billymac814

If you're talking about the ones I use the glue doesn't glue them shut. The glue peels right off of them. I've used them with Masters all purpose, Masters Max Bond, and Renia Colle de Cologne and never had an issue. They seal very well. It is recommended to peel any excess cement off the rim and lid but that is more for a better seal than anything else. The Teflon pots were the worst and most expensive I've ever used. They are ok with the older more basic cements like Masters all purpose but the more modern glues dry up so fast with even a little bit of air that the glue becomes dried up in no time and I don't like to keep thinning the cements down.

If you guys want the best glue pot get one of these. They only expose a small portion of the glue so they don't evaporate nearly as fast as others. If the glue gets a little thick turn it on its back for a few seconds. When they are not being use they should be stored on their back as well. I've tried the Teflon pots, the jar with the brush in the lids and these work far better especially with today's quick drying cements. They are also much cheaper than those Teflon pots. I no longer have to thin my cements using these.

I'm thinking if most of the stuff you'll be sewing is around 1/2" you'll be running the machine at pretty much full capacity all the time which isn't suggested. I think you'd be better off with the Cobra or Cowboy, you'd be able to do everything you want to do then. I've never used the 467 but I'm sure its a great machine but judging by the specs the maximum foot clearance is 16mm which is just over 1/2". I have a Consew206rb with similar specs and I would not want to use it a max capacity, and especially if I'm sewing hard sense leather. I also have a Cowboy 4500 and it sews through the thick heavy leather with no problem at all and is a pleasure to use. So in the end I don't think the Cobra is overkill for what you need if you're doing tack work, in fact it is perfect for that. Hopefully someone else will chime in here too. I'd at the very least try one out with the material you'll be using.

And mine came with a gear reduction servo which helps slow it down and give a bit more torque

That's really not that great of a deal. I believe even if it costs a little more from Bob that the service you'll get after that is worth a little extra. That is about what I paid for mine from Bob. Plus you'll know it was gone over and adjusted properly when you get it. You may be fine with an eBay find too but there are a lot of horror stories out there as well.

If you ever decide you want to sell it let me know.

My press twists like a pretzel under pressure. It still works fine. The only problem I run into is it sometimes sinks the die to far into the board on one side before cutting the other. That problem doesn't happen with the real heavy beveled steel dies like you'd get at Texas custom dies because the steel gets so thick it prevents it from going in the cutting board. . I make my own with steel rule dies which are a lot thinner and its easier to sink them into the board, it doesn't happen often though so its not a big deal.

I'd do this too. If for some reason I would choose to split it that way I'd run it through my crank splitter an inch or so and back it back out. If that's not a possibility I'd use a round knife but you'd have to be careful because you'll pretty much have to cut right towards your hand.

I don't recall what they cost but its quite a bit new. Definitely in the 4 digits but I honestly don't recall, I just remember they were way more than I was willing to spend. They had them on demo at the shoe repair convention.

Very nice, those machines are usually quite pricey. I would check with Shoe Systems plus if you need more information about it. They sell one very similar, it may be the same.

It was a plunge and I really had no idea if it would work or not and I really had no back up money if it didn't so I had to be making money right from the start. Just to be clear, I don't mean right from the start of doing leatherwork, just the start of going at it full time and opening the shop and store. My friend said "well what happens if it doesn't work?" I said well then ill be in debt a fair amount and that will suck but its better than working a job I don't really like for the next 30-40 years regretting not trying to do it.

Its definitely a real job, I work way longer hours than I ever did before. Its way different though and doesn't feel like I'm working. I certainly do this for money but I did it because I love doing it first. The saying "Find something you love doing and you'll never have to work a day in your life" is 100% true. I honestly never figured I'd be so lucky to find out.

I have hours tracker on my iphone. It works well, I used to use it a lot when I worked a real job. It works great and would work equally well for keeping track of your time spent. You can have multiple jobs going at once too.

You'll get a feel for it once you've done it more. A lot of people will want to know how much its going to cost them before they agree to it so it may take you a while to determine how long something is going to take you ahead of time. It also varies if you have to come up with the artwork or if they provide you the artwork. Lacing is a pretty generic term too so its hard to just say "laced" and have a set price. If you do a simple whip stitch you can do it very quickly but there are far more intricate lacings that'll eat up far more time and lace. Then there's the quality of lace. You definitely may not make as much per hour on the first few, that's par for the course and can be chalked up to learning experiences. Once you get a system down you'll have a better feel for how long it takes and what to charge. You need to be charging enough to make it worth it for you.

I don't think anyone was bashing anyone in particular on Etsy. I certainly joked about it but for one it was a joke and me or no one else talked about anyone in particular or anything in particular. There is a lot of basically crap being sold there though which was the reason it was brought up in the first place. I don't need to put anyone down to make myself feel good. I know where I stand and where the items I make stands and I spend a lot of time trying to help people get better IF they want to get better. As far as prices go you will definitely have to figure out what time goes into it and what the end product is worth. Lacing definitely takes more time than stitching so it has to be priced accordingly. But because you're new it may take you a little longer so an hourly rate may not work in your case. Hourly rates can work on custom items but its more of a guideline than anything. It used to take me a lot longer to make holsters but over the years I've refined my process and started using dies to cut, seeing machines to stitch etc. its still the same holster so I definitely don't want to lower my price because I do them quicker now. I invested in that equipment to bring up my hourly rate. I read once that you know you got the price right when they cringe a little bit but then reach for their wallet.

