprene) based contact cement. I've not used 949 as I'm quite happy with the 441, which is less expensive, however I understand that the 949 is better for bonding plastics. Both 441 and 949 list toluene between 10-30% by weight in their safety data sheets (amongst other volatile solvents), which are available through Abbey's website. Both adhesives appear to be manufactured by Anglo Adhesives Ltd -- I'd suggest contacting them rather than Abbey for technical information. Harry if you've worked with toluene-containing glues before you'll be well aware of the fumes but to anyone else who may be tempted to try them out I feel I must put a bit of a warning. There's a reason why toluene is used in glues: it works bloody well. There's also a reason why it was removed from consumer-grade glues: it's nasty stuff. To quote Wikipedia: Inhalation of toluene in low to moderate levels can cause tiredness, confusion, weakness, drunken-type actions, memory loss, nausea, loss of appetite, hearing loss, and color vision loss. Some of these symptoms usually disappear when exposure is stopped. Inhaling high levels of toluene in a short time may cause light-headedness, nausea, or sleepiness, unconsciousness, and even death. People mature enough to use tools, solvents and machinery without supervision are responsible for their own safety and what you decide to do is your own business. When using any but the smallest quantities of toluene-based glue I use a respirator rated for organic vapours, basic fume extraction, and limit my exposure however I can. I'm on my last set of lungs and I aim to keep them functioning as well as I can for as long as I can.

Skiving belt ends is an ideal job for this sort of machine. It makes a neat, even skive much easier and faster to achieve than just about any type of hand tool. It's very difficult to use such a machine to neatly skive small pieces of leather -- you'll need to grip it somehow, and something as small as a card slot will have to have half done in each direction which can leave a mark on the surface. Much better to skive a piece of leather wider and longer than the piece you want, and then to cut out the desired shape once it's at the proper thickness.

I'd call that a pull skiver rather than a splitter myself but I know not everyone would agree with me (some manufacturers included!). That one by Alexander Majura looks fine and certainly cheaper than an Osborne but it's not suited to all jobs. It won't, for instance, be much use on stretchy or thin leathers. It won't be very consistent over a long piece and it will be very difficult to pull though a piece of leather any wider than 4" (100mm). It would be great for splitting down lace/thong and for skiving turnbacks and laps. What do you want to use it for Viktor?

That's great. I would hope that'll filter into a lower retail price for their leather but I doubt it.

The topic of human leather came up a few years ago: Opinion on this topic seems fairly polarising. When I'm dead I really don't care what happens to my hide so long as I wasn't murdered for it. However as a friend pointed out when I registered for organ donation, nobody will want my kidneys if they're pickled in vivo...

Toluene (the "fun" ingredient) was taken out of everyday contact cement over here a couple decades ago but about half of hardware stores keep it under the counter or in a locked cabinet due to the amount that walks out the door of its own accord. Acetone, meths, butane and other stuff that can be used for a quick high always sit on open shelves though... I think locking up stuff that is likely to get nicked isn't exactly a modern phenomenon.

I've ordered a few bits from them before. For small amounts of leather they're probably fine but at £14/SQFT for tooling veg that's going to get expensive fast. I find that Le Prevo and Abbey have just as good prices on some tools, and much better on others.

There's a few papers that address using the stuff in the tanning process but nothing readily available about its use in leathercrafting. Cheapest I've found is £9 for 100g on Amazon. I might be tempted to experiment.

Alexis do you have any photos of the work you're having trouble with? Are you glueing or tacking the two layers together before sewing? It sounds like the top, curved layer is perhaps slipping out of alignment with the bottom layer after you've sewn the first side.

Sounds like Sedgwick, or at least the terms they had a few years ago after they merged with Claytons. Abbey England sells Sedgwick skins individually, as does Tandy... at least for now... If you want real English bridle I like Baker's. 5th-generation family owned, pit tanned in England from English hides. And they'll sell you a single piece.

That would be a shame if they fold, Sedgwick finishes some lovely leathers, though I understand that they haven't tanned anything in years.

How about a piece of Horween Round Up? It's a veg-tanned horse leather in about 10 colours and has a great pull-up effect. A bit thin and floppy for a knife sheath on its own but if you line it with some stiffer veg it's make a very striking knife sheath. Only problem is it comes as a double horse front (about equal to a double shoulder), which is probably more leather than you want to buy for a couple little jobs. You may be able to find someone who will sell you a smaller piece (likely for 4x the $ per SQFT though). http://www.aacrack.co.uk/tannnage-ranges/horween/horween-round-up.html

Ya don't want to, ya don't want to. Wax isn't difficult to deal with but it's more hassle than I think is worth it for a roll of TKT40 poly.