billymac814

There's a company that sells the heads on Etsy, they are brass and made to be used with a soldering iron and they are very reasonably priced however I can not comment on quality as I haven't seen them in person. Their name is blackmarketint. They are out of Hong Kong but its just a husband/wife team, I've spoke with them and they are very nice. The price is about 35.00 for the head and you can get a soldering iron for less than 10 bucks in whatever voltage you need.

Yes come to think of it I think there is some sort of directory for the members. I may have exaggerated about spiderwebs but I certainly get my share of customers who have some pretty ridiculous ideas involving holsters. Usually ones that are more transformers than Spider-Man. I normally say that if you can't find the type of holster you want its because its probably a bad idea. There are very few truly original ideas left by now, good ones anyway. Everything is basically variations of some other design. I do seriously turn down quite a bit of work though. Unfortunately though I can't take it all so I usually take either things that interest me or things I can make money on easily and I know that others can make things more efficiently than I can if they specialize in them. My main thing is holsters and belts where someone else may be bags and wallets and someone else may be guitar straps and rifle slings. I could certainly build up my own network by checking out everyone's work on here and contacting them personally but I thought it would make more sense if we all could benefit from the idea.

I thought about the help wanted section and maybe that can work but the problem I thought that that had is it isn't exactly instant. So if I get a customer in my shop that wants a wallet the best I can do is take their name and then create a post and wait to get a response then either send the customers info to them, send the makers info to the customer or explain what they want get a price contact the customer, get paid, go back to the maker... It just seems kinda hard for everyday business and frankly too much effort for most cases. Also who's to say who would respond, I wouldn't want to send a customer to someone who's just going to assemble a Tandy kit(no offense to those that use them). If we had a list of people who each had a list of services along with some pictures of their work, website, current wait times and any other pertinent info I could simply pull up the list, find someone and give them the contact info. You could almost even choose someone in the customers price range if need be. Maybe I get a customer who doesn't want a super expensive item and isn't as particular about it, I could possibly pair them with a newer member who may be just starting out or someone that does just assemble Tandy kits who's price is lower. If it were a seperate section of a forum I would think it should be somewhat blocked as far as posting in it so that it doesn't get jumbled up with posts, it should simply be a list of sorts, maybe with each participant having their own thread. I turn down a pretty considerable amount of work which is what's making me think of this. Work that others may love to get and these customers may get something factory made or just forget about their idea when I turn them down. We'd obviously have to use some common sense and not be trying to drop those "bad" jobs on people, like the customer who wants a holster than can be worn IWB, OWB, in the pocket, holds a spare mag and shoots spiderwebs. Make sense or is this too big of an endevour?

Good call, at least you got a little extra out of it. I don't know how I ended up doing mine upside down, I just started it without thinking. It was for a woman too so for all I know it was probably actually the right way. I didn't even realize it until I was all finished and putting the buckle on and I thought "Something's wrong.........oh sh@&!). So now I have a Patti belt with some floral designs on it. Its good to have though as I'm able to show people the difference between a tooled letter and a stamped letter.

Would it be possible to start some sort of network, possibly maybe a seperate section on the forum where members can post what items they make or would be willing to make? This way say I get a customer who wants a wallet and its not something that I either specialize in or have the time to take on I could go find another member who does that would be willing to take it on. At this point I could either turn the customer over to whoever I'd recommend from the list or somehow mediate the transaction depending on the situation. I'm sure there would be some potential problems with something like this but if done correctly the problems should be rare and no different than normal business problems. I have somewhat of a local network similar to this where I do work for other companies, I charge my full rate and I'm sure they mark it up from there and they dont have to worry about their customers going somewhere else and others who just refer me to the customer and the customer comes directly to me and the other way around. It helps us all better serve our customers better by either providing more services or at the very least being able to refer someone who can. I don't have any other leatherworkers that make things though. Any thoughts on this?

Like when you tool a belt upside down? You only do that once, at least now I have a tooled belt example piece for the shop.

