billymac814

How much for the Junker?

Yea there's no way there's a problem. You don't really even have to register the business name if you use your own name although it may be recommended to do so anyway.

I know what you mean, its not that the contact cement won't hold its that its a ragged shape and to get the cement on the mag pouch in the same exact shape and then even if you do trace it right you have to be very careful to get it back on in the same space. I wouldn't recommend 77 as its not a very strong bond really. To get a good bond with most of the 3m spray adhesives they require both sides as well. I would try something like tanners bond, if I remember correctly you can put it on one side and clamp it until it dries. If it were me Id just chance getting it right with the contact cement. I'd maybe do half at a time, put clamps on one side and carefully trace it just under the edge of the skin so you don't glue all the way out to the edge. Apply the cement, let dry and put the first half down very carefully, then do the next half. I'd rough up most of the leather but stop short of the edge just a little. This way if you lay it down and its slightly off you can use a gum eraser and remove the contact cement that's showing. Just make sure its dyed first or it'll resist the dye a little even if you get it off.

Yes it is awesome. How much are the printers and what medium is that? Is that the stuff that starts off as powder or something?

I doubt you'll be in the area anytime soon. I didn't realize you lived in the UK until I seem it mentioned in another topic its no wonder you like tea!

Wiz is correct, the 12g requires right twist thread. You can get Bourbors linen or poly thread. Most would use a 6 cord in the bobbin, 7 for the main. You can get it from most Shoe repair supply places and probably a bunch of other places. This definitely wouldn't be my first choice of machine to stitch sheaths but it should do the job just fine as long as you only need to stitch the edge as they basically have no throat at all. I use #69 nylon as well for sewing patches on motorcycle jackets. Its available in a ton of colors and you can get it in small one ounce spools which is handy for those odd ball colors. I get mine from Frankford Leather along with needles. I normally keep needles in sizes from 100, 110,120 140 depending on what I'm doing. There won't be much use for the Autosoler outside of shoe repair unless you have something that needs nailed and you can fit it between the horn and the nose. The problem is the wire is now very expensive so a lot of people are switching to pneumatic brad nailers. Your Champion 77 is another thing I don't picture having much use outside of shoe repair. Its a chain stitch machine so you wouldn't want to stitch holsters or sheaths with it. The landis 30 is a very good splitter though and the 3 in one could come in handy or sold for a decent amount. Blades can be sharpened or replaced. You can check with Shoe systems Plus or Gateway for replacement parts. I don't know how expensive but I would guess between 100-200. I sharpened mine when I got it using sandpaper of various grits on a machinists slab that is very flat all the way to 5 micron and then polished it. You may need to adjust the two screws on top as alot of times these are set up to split very very thick stuff. Mine will easily split it as thin as I need it too now.

One of my finish options is a two tone color. I so all of the dye work before anything else. This is how I do it for all my holsters actually. It doesn't affect the molding as Dwight mentioned and doing it ahead of time ensures all the pieces get properly covered. If you do assembly first and accidently get some cement where it shouldnt be itll resist the dye. I use Fiebings Pro Oil dye and have no problems with white stitching staying white. Any other dye I've tried bled into the stitching during wet molding, some more than others. On occasion if I'm in a hurry Ill make the entire holster and then dye it when its done but only for black holsters. Here's a picture of a two tone finish I do, I dye the whole piece with the base color and then airbrush the darker color on, this one is more of a subtle fade, sometimes I do it more drastic.

I just checked mine and its 2000 rpms. I used 80 grit and could probably have went finer although I never needed to. The sander I'm currently using is 1750rpms and its a little on the slow side really, I may at some point change the pulley to speed it up just a bit. Here's a link to my current setup. It could be built for about the same money as a spindle sander and it burnishes the edges too so it kills two things at once. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=46027&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

Where can you get a real leather sander? I think the closest thing would be a shoe finisher and they spin quite fast. What is the RPM showing in the specs? I wouldn't think its much more than 2000rpms or so. I used a belt sander for a long time, I much preferred it over the spindle sander and it was cheaper too.

