billymac814

Looks good, I woulda bought it for 600.00. I couldn't go without a patcher. One of these days ill have me a new Claes but for now I have an Adler long arm and a Singer short. If I remember correctly those Consews sell for around 12-1300 on eBay brand new so I'd say you did good. People who don't pay their storage fees are pretty dumb. Or I should say people who don't get their good stuff out before not paying their storage fees are dumb.

I do too. There was one just for sale in the for sale section but the guy never responded to me with a price and shipping.

Nevermind. That sucker sold in about 3 minutes. Ever feel like you priced something too low?

I just put a Progressive 3 in 1 up on eBay if anyone is interested. If you want it send me an email and Ill respond. I have it listed for 169.00 buy it now or take your chances on the auction. If anyone from LW wants it ill sell it for 150.00 plus shipping. It will need some heavy cleaning as its pretty crusty and it'll need a new handle but it does crank cut and skive but I would definitely polish up the blades and knock some rust off. If you search Progressive 3 in 1 on eBay you'll find it.

The first shot is what you'd see coming in the back door. Off to the right is the bathroom and "kitchen" but its not visible. My cutting table is right in front. I have a large bin under it for scraps for patching and under the other half my leather lives rolled up. It also doubles as a dying table if I'm doing large batches of holsters as my dying table is not that big. This one is towards the front where the patcher and post machines live. Also visible is the area with most of my hardware is and where I install it other than holster hardware. Next one is where I do most of my work at, in between these two benches, off a little further is my Cowboy, Consew and cutting table and splitter. Next is a shot of the same area but from the other way. You can barely see my Tippman gathering dust in the right and my holster/clicker press in the front. A small aircompressor under my bench powers it. The next shot shows my finisher and a few big stitchers for repairing shoes and then in the way back is my dying area with the spray booth Next shows my press better, the boss sitting there, most of my Blueguns and some dies, the Tormek sharpener and to the left of that is an area for storage, you can't see it but there's 3 metal units full of drawers that I keep small parts in and less used hardware. My shop is pretty much the definition of 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag but on well. I plan to get a newer smaller finisher in the next few months, that'll save some room and rearrange some things a bit to be a little more efficient.

I've seen how organized some of you are, I'd be half embarrased to post pictures of my shop. Its in disarray right now as I had a guy running wires in here for our Internet, I may post a picture or two when I put some stuff away.

I'm going to check out that buckram stuff. That sounds like something I could use. The X-ray film is a cool idea. It might be cool to have a see through spot where you could see some bones through it!! Or if it was your own X-ray you could use the part with your information and have a window in a wallet with your info built in.

I find that most people either lie or don't know when they have something that's real or fake. I see so many fake Coach, Gucci, Prada come in my shop that are about the same quality as a purse that came from the dollar store and the customer will tell me its real. Sometimes I'll tell them its not real if I think they will try to pull something over on me and expect me to replace it, other times I say nothing and let them believe what they want. One kinda trashy girl was in a whole ago with a fake Coach bag and made a point to tell me its real, it needed the vinyl handle loop repaired, I told her it wasn't real and if it was she wouldn't be here right now, her response was "Well I still like it" it was not a suprise to her at all which means she totally knew it was fake but thought??? I have no clue what she thought but she was a liar and I still have the damn thing because she never picked it up. Luckily all fake bag repairs get paid in advance because I can't and won't sell them if they abandon them.