I try to figure materials plus time spent. If its an item I need to design first that design time needs to be figured in as well. If its one of my standard items I "subsidize" the design time. I have more overhead than someone working out of their home so my hourly charge may be higher but the minimum I shoot for is 60/hr but 80 is where I like to be. Any less and its not worth doing, I do occasionally goof up and work for less but other jobs balance it out. I end up turning away a lot of jobs that would take too long and cost the customer a fortune. I'm really starting to head towards the more standard items or semi-custom items rather than full out custom jobs as I find its easier to turn a profit that way. A lot of custom jobs get way underpriced it seems. We can't work for free though and a lot of people think we should. I get quite a few people in my shop thinking if they can buy it factory made for 100.00 that I should somehow be able to make it cheaper?!?!? I do not understand this logic, they obviously don't understand how mass production works.

Unfortunately its probably worth the weight of scrap. There was once somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 shoe repair shops in the US, now there are 5,000. This means that 70,000 finishers got displaced and almost no one wants them unless they are a more modern version with sanding belts and a better vacuum system. I recently seen one sell at an auction and it didn't even go for scrap price, it was in perfect working order, had good blades for the trimmer and was fairly clean and had been in use up until a month or so prior. Check on Craigslist, there are finishers that have been there for months and months, this really applies to a lot of shoe repair equipment, you can get a Landis 12 stitcher for pennies if you want one, the same with a McKay. The more modern stuff gets higher prices because its still used and there's not as much of it out there. Also other things that can be used in the leatherworking trade sells higher like the splitters, 5-1s patchers etc. You could always just set it up and use it, they work pretty good for sanding edges as long as the drums are in good shape and don't bounce around too much. I know nothing about the clicker machine, does it work? I'm sure quite a few of the folks here would be interested in a working or maybe non working clicker.

That's a nice looking pattern. I booked marked it in case I ever need it. Maybe there are more people selling patterns than I thought there were, ill have to look a bit more.

I too use the file folders for my new patterns and ones that don't get used as often. If its something ill be using I found these very thin flexible plastic cutting boards that work really good. The last batch I bought had a slight rubber grid on the back to prevent slipping which helps on the patterns too. And like Dwight I keep some vinyl for certain things and have even made things from it first to see how it comes out. I too either wait for it to be on sale or I have the Jo Ann's ap on my phone which almost always has a 40-50% off coupon. Joanne's is in the same shipping center as I am so its pretty convenient.

Im glad other people found this helpful. I've been using it most of the day, any drag is gone, I'm still relearning the pedals a bit but once I retrain myself I think I'm going to like it better for sure. I should probably switch the small and big pedals as soon as possible so I don't have to get used to that once I'm already familiar with the way it is although I'm not sure there's any great advantage to the big pedal being the motor control. The welding rod is an interesting idea too although it wouldn't have worked in my case and I don't have any welding rods laying around although I probably could have used some auto soler wire that I have. Before switching the pedals I thought about loosening the two screws and sliding that bracket over but I didn't think it would help much since the pedals are farther forward than the hole so it still would have dragged(drug??) a bit. I did at one point coat the chain in beeswax but it didn't help much.

Ill call Bieler's and request a catalog, I tried searching for them online the last time and I tried searching for Mcmillens but neither have a website. I did find a lot of people complaining about Mcmillens customer service so I definitely don't want to order directly from them. Do you know roughly what the cost of the mcmillen edgers are? I've been checking out the Gomph edgers from Bruce and if I decide to spend more than 50 bucks on an edger I think that is the route I'm going to go, I think I'll feel better spending that kind of money on an edger if its old. Ill have to contact him and see what sizes I need. The nice thing about buying from him is he won't sell you something that won't do what you need it to do. I contacted him about a round knife a while back and was ready to pick and buy one from his site, he could have easily just sold me one but he was upfront and said he didn't have one that would really fit my needs. A lot of people would have just picked the next closest thing to make a sale. I picked up an edger from Weavers a few months ago, it is from their "masters" line which I thought should be a professional grade tool but I can't get it to cut very well even after working on it a bit.