The nationwide Craigslist is very helpful. I wish there were a little more options like sort by distance or something like that but even without its better than checking a bunch of cities. The landis line finishers are useful, no doubt there. They just aren't worth much as not too many people want or have room for them. I use mine as it was intended for shoe repair. The drums aren't bumpy if you have good drums. One of mine is very bumpy and I don't use that one anymore. The biggest problem is the short piece of paper wears out in no time when sanding heavy rubber soles down. The much longer belts last much longer. It'll be a joyous day when I haul this out of my shop. Ill likely give it a month or so and see if I can sell it, I don't have high hopes though even though its in very good condition. If not I can probably pull the 5 motors off of it and put those on eBay and get more than I could sell the complete machine for and I can sell the drums and other parts to people who are trying to keep theirs going and scrap the rest, its pretty heavy so Id do ok in scrapping it. Ill gain an extra 4 or 5 feet of wall space in my shop which I could use. I could also break it down and just use a section of it so I could get something like a Jackmaster and keep the polishing section but I'd rather just get the Cobra Finisher, it looks to be a very cool design with the rotating heads.

I use the slack belt method on that same knife, its the only way I've found to sharpen knives like that effectively. I tried a round stone and while it worked it wasn't great. I even spent 800 bucks on a tormek to find out it didn't really work for most of my knives. The slack belt set up costs about 70 bucks or so and has been a great investment. Bruce Johnson provide me with a link and some advice and its very simple to get great edges. Do a YouTube search of Harbor freight belt sander knife sharpening and you'll find a bunch of how tos.

Oh and those Teflon glue pots are a big waste of money, if anyone disagrees I have two Ill sell. Its good that glue doesn't stick to them because your glue will turn into a brick over a long weekend. They might be ok for the older type cements but the modern cements evaporate way faster.

I get them from Frankford leather. You may need an account to order from them. If you need one and can't find one I can order one and ship it to you.

I have a similar oscillating spindle sander and they don't soon that fast, I think you'd be fine.

Oh ok, I see what you mean now, I wasn't sure what you meant at first. I find it easier to use without the table with most items, its easier to maneuver things around. I don't need the holster plate very often so I think I'm just putting my dogs back in. I think with the smooth feed dogs that the marking is minimal and I've had better results with it feeding and back stitching. It could possibly be me since others seem to use the slotted needle plate and like it I just am not seeing the advantage. The feed dogs are so large that its almost like having a smooth plate that moves with the work. I almost prefer the look of the back side with the dogs in as they basically flatten the stitches down for me, with the slotted plate it makes it look different but I wouldn't say better.

Here's my center foot. I did it with a small cut off wheel and then just polished it up. Its much easier to see where the needle is going to go. I don't have the table attachment mounted when doing holsters or belts. I don't use it for much actually unless its something that's really big. What does the flatbed have to do with the feed dogs though? I don't use the holster plate very often at all either. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just put my feed dogs back in, I seem where another guy was able to grind enough material out of the bottom of the holster plate for the feed dogs to clear so they can be left in place. I was much happier with how it worked with them in. I'm going to give it a few more days and see how it goes.

I just recently switched to the slotted plate without the dogs after using it with the dogs since buying it. So far I'm not really liking it. I keep thinking its me so I'm continuing to try it. I didn't really have much of a problem with the smooth feed dogs marking up the leather too bad and it seems to feed so much better with them. Ill have to try backing off on the bottom tension and reduce the top with it as I had to tighten it up quite a bit. The main incentive I had for doing this was to make it easier to switch from the flat plate to the holster or stirrup plate. I wish those could be used with the feed dogs left in place. I may end up grinding the bottom of the holster plate out to clear the dogs if I go back to them. I also modified the center foot to be open and I prefer that.

I'd have to agree with Ferg. If you change thickness of leather it'll affect when the stamp stops and probably knock it out of time or break something. A needle goes through the leather and stops at the same depth each time. A stamp would need to stop on top of the leather. There's all sorts of embossing methods from hand wheels to crank types that just do boarders.

