billymac814

That's the way the mandrel type thing I got is. One side is left hand thread. Its used for buffing wheels and such. I'm going to put my burnishing wheel on one side which is the wood burnisher and below it I have a felt wheel that probably works similar to your fabric covered drum. On the other side I have a sanding drum that I drilled out to fit over the shaft. Here's a picture of my current setup. You must have had yours for a while, it looks a little different from the ones in their new catalog. The new ones come out at a 45* angle to stick over the bench. It also looks like yours has a back shield that probably keeps some of the dust down. I may at some point get one but I think mine will work good, plus my burnisher is smaller in diameter which gets in tighter areas and it has the point for belt slots. I just need to come up with a motor to use, mine only starts if I spin it by hand first so there's no sense in using that motor. Thanks again.

Yep that helps. I currently have my cocobolo burnisher chucked directly onto a motor spinning at 1725 so I figured that would be fine, it is however hard on the motor so I got a thing that is similar to the end of the Weaver setup like you have so ill be able to add a sanding drum on the one side and the burnisher on the other. The weaver set up is a little more finished looking with the covers over the pulleys and belt but I already had everything except this one piece so it was a lot cheaper. I will either need a new motor or to have this one repaired as it no longer starts on its own. I have a customer who rebuilds motors but he's having some health problems right now so I may have to just find another one. Thanks again, I was kinda curious as to what theirs spin at.

I'm having a hard time picturing what it how your thread is sitting. Here's a picture of mine, I have a 6 spool thread stand plus the one on the machine, the rest are small spools that I don't use as often so they get rotated onto the one on the machine. With the thread stand I would cut off the excess anyway so I'm not really worried about thread waste as its not that expensive and would take longer to try to roll it back up. I have heard of one particular shoe repair guy on another forum I belong to that saves the thread he pulls through for hand stitching jobs. I'm not doing that either, ill snip it and trash it. I did use to roll it back up when I just had the single thread stand on the machine but my stand saves me more time than a few feet of thread cost me so its no big deal.

I quite often stamp pre dyed and pre finished leather like English Bridle. No water or anything using Delrin stamps. They work fine, just require more pressure. I have a hot stamp somewhere in transit somewhere in the world but obviously can't comment on how well it works yet. Here's a stamp in English bridle using a delrin stamp, I stamped it in an arbor press.

I used to wear one of those doing tooling when I worked in my living room and the lighting sucked. Now I don't need it so much anymore. I also used it to read at night. I also have two of the lights Tippmann sells for the Boss, they are magnetic and attach right around the needle bar. I have one on the Cowboy and one on the Consew. They work great.

Haha. That's a good use for the fish tape. I see you made a roller for your Cowboy, how's it working out?

Bob, Do you know the approximate RPM your sander/burnisher spins at? I'm going to be using a 1725rpm motor on mine and I still have to get the pulley so I could either make it spin at the 1725 or 3250 depending on what size pulley I go with. Thanks.

I don't miss fish tapes at all!! He has the sander burnisher I want. I actually just bought a thing to make my own setup that's similar to the weaver setup but isn't 500 bucks. Ill post pictures of it when its done. I just got the piece in today but I need some free time to assemble it.

I could bang them out quick if I made a design and had dies made and made the same one over and over, that way I could subsidize the design time. The problem is everyone that inquires about a wallet has something specific in mind which means they'd have to pay for all the design time too, it just drives the price through the roof. I think I'll stick to not making them. I do make the occasional card case and simple type wallets, I may look into some other types that I can make over again and if that's not what they want then so be it.

There's a 103 on eBay but I think they want too much for it. Its just the head and they claim the stitch regulator isn't working. I'd rather get one from Bob that I know will work and has been gone over. Ill email him and tell him to keep his eyes open for one. What is a reasonable price range if I found one on Craigslist or eBay? There is one on eBay but I'm thinking its too much as I'd have to get a table and motor and reducer and potentially have it gone over. Thanks.

I thread mine but don't lube it. I don't think it would save you an incredible amount of time by not threading it. I had one machine without it and I always felt that it helped keep the thread in the correct path but it worked fine without it too. As of late I've been just tying my new thread to the old thread and pulling it through. It saves maybe a little bit of time but not much as I can thread it pretty quick, I often have to change colors many times each day.

Once wives start seeing money roll in because of it they tend to have a change of heart:-). I met my wife after I was already deep in it but when we got a house together having a workshop in the living room wasn't going to fly so when we picked out our house it had to have an extra room for a shop space. She was also very supportive when I came home with the crazy idea of buying a shop and going full time, in fact it probably would have stayed a pipe dream if it wasn't for her. She actually quit her job before I did and ran the shop during the day and I came in after work and stayed till 1 or 2 am, which wasn't much different than before except I wasn't home working.