I wasn't assuming anything. I said if you need one you'll be able to afford one. You may never need one, like I said, some people choose to handsew everything, it just depends on the route you take, or more likely the the route your work takes you!! Believe me, I started with a very basic kit from Tandy and never had any intentions of making a business from it, it just sort of progresses that way. But there is nothing wrong with doing it more as a hobby and if you're only doing a few projects here and there there is no need for a sewing machine, in fact I never encourage anyone to get a sewing machine until they truley NEED one. I hand stitched ALOT of holsters before I bought a machine and the reason I did was because I had to to keep up and I had enough orders to be able to afford one, hense my point " when you NEED one you'll be able to afford one". I have a feeling though that if you practice like you are and take pride in your work like it sounds like you do you'll be surprised at how many people want what you make.

I vote no flames:-). Its definitely a good choice for someone who is just getting into leatherwork. a bag that has 30 pieces would be a bit overwhelming for someone new. The large holes make it easy for a kid to sew together, my 9 yr old is able to do it fairly easy. I just personally hate seeing assembled kits posted for sale on either Etsy or eBay and marked as "Custom" items. They should sell just the patterns for these items, that would seem to be a more viable options for either intermediate leatherworkers or for someone who is trying to keep the costs down by eliminating all the design time that goes into a custom item. I'd probably be interested in a few in that case, it would allow a base pattern and allow for alterations to be easily made.

Definitely post pics of the set up once you're done, I'm sure an air lift would be pretty nice. I really thought I would prefer the foot lift over the knee lifts that my other machines have but the knee lift for me is a little more convenient as I can do everything with my right leg. I do remember seeing the post of your current setup, I remembered it as I was making mine. Thanks.

Probably because they come with chains. As I said I thought about getting steel cable, however I own a repair shop so I have luggage wheels laying around and not steel cable, I'm sure it would have worked better than the chain alone but with the pedal switched the angle is pretty sharp and still probably need a roller. Wiz, If you send me your address Ill send you one, I had enough steel to make another and since the wheels are sold in pairs its unlikely I'd ever use one.

I have use it a bit since doing this and I do like it, I'm really surprised at how smooth the foot lifter works compared to how it did. It was always at a slight angle which caused the chain to drag across the hole in the table not a big deal but I'd prefer smooth often dragging, I often thought of replacing the chain with a steel cable thinking it might be smoother but the roller really works so it may be an option for those who don't want to switch the pedals around too. You can also make out in the picture how I have my thread snippers tethered to the machine. I use retractable key chains and have one at each machine, otherwise they walk away. This particular one is worn out so it doesn't really retract anymore so its hanging down.

Bob, Here's a picture showing how the chains cross and another showing the backside of my roller. I may switch the pedals around at some point so the big one is the motor control. It was made with stuff I had laying around, I'm sure there's a bunch of other ways the same thing could be done. I also could have bent the metal a little better but I didn't have a good way of bending it and it should be cut a little shorter but I wasn't too concerned. Maybe some day Ill pull it off and paint it and make it a little more finished (yea right). I hope that helps.

It is good practice so don't be discouraged. You'll be able to afford a sewing machine when you NEED one, that's pretty much how it works, assuming you take payments up front and charge enough anyway. Most of us have been where you are and worked our way up to a machine, others choose to handsew everything anyway, it just depends on what route you take. I actually said at one point that I'd never get a sewing machine and I planned to handsew everything. That thought didn't last long though and soon I had enough orders that I wouldn't have been able to finish them without a machine. Now I have about a dozen that serve different purposes. They have a habit of multiplying.

Haha, I think that's all I ever hand stitched too, luckily it was for me and I'm skinny. I made sure I had a machine before I got any orders.

