Matt S

I take advantage of the size of the "go" pedal and put the ball of my left foot at the bottom left and the ball of my right foot at the top right. I press the pedal only with my right foot -- the weight of my left keeps the pedal under very careful control. It also helps that I learned to drive on a series of vehicles with dodgy clutches ;-)

Thanks Zigzag. May I ask how much it was? DCR wanted £3800+VAT for a 441.

Well that's your answer then: having a very low minimum speed is useful for doing the fiddly bits.

Not sure I'd use bontex inside a strap, but if you really want to I would suggest to cut the bontex so it fits within the stitch lines with a couple mm to spare. Then you won't have any exposed bontex on the edges and you'll slim down the edges slightly. 3oz is what, about 1.2mm. I would approach the job with a multi-fold, either two C-folds glued and sewed together or one C-fold itself folded in half then stitched. This would increase the thickness and strength, give some body/stiffness, and give you folded edges which I think are much better than painted edges on a strap. Sandwiching a length of webbing inside the strap like Latigo Amigo suggests would also work well and would eliminate stretch. I'd still use a piece that's narrower than the stitch lines though.

For me (whose tools all have to pay their way) it's about control and precise placement. I only go slow at starts and ends (especially backtacking), steps up/down for precise placement, sewing around curves and into square corners. My servo motors' pedals give 10 steps between the lowest and highest programmed speeds. I usually have the max speed set near the motor's maximum speed (4500RPM) -- tickle it for precision @80SPM, stomp it on the straightaways @750SPM. I'm not gunshy, I'm not claiming that slower production = better product, I'm not stretching my jobs to fill the gaps between coffee breaks. I pay myself. More product out the door = more pay. Having a slow machine speed available reduces the amount of handwheeling I have to do, and I sure can't handwheel at 80SPM. Can't hold onto the workpiece, press the reverse lever and handwheel at the same time either. Thanks for the recommendation Wiz. We have a smaller selection of servos this side of the pond, as we do 240ish volts @ 50hz out the wall. A better servo is on my wishlist, but it's a long list. This one only cost £100ish and came with a needle positioner.

Yes the RPM of the balance wheel on the machine = SPM. Is that 100RPM what's quoted on the machine or the motor? To calculate this from your motor RPM you have to know the ratio of the pulleys in your powertrain. A lot of upholstery-weight machines have around a 80mm pulley. So with a 40mm pulley on the motor (the smallest you can easily get) you're only getting a 2:1 reduction. The super-cheap servo on my upholstery-weight cylinder-bed machine starts at 500RPM so I had to fit a 3:1 reducer to get it under 250SPM. With the reducer I have it down to about 80SPM, which is pretty slow. Bonus with a reducer is that you get an equivalent boost in torque (punching power). I find this calculator handy: https://www.blocklayer.com/pulley-belt.aspx

Hi @ZigZag, I've tried the two braided polyesters I have on hand in machines, Tiger 1.4mm and a similar size un-named polyester braid that is slightly rounder, looser braid and entirely dry. I had better success with the Ritza. What machine are you running these braids through, if I may ask?

I tend to only use the ruler to mark the leather with an awl, then cut the leather freehand using a knife. Usually a round knife or an Olfa wheel. My big ruler has a handle on it so I can press pretty hard to stop it from moving about. Cutting the leather in one pass makes for a much neater edge.

Only if they come with a puncture repair kit!

There's nothing quite like an egg banjo with a hint of coke smoke. I am quite envious of your meeting St Fred!

My dad used to be a nun. Every time he was up in court the judge asked him his occupation and he would say "nun!"

The steeplejack Fred Dibnah, who came to fame in the UK in the 70s for fixing or demolishing tall buildings using the original techniques where other contractors wouldn't touch the job, used to get criticised for having a "few" pints at lunchtime. In his words: "If I didn't av four beers in me I wouldn't av the nerve to climb bleedin thing!"

Well those are immensely cool. Most of the metalwork will need to be custom built I think (how's your tin bashing Mr LeBeef?). I think you could use penny washers in the rivets to spread the load like the original.

I've not used this design, but AIUI you use either one of the points as the axis of the pivot, or use both of the points as a fence along the edge of the piece of leather.

I'd probably fabricobble a heat gun to warm the wheel. Something involving a gooseneck lamp and zip ties. Looks like a real good embosser.

Looks a bit like some of the old BUSM designs, but I just looked through one of their old catalogues and nothing quite matches.