I don't really agree with using a fake one as that defeats the purpose in my eyes. I wouldn't be calling it a LV holster at all, I also would not cut up a purse to make another purse though as there's no reason too and that idea seems shady and that would probably border on trademark infingment. I don't think LV would have a leg to stand on in any type of trademark infringement if you're not marketing it as a product made by LV. They would be much better off going after the hundreds of companies trying to pass of vinyl garbage as authentic LV. You're simply using thier material for whatever reason. This is far different than ripping off someone else's "brand" if for some reason I made things that had MCL stamped all over them and one of my items reached the end of its usuable life and someone with some creativity used that material to make something else completely different I would not have a problem with that at all. If they were trying to copy what I've made and sell it as my own it would be a whole other story. This isn't exactly an original idea either, I've seen Nike shoes with an LV swoosh and some other items that used the LV monogrammed canvas. Its done because they love LV and they are free to do whatever they want with the purse they just paid a thousand bucks for. If you can't pull it off and it looks cheesy then I wouldn't do it. I for one would not have a problems doing say an LV inlay or overlay on a holster. It would clearly be a "McCabe's Custom Leather" holster though. I would not do a wallet, purse or anything else that could pass for an LV items. I work on a fair amount of LV items and they are very high quality, overpriced??? Maybe a little but they spend a great deal of time and care making sure everything is perfect even down to the same amount of stitches and they are all perfectly spaced. That quality doesn't come cheap. I also see my share of fakes and slot of my customers claim they are real and I know within 2 seconds its not, half of the time the handles are not even leather. If it were me I would agree to do it but only with a real one, it'll be expensive even buying a pretty worn used one but I'd probably hold my ground there. We can agree to disagree if you wouldn't take the job but if its done with tact its not trashing anyone's brand, in fact its glorifying it in some degree. And remember you'll need a leather backer as that monogrammed canvas isn't suitable for a holster.

The wattage isn't the problem, those are readily available but their stamps are made with either 4 or 5mm posts. Most higher wattage irons are bigger than that and most don't specify the post size so its pretty much a crap shoot. I think what I'm going to try is to drill out the post of a larger one to fit the stamp. They should drill out fairly easy I'm thinking. Ill obviously cut the point off first.

Where at specifically, that may help to get more attention. I'm in Altoona Pa but I'm guessing that's too far west.

I'd use regular contact cement personally but the latex should work as well. If the leather is fairly thick just use a stiffer lining leather and between that and the glue and the main leather it should be stuff enough for a wallet. Where do you get X-ray film? Seems hard to get unless you either know someone or are particularly clumsy.

I did consider some stiffener material I have that is similar to cardboard but I think I'm sticking to leather, I'm thinking this lining material I have will be good, its thicker than pigskin and stiffer but still very thin. Now I just have to figure out how to make it look good, otherwise it would be pretty plain. He's pretty much have me free reign with the exception of the leather and a few minor details. Thanks.

I would much father keep it on site as well. I don't know if opening up the gallery to the public is exactly what I was thinking as far as the "network" is involved however that may be fine for certain customers but for my good customers I'd rather hand pick someone. I agree that with good pictures I can tell the type of work someone does. Its not much different than ordering something online and that's how most of us sell our items. Customer service is something that could be documented if our directory listing had a comments section. I doubt anyone wants to get into developing a rating system as that would be a bit complicated. There's a few instances where I'd probably like to not just send the customer away to someone else but instead commission someone to do it and handle everything for them. This would be only for the best customers and only if I didn't expect any issues. I'm not saying taking credit for anyone's work or anything like that. I could have used this last night as a good customer came in looking for a checkbook cover which is something I don't normally do, especially in a softer leather which is what he wants. I ended up taking the job, I can do it and have the correct stuff to do it with but I'd probably rather have just given this to someone that may do this type of stuff on a regular basis as it'll take me longer to do.

I have to disagree. He's not being asked to make a fake LV. He's being asked to use part of an LV bag in a holster. I personally think its a pretty cool idea and I've always wanted to get a trashed LV bag to use as accent pieces on certain things. My only real problem would be using a fake one to begin with however I can understand the cost saving aspect of it and god knows there's enough fake purses out there that you could find as a donor. This is no different than repurposing something and done well it can be a pretty interesting piece. If he was asked to make a purse or wallet using LV material then that would be a whole new ballgame and I wouldn't agree to it. I believe the material you're looking for is more of a canvas though. I'd find a used bag or buy a knockoff and have at it.

It didn't take you much convincing! I think you'll be happy with the set up. The biggest thing is getting the hang of the pressure, you want to stop as soon as its cut. On occasion ill sink a die too deep, its rare though and I blame the somewhat rickety 12 ton press that twists a bit and I think it sometimes applies uneven pressure. I'm also using pretty thin steel rule dies so it doesn't take much to push them into the cutting surface, this may not be an issue with the heavier type dies. I just ordered a die from Texas so ill find out, it was a little more involved than I could make. For a cutting surface I bought one of the red clicker pads, it is far better than the poly cutting boards but I end up using the poly boards more often because if I do sink a die down into it I can just bend the board and the die pops out, its much easier than getting them out of the red type. I think the 20 ton will have far less flex and should be a much better option and I doubt you'll have those little issues. They are rare for mine and even with those its way faster and easier than cutting.