I never go by pants size as everyone else has mentioned. It does pose a problem when a woman comes into the shop and wants to buy her husband a belt. I have on occasion just added 3 inches to thier pants size, sometimes 4 and ill put 6 or 7 holes instead of 5 but I really don't like doing it and I only agree to do it after clearly explaining to them I'm can't exchange it if it doesn't fit and that's usually only when they insist. I only take those chances on occasion and only on a single layer belt that I don't have much time into. I'd never risk doing a double layer or a tooled belt that way. I have them measure as per the previously posted diagram on online orders and I measure the same way if its someone that comes into my shop. I also have a really long belt that's the length of a side of leather that has a series of holes that are all numbered that I can have them put on and measure them that way. Its also a good conversation piece as I often get big guys who ask if I can make a belt to fit them and I pull that out.

If you have an iPhone or something download Craigslist Nationwide, it'll allow you to search all of Craigslist. There's a fair amount of those old finishers on there, email them and make a deal on the whole thing or parts. When I get my new one I'm probably going to part mine out and scrap it, not much of a demand for them. You can also post a wanted ad on CL and you'll find what you need. You'd be suprised at how many people have their fathers or grandfathers shoe repair equipment in their basement or garage or in storage. I posted one for something a few months back and had 10 replies in a few days and not only found what I needed but had it delivered as well. I really had very low expectations at first.

What all do you need? Just the long hinged drum or something else? The finisher isn't worth 800 bucks. I was just at an auction that had and old line finisher and it sold for a bit over 100 bucks. Some people try to ask a lot but they sit on Craigslist not going anywhere. You could probably find a whole parts machine for much less than 800 bucks. You can get a brand new finisher for 5k from Cobra Steve. That's the route I'm going, its much more compact too. If you're not making money you're not charging enough, look at some of the price surveys and online pricing from some other shops and make adjustments. All of the supplies and equipment is up high and your prices need to reflect that. Still good to keep costs down though.

Frankford has a website but they don't show prices without an account. Southern leather may, I've never dealt with them. The Renia products are not only top notch and super strong they are relatively safe compared to some others. You still want to have proper ventilation of course but they have no MEKs and toluene. I use the Colle de cologne mostly. Also FYI Masters MULTI purpose is the same exact cement, they buy it from Renia in 55 gal drums and repackage it. I don't personally use it only because I can't help but think that it would have to age a little more during that transaction but that's all hypothetical, I'm sure its fine. Don't get confused though as the ALL PURPOSE is different. You also need to use their special thinner with it but I never need to thin it using those pots and I was told by the Renia rep that he doesn't recommend thinning it. Those glue pots are the best hands down, nothing else compares and I've tried all other types, they all allow too much evaporation which happens very quickly in these modern cements. I have two of those expensive Teflon pots sitting on a shelf that are useless and in a matter of days it'll turn into a solid block. They are ok for certain cements but not these. Lastly ill add one thing. If you or anyone else decides to use the Colle De Cologne you need to start off with a new cement pot. I can assure you the slightest contamination with another cement will cause it to get pretty nasty. When I switched I thought I'd clean out my pot and I had it pretty clean and it got stringy right away, I almost wrote off the cement and quit using it until I figured out it was contaminated.

Ray, I get mine from Frankford Leather. You may need an account with them. You can also get them from I Sachs in Chicago. If you have any difficulty message me and I can get you some.

Are you planning on having them mounted with a bayonet fitting so it can be easily removed from the end or are you planning on mounting it on the shaft? I'm guessing you're doing a bayonet fitting if you'll put an adapter on the end. Let me know when you figure out the cost, I can't say for sure if I'd want one, I'm looking at replacing this with a more modern finisher this year and I have a decent burnishing setup similar to The Weavers setup that Hidepounder uses. I'd think the bayonet fitting would fit a lot of finishers though. Are you planning on having them mounted with a bayonet fitting so it can be easily removed from the end or are you planning on mounting it on the shaft? I'm guessing you're doing a bayonet fitting if you'll put an adapter on the end. Let me know when you figure out the cost, I can't say for sure if I'd want one, I'm looking at replacing this with a more modern finisher this year and I have a decent burnishing setup similar to The Weavers setup that Hidepounder uses. I'd think the bayonet fitting would fit a lot of finishers though.

Shoe systems plus also has parts for the older Line finishers.