I know you specified US made, but William Lennon has been making great quality boots in the UK for over a century. I have two pairs of them and they are like tanks, and the company is happy to make alterations and customisations. I don't consider their prices exorbitant -- a pair of steel-caps starts at £60/$83, though of course you will have to add shipping to that. That's for directly moulded soles, if you want welted (replaceable) it goes up a little. Even their most expensive standard line is under £200/$277. As to sewing machines, that question is a bit like asking "which impact driver" -- there's a lot of options out there but not many are truly made in the USA any more. Used machines, unless from a reputable dealer, can be a bit of a crapshoot -- wear, work capacity, availability of consumables, accessories and spares... these all vary hugely from machine to machine and need some real homework. The most popular machines for small manufacturers and serious hobbyists on this forum are Chinese manufactured clones of Juki or Consew designs, setup and specified for leatherwork by US technicians. You can get a modern version of the excellent Singer 45 for $1000 ($1300 if you want reverse) complete with table, servo motor and speed controller. The 45k was/is a classic, a very rugged and simple machine that could handle some very heavy duty threads. They were made in their millions in Kilbowie, Scotland until someone twigged that it was cheaper to have them made in the Far East, where things like workers' rights and standards of living are far less fashionable. You may have more responses to your sewing machine question if you cross-post it to the sewing machine section. There are some truly excellent machine technicians, operators and dealers who post there and are very free with their knowledge. There is a fantastic pinned topic by @Wizcrafts which gives you a primer on sewing machines for leather:

It's legit, I have it. I only use it for stuff I can't get elsewhere, which is a pretty short list now that they discontinued Will Ghormley's patterns.

I made a few lb of this years ago, minus the pine tar. It's fantastic -- not only to reproof my tin cruiser (which still stands up on its own on cold days) but it's also great for lighter weight waxed cotton, and for gun stocks and tool handles. I wasn't sure if I had to use real turps or could use the substitute we call white spirit (a petroleum distillate) but I figured for the little extra cost involved I might as well use the real deal. Certainly smells better. I used what remained as part of my oilcloth making experiments.

How are you feeding the needle thread? If it's from a reel on the pin on top of the machine (like a domestic machine) it can get hung up easily, especially at higher speed. Much better to feed from an industrial thread stand, going through the hole in the pin on top of the machine. Restriction of the needle thread can reduce stitch length. If you have a clutch motor you can slow the machine using your right hand on the wheel like a brake. If you drive a manual transmission car its a bit like controlling the car with brake and clutch only.

I have found that using very long thread (much more than one fathom per needle) is very awkward and slow. I prefer linen and as others have noted there are wear and dirt issues. Further I find the inevitable tangles very tiresome to sort out. One way of avoiding this doing a long stitching run with a single (well, two single) lengths of thread is to start in the middle. No, I've not been spray painting in the cupboard again. Take a belt as an example. Estimate how much thread you'd need to complete it. Cut two lengths and put needles on em. Then find the middle of the seam (in this case the point). Stab with the awl and pull both threads through until their middle. Identify which is which and bundle up one side with a rubber band. Sew up the free end, then flip over with the bundled side.

ISMACS is my go-to reference for Singer machines. Very handy resource. It lists the 17w15 as "For tacking the ends of rope and electric lamp cord in sizes 1/8" - 1/4" and stitching rope onto grain bags, etc. Makes two stitch tack; length of tack is contriolled by the operator. Speed <1000." The Singer 17-class is generally a drop-feed 2" cylinder-bed machine for straight-stitching lighter leather goods under 1/4" (6mm) thick using thread no larger than TKT40 (v69). Uses an obsolescent long-beak shuttle with disappointingly small bobbins. Popular for closing shoe uppers, even to this day still produced as the Seiko TE. It might be possible to convert this specially modified machine to a regular straight-stitcher. I think though that it would not be worth the time, effort and cost. Even if it did work all you'd end up with is a machine that sells for £200.

Jars. Spice jars, jam jars, mayo jars, mustard jars. They are great for holding rivets, eyelets, rolls of thread (put an eyelet through the lid), decanting dyes and glues from large bottles. Put the word around your friends and relatives and you'll be overflowing with them. If the glue goes off in the jar... throw it out and grab another. Fiddly little rivets get tipped into the upside-down lid before use and tipped back in when done. Hammers. I don't do carving/tooling so my mileage may vary but I don't use anything branded for leatherwork. I have two nylon hammers, good ones that work well for hitting punches, pricking irons, bits of machinery, the neighbour kids stuff that gets in my way, wood chisels... Plus a slack handful of regular tack hammers, claw hammers, a couple engineers hammers... oh and a 18" 4lb thumb detector in Radioactive Orange. Very handy for reluctant large punches. Mostly just stuff that someone wanted rid of and I could find a use for. Sponges. Tandy wants £2 for a sponge. I get 20 for 28p at the supermarket. Still works.

@the deaconForgive me if I'm pointing out the obvious but have you tried with a fresh bobbin? I have found that unevenly wound bobbins can cause these sort of inconsistent tension issues and they aren't always visible once the bobbin has been filled.

@tombraun You can split cow leather to less than 0.5mm, but it starts to lose strength very quickly under about 0.7mm. Pull skivers can split under 1mm and are cheaply available but I find them inconsistent and prone to ruin leather when used for splitting. As thefanninator says above, band-knife splitters are best at this job but they are large machines which usually require a three-phase electricity supply and are very expensive. When I need to use such a machine I go to a jobbing leather workshop in London and pay them to use it. There is also at least one mail-order service in the UK to split your leather, though I have never tried it. Where are you located?