Your wallet definitely looks better than a lot of what's on Etsy. I use etsy as a self esteem booster sometimes. I also like that you're upfront with people about being new to it. Every crappy piece on etsy says that is really high quality using the "finest" leather and so on and its clearly a Tandy kit made of the crappiest leather possible. The only thing I'd suggest you do different is get all of the money upfront, especially for ones with names or initials or otherwise personalized or hard to sell ones. Half down isn't bad on a normal one that you can sell to someone else but if and when you start getting a lot of orders it turns into too much extra work invoicing twice. I only do half down on special occasions and usually only on items above 300.00. Good luck, you'll be busy with orders soon I would guess.

Gotcha. If you make your turns while the needle is down in the work it keeps the spacing correct, otherwise if you're turning when its out its possible to shift the piece a bit and get inconsistent stitch lengths, just make sure you turn after the shuttle grabs the loop or else it will twist the loop and it could skip a stitch.

You don't do that every time do you? That would drive me nutty. I always got perfectly spaced stitches in mine with thread in it.

I'm sure ill get flamed here for my edger choice but my favorite thus far(at least best for the money) is the Tandy leather ones that they call " the belt makers favorite" or something like that, they are a round bottom edger. They do require a little polishing up when you first get them but after that they hold an edge ok and always cut easily and cleanly. So far I've tried those plus The other Tandy ones, they are terrible The Osborne ones similar to the round bottom Tandy ones. They are ok too but not much different than Tandys for twice the cost. Osborne "common" edger. I use it on occasion but in general don't like it. It works better on exotics than the others though. A Weavers Master edger. This is the worst one I've tried so far, you have to hold it at a very odd angle and it barely cuts. Gomph round bottom edger. This one works pretty good but the cost is very high, I was hoping these would be the end all be all of edgers and I can't say that I really have any complaints about it but they are flat out expensive and I haven't seen enough advantage over one for a fraction of the cost especially when you start comparing purchasing 3 or 4 in different sizes. That's all I've tried. There's plenty of others though, I think at some point ill try one from Ron's tools. They look pretty nice, they aren't cheap either though. The main thing is to know how to get them sharp and find one you like.

I had a fairly long reply typed up and I don't know what happened to it. I didn't use the stirrup plate much at all, only on occasion where I may be sewing something that has a loop already stitched to the back side, it helped it lay flat. As for the back side of the stitches, just tap them down with a smooth faced hammer. If you dampen it first it helps. I have a french hammer that I polished the face on so its super smooth. I still do this on my belts and some other things. Another thing I found with the Boss is using the next size thinner thread on the bottom makes it look a little better. I found that out by chance one time when I needed to refill a bobbin and I was down to just one spool so I used the 207 off of my Consew. You could groove the backside of belts as Dwight does and you should be able to hit the groove with no problem. Holsters are a little more difficult since you don't have the edge to go by. I quit grooving shortly after getting the Boss, I still did it for a while on the front, I figured it was no different than marking my stitches but I eventually quit grooving all together as the Boss pulled the stitches in far enough. I don't think the backside looks that bad, its not quite as nice looking as a perfect hand stitch but there's not a big enough difference to really worry about it once they are hammered smooth. I think you made the right choice if you didn't want to spend the cash on a Cowboy or Cobra. There are plenty of worse things you could have bought that may have been slightly easier to use or maybe a little faster but they wouldn't sew as thick as the Boss and probably not make as nice of a stitch. Plus the Boss is an easy sell once your done with it. If you bought it new you may lose a little bit but not much at all and you can put that money towards a new machine when you're ready. Here's a picture of my hammer they don't have to be polished like that but I got a new polisher and ran out of stuff to polish.

You'd have to really make some adjustments in tension to use the thinner thread plus the needles used in the 441 are really long so when you get the small ones for thinner thread they are really long and thin and flex a lot. Also you cant get leather point needles for the thinner threads so you'd have to use a round point needle. Unfortunately there's no one sized fits all machine. The 441s are heavy stitchers. Its best to have at least two machines, preferably 3 or more. Start with the one you'll use most.

I switched my pedals around that way my right foot which I can use better controls the speed and the left raises the foot. I still find myself using the hand control for the foot lift most of the time unless my hands are full or I need to lift it higher. You can definitely customize it to suit your needs.

That's a bummer. They are a stand up company though, they will make it right. Still no fun going without it. You'll probably find the roller guide un necessary, I had one and never used it, I ended up trading it for a stirrup plate. I do use the one on the Cowboy when I'm going faster. You should like the Boss though, especially if you were hand stitching before. Just don't try a Cowboy or a Cobra or it'll ruin the Boss for you. I used the heck out of my Boss though and it always worked well.

I have the 4500.

I buy all my blanks from Weavers. They always ship same day and I receive it the next. Their prices are really good too on dyes and such. I do believe there was a minimum first order of like 300 bucks, I'm not sure if that was just with a wholesale account or for anyone but after that it can be any amount. They also have a good selection of buckles and some cool machines. My only gripe and its barely a gripe but ordering online is either difficult or impossible. You definitely need a catalog and a telephone. Its not a big deal now but when I worked during the day I did most of my ordering at night so I only ordered from places I could order online. They also do alot of services. So if you want a side cut up in strips they can, if you want them edged they can do that too as well as a number of other things. I buy my blanks pre skived and punched on the buckle end and the edges are painted and I get the English bridle ones. I also get some natural tooling ones in case I need to dye one or tool it and I get some that are just plain strips so I can laminate them together and make double layer belts. Those I edge and skive myself.