I'll do a sample of lamb on lamb and see how it feels, I could maybe even put a liner inside for a little extra as the lambskin I have is quite thin. I may KK it but burnishing it would probably be my preferred method if I can get this leather to burnish but I'm doubting that it'll be firm enough to get a nice edge on it unless I do veg tan. I do have some really soft veg tan that feels more like chap leather, its probably a little on the thick side though. If I bound the edges it might be add a nice accent to it if I did it darker.

Can you guys share some pictures of checkbook covers made of some softer leather? I took an order for one tonight, mainly because I know the guy and sometimes have a hard time saying no. I could easily make one out of veg tan but he wants something softer, lamb skin to be specific. I showed him the lamb skin I have and that's what he picked. The problem is its far to thin and soft for this so ill have to laminate it to something else. Making the edges look good is going to be my biggest hurdle I think. If I laminate it to veg tan I could burnish it but I think he wants it softer than that so ill probably use some upholstery leather or something softer that has a little more body. I'm thinking of maybe binding the edges like Kevin King does if I can't think of another way. Any inspiration would help, it doesn't have to be a checkbook cover but anything similar made of soft leather would be fine. It'll be a probably 2 months before I start on it so I have time to think about it. Thanks in advance

There will be a pretty significant price increase from a modified shop press to a used clicker press. I chose to make my own as well and I'm pretty happy with it. If I were doing it again though I would go with the 20 ton version instead of the 12. It will be more stout and provide you with extra room between the pillars. I upgraded the jack to an air powered one and it works good. Its not as convenient as a clicker press would be of course but it has no problems doing the job. If your clicking out 100's of pieces daily I would probably spend the extra for a clicker but for me I normally do 100's a week and it is fine for that.

If your wanting to cut out large holster patterns I definitely don't think you'd want a mallet die, not saying it wouldn't work but I doubt it would be easy to hammer through it. A 12 ton press should provide plenty of power to cut through the leather but I would go with a 20 ton because they are wider and usually built more solid. The extra width will come in handy.

If your wanting to cut out large holster patterns I definitely don't think you'd want a mallet die, not saying it wouldn't work but I doubt it would be easy to hammer through it. A 12 ton press should provide plenty of power to cut through the leather but I would go with a 20 ton because they are wider and usually built more solid. The extra width will come in handy.

Ok, it's all together and works better than without it. I now have about 2-3 speed settings, beyond that and its far to fast for this machine although the slowest is what I'll mostly use as this machine is only used for repairs and when I can't use any other machine so it rarely sees any long runs. Now that it doesn't really require any feathering of the pedal I may try to teach my wife how to use it so she can do some repairs. The one downfall that I didn't see coming is that it makes it very difficult to spin the handwheel by hand. I'm hoping that now that it can go pretty very slow that I won't need to handwheel it much and at that point I may re-install the brake on the servo.

Well because I have slightly more money than patience(I have very little of both) I called Napa and they have the belt I needed so I ran and grabbed it. I went with an inch bigger because that equation figured it to be 35" and I got 34" using the leather belt. As soon as I got back the damn FedEx truck showed up with my belt. As it turns out though the 35" fit without even having to adjust it, I could have probably adjusted it to fit the 34 though but didn't bother trying. So the moral of the story is math is good and napa has belts. The Motion industries place doesn't stock anything so it must be just a small place that orders from thier main warehouse. That would probably explain why I've never seen it

The adult section is getting all kinds of new attention. Ill tell you guys what though there are some pretty impressive creations there. I never really paid much attention to the bondage type stuff but the work that goes into that stuff looks to be far more involved than a holster or some other the other more traditional items normally seen on this site. I left pretty impressed.

Leo, Thanks for that, I may double check my measurement and see how close I was. I had some leather belting laying around and I used that to mark how long I needed. I added a little to the measurement since it laid down in the groove. I doubt my belt is coming today by the way. If it doesn't come tomorrow I'm going to call the place that was mentioned earlier in this thread.