I was wondering why I could never see people's location in their profile, as it turns out it is not visible in the mobile version. Bryan, If you want to throw your boss in the car and make the trip to Altoona Ill give you as much info as I can and hopefully get it set up right. You can also give a cowboy a test drive, I will forewarn you though, you will want one.

Don't feel bad, I used to fit all my tools and supplies in a box like this. And packed them up each night. I eventually got a desk that I could leave them out, then a whole workbench, then a whole room, then the shop I'm in now.

That's definitely not the same as the picture you showed and what's up with his bangs?. The picture you showed is done with mitered edges and saddle stitched with a curved awl although you could get away with using a straight one too. As Rayban mentioned its in the Stohlman book, it is also in the "Art of handsewing book as well.

Art, What's the difference between the 153w-101 and the 103?

That kinda reminds me of my old shop space. I think it was roughly 100 sq ft or somewhere near that. I sometimes think I was more efficient there, all I had to do was spin 180 degrees around in my chair and I was at my sanding and burnished area and spin 90 degrees more and I was at my stitching machine. I only had to get up to dye and cut. Cutting was a real pain though as I couldn't lay a side out anywhere and that was why I knew as soon as I got a bigger shop I'd have a big cutting table.

They do look good. Ill admit to not reading the whole post as its kinda long but mine usually are too so I can't hold it against you. I'd rather drop a sewing machine on my toe than hand stitch too much these days but if I did more hand stitching I'd probably look into buying one of these. I think its an interesting design and the angle in which you can place it looks like it would really help push the awl through. I made my own pony when I hand stitched and still use it if I need to. Mine is not anywhere near as nice as yours are. Good luck, I'm sure with craftsmanship like that you'll sell plenty here. Leatherworkers seem to appreciate nice quality tools.

It's probably made out of harness leather or English bridle leather which are usually a little on the softer side. There's probably not much you can do to stiffen it much, its probably too thick to stitch a second layer too unless you split it down and laminated a second piece to it. You could maybe rivet some kydex to the back of it but I don't know how well it would work being just a single layer. Normally stiffners are added in between layers and stitched in. I make my double layer gun belts from 2 layers of around an 8oz glued and stitched together. Its much stronger than one layer of equal thickness as the glue and two layers of top grain make it quite stiff. I don't believe the stitching adds much in strength but its there for good measure. To keep them from feeling "Too heavy and too thick" I skive the billet end down to about half and the buckle end is just a single layer where it folds. This way when your wearing it it doesn't feel too bulky and thick. I've seen where other makers don't take those extra steps and the belt is sometimes nearly an inch thick where its buckles at!

That looks very nice and clean. Is there a pocket behind the zippered pocket? It looks like there is, or could be depending on how you stitched the zippered pocket on.

There's a Junkers and Ruh on eBay right now. I was really considering buying it but that's a lot of money for what will amount to a play toy for me. If I didn't need a few other things more I definitely would but since I'm not I figured I'd let you guys know. It looks to be fully rebuilt and is 750.00 buy it now.

Ok that's good, I'd be able to use the feet I already have then. This might be the way to go, I figure if I sell or trade in the Consew it'll probably cost me between 600-700 more to get the 227r. I should be able to get into the Singer for about that I would think, give or take a little anyway.

I would definitely pay very close attention to your bobbin winding. You can use a power drill just make sure you go slow and don't pull or stretch the thread out when its winding. I used to use the tension disks of another machine to just barely keep enough tension on the thread to keep it from unraveling if I stopped winding. Once I figured that out it solved a lot of the problems I was having. Hopefully that makes sense. Good luck, and you never know, if you post where you live someone may be close enough that could help.

Art, Thanks Ill look into the Singer, I could probably do without reverse and if its cheap enough I'd just keep the Consew. The one thing I use it for is zippers in leather jackets, I'd assume I could do them just fine on a cylinder machine if that's all I had but it would be nice to have both too.

I have a 206RB along with the cowboy 4500. They seem to complement each other well. I don't use the 206 too often but its nice to have when I do. I've been considering selling it and getting the Cowboy 227r as I think I could get a little more use out of it for lighter weight stuff and I could get a flat bed attachment for when I do need a flatbed.i have a little while to think about it while Bob is waiting on more to come in. For upholstery work though the 206rb would certainly be a good choice and is a solid machine. I have no experience with the Juki but I'm sure its great as well.