When I got my Cowboy I had it in the lowest position and sat on a low stool, I found that using the foot lift was a little difficult to do and took a bit longer than just using the hand control lever. I decided to get a high stool and raise it up, this gives me better leverage to use the foot pedal however I found that I'm "right footed" and if I keep my left foot on the gas and right on the lift that I can't control it quite as good and I don't want to use my right for both. This got me thinking it would be better to just switch them for me, so I switched them. The angle of the chain dragged a little more than I liked where it comes through the table so I grabbed a luggage wheel I had(from Ohio travel bag) and ground a groove in it, made a bracket to mount it and used one of the existing bolts to bolt in on. Now it pulls straight down and rolls quite nicely, a little smoother than the way it was since it was at a slight angle before. I left the pedals where they were so now my motor pedal is the small one, if I decide I like it this way I may switch them but I'm going to try it like this for a while and see how it goes. I can't say for sure yet that I like the new configuration but so far so good. I think even if I decide to change it back I'm going to let my roller in place so it still pulls straight down. I'm not sure if anyone else has the interest to do this but ill post a few pictures of my chain guide. It consists of a luggage wheel, a long tubular rivet as an axle and a piece of 3/4" steel.

I personally sew the holster together before doing the molding, that way its still flat or somewhat flat. There are times like repairing a holster or some other instances where you have to stitch right up next to something then I do as Wiz said.

Thank you, the Glock holster is made from around 8oz or so, possibly 8-10. It was formed with a regular shop press with gum rubber pads and finished by hand

There's seems to be a mixed bag of opinions here which is what I expected. I'm not complaining about the cost of what goes in to the steel and all the RD that goes into making a tool that works well. In fact that's exactly what I want to pay for because that's what's important to me. I was a little torn because of my earlier comment about the fact that I wouldn't cheapen on of my holsters or belts like someone else mentioned but I'm not making every holster out of an exotic skin, my base ones are quality cowhide, I wouldn't consider using a lesser grade leather or not finishing the edges to make one cheaper than that and I wouldn't want a tool maker to start using cheap steel or not putting in the research, I just don't need the fancy wood and other embellishments on my tools because that doesn't help me improve my work and it definitely doesn't increase my bottom line, well it does help when tax time comes around:-). I personally would choose the cheaper option on most of my tool purchases given the choice assuming they performed the same. If a leather wrangler knife is 275 with a plain handle or 310 with a fancy one i would take the plain one. That money saved could go to more tools that could make my end product better and would probably save me time or allow me to take on more jobs if I'm equipped to do so, all of those things would make me more money or just use the time saved by spending more time with my family which I don't have much time to do now. There are certain times when nice tools are cool to have especially if its something that you always use and they are always nice to look at but I don't need it for everything. I've spent over 50,000 in tools and machinery over the past few years, I always try to buy the best, I'm not cheap by any means however I'm running a business over anything else so I need to not only watch my expenses but make sure I have what I need to get the job done, the more I spend the less I make, that's simple math but I'm not saying I want to buy all Tandy tools because the math doesn't work there because any money saved goes into time spent reworking tools or trying to keep them sharp. Ill check out the company Bruce mentioned and see what they have. I am on Bruce's mailing list and check his site on a regular basis, he always has some amazing hard to find stuff. My main point of the post is what's currently available. It all seems to be of either low quality or super high quality with the super fancy wood or engraved brass pieces etc. Maybe what I'm looking for is out there, I don't know which is the reason for the post. Barry king tools seem to be the most reasonable for what you get, I haven't tried an edger from him yet and as of now ill probably be ordering one to try it unless I find something else in the mean time.

I agree, I end up polishing my own, I normally use the strop wheel on my tormek to get a good polished edge. I use the edge of it for the edgers. Most of the time I end up using my cheaper Tandy edgers as they seem to work better than some other brands I have. I'd like to find a good set but if I want 2 different styles with say 3 sizes of round bottom ones and one or two for sharp corners were talking 300.00 to 400.00 bucks just for a set of edgers. This is what started this rant which is why I keep bringing up edgers but it applies to just about everything as well.