billymac814

You can also just get a stand. I got one for about 300 or so bucks with a new servo motor, its just like the stands the Cowboy 4500s come with. Its more versatile than a patcher stand. Because of this I now have a spare Adler patcher stand however I'm going to hang on to it in case I ever decide I want to set it up somewhere without electricity.

FWIW 2600 for a Consew 206rb is way out of line. I paid somewhere around 1300 for mine complete with the table and gear reduction servo motor( I would prefer a speed reducer and regular servo but its not bad). I bought mine brand new from Bob at Toledo. Even with a speed reducer that shouldn't put it more than 150 bucks or so more. It'll stitch with 207 OK but it works better with 138 I think. I would also look at the Cowboy 227(I think that's the number). I want one and am probably going to trade in my 206 as soon as bob gets more in. It has a similar capacity but is more convenient for non flat things. I have a Cowboy 4500 but I'd like to leave it set up for heavy stuff.

I do mine similar to this except the piece that I cut out I then cut it slightly smaller, bevel the edge and put that under the exotic so that it pushes the exotic out flush with the front piece. It takes more time but looks better in the end.

I use Manila folders for most of my patterns. If its something that ill be using alot I use these thin cutting board things I found at Ross's. they are slightly thicker than a Manila folder and the last batch I bought had a non slip surface on the bottom which keeps it from sliding around. I also use these to glue leather onto that ill be tooling, the glue comes off easily when I'm ready to remove it.

There's a guy on eBay making them, he makes stamps and some gun molds too as well as a few machines. I'd check it out, I've been watching the things he puts out and they look pretty good. Just don't anyone bid on the derringer mold because I'm going to!!. They are cheap too, of course its probably more if you have one custom made.

What are you guys using to set normal double cap or jiffy rivets? I just got a press n snap and it does a much better job for snaps than a hammer and hand tool, I'd imagine a press of some sort would work much better rivets too. I'm really starting to regret selling the heritage foot press I had. I don't want to spend a fortune as I don't set a whole lot, I was looking at two weavers setters, one is a heritage the other is a Rex, they look similar but I think they are only for tubular rivets. Both are around 50 bucks. The little wonder looks nice but by the time I'd get the dies its 300 plus I'd probably want other dies which puts it even higher. That's certainly not a huge expense but I don't set enough to really justify that I don't think. I normally set one at a time on purse straps and things like that and occasionally for holster clips.

The screws work good, the only issue I sometimes run in to is on thinner belts the screws are too long and need ground down. There are shorter Chicago screws but they have an open back and I don't like the look. I don't think most people change their buckle, at least not here. I do on occasion use rivets, only if I know for sure they won't be swapping buckles and usually only if I'm in a hurry and its a thinner belt. Chances are most of my customers would bring it back to me to change regardless, I've had people bring in belts they got somewhere else for me to put a different buckle on and I unsnap it in front of them and they get a dumb look on their face, they had no idea it unsnapped. My double layer belts always get the Chicago screws and I use a little locktite on all of them too. The guy who owned my shop prior to me sold belts he bought from a local guy, he didn't finish the edges at all and used line 24 snaps and used center bar buckles which hit the snaps. They look like crap and people still rave about them, I don't get it but needless to say when they see mine most people see the quality difference, I have one of his that someone gave me back so I'm able to show the difference.

It should not separate just by being left in a car but enough heat will re-activate it and just about any cement. . For high heat applications like if your glueing on soles where a guy may work on hot asphalt all day there is a hardener for the Renia glues. I've never had it separate on leather without the hardener, that's really only needed in some extreme cases. I attended a bonding seminar this past year, it was quite informative, the videos should be on YouTube. You could probably just search Renia or SSIA to watch the whole seminar. A lot of it is based on bonding synthetic materials though so it may not apply to what you're doing but it doesn't hurt to know and they talk about the safety aspect, green strengths etc.

I just posted this in another thread too but these are the pots I was talking about. Also FYI the Masters All purpose is a good cement that works well but it does have toluene and MEK, Masters Multi purpose and Renia Colle de cologne is free of those and bonds stronger. Thats important to me because my kids spend a lit of time in and near the shop. They are more expensive though but they bond a lot more materials too so it keeps me from using multiple cements for repairs.

These are the types of glue pots I use. Its very important to keep the lid on when not in use and turn them upright. I NEVER thin my glues now that I use these. Any other pot I've used allows too much evaporation and I was constantly thinning it down.

Renia colle de cologne is about 50-60/gallon and Masters MULTI purpose is the same exact glue, they buy it from Renia and repackage it and its sometimes a little cheaper. Its very important to start with a brand new glue pot, I can assure you you can't clean one out good enough, I tried, the slightest contamination made it get all slimey. Also Masters Max Bond is a very good Cement and is made by Renia as well. Both Cements are Toluene and MEK free so they are about as safe as it gets but you should still have proper ventilation. Both are really designed for the shoe repair industry and probably a little overkill for just leather however they are safer than Masters All purpose because it has MEK and toluene in it so it could still be a wise choice for just leather too

Renia really is far more advanced than any other, they are safer and stronger than any other and most importantly for me is it bonds nearly any material, like polyurethane, and thermal plastic(with primers). If I were just bonding leather though I would probably just use masters or weldwood as its cheaper and they work. I found the key to all of those is a good glue pot. I use the big boy plastic ones. I get mine at Frankford leather in Pa. I think you need a wholesale account to order from them. Isachs in Chicago has it and sells to anyone.

I just got a letter from Springfield and they will be reproducing Tandys old formula. You might check with them if your not happy with what you're using. I personally use Renia colle de cologne but I bond more than just leather.

I just checked out that cobra clicker. Its very nice and priced very good. That may be on my short list. I'm working towards the Cobra finisher right now so I can rearrange my shop and make more room. Even with the relatively inexpensive clicker press the difference from about 200 to 3200 is huge for someone who wants to start out clicking.

Art is right, a shop press conversion is no good for big production but for lower volume shops it will be much faster than cutting by hand. I normally do make 30-40 holsters at a time and can cut out the 60-80 pieces in about 20 -30 minutes without rushing around. I could probably do that in 5 -10 minutes with a real clicker but compared to hand cutting I'm ok with the 20 minutes. I also calculate in the time I used to spend touching up edges on the sander. I have an air jack on mine and I only let it up enough to pull the die out so it doesn't have far to go back down. There's a serious jump in price from a cheap shop press to a clicker press and while not perfect, a shop press does work and gets you clicking for far less money and for a lot of holster makers we already have the press anyway. I definitely at some point buy a real one though some day but I have a few other priorities ahead of that. I think the biggest downfall for me is the presses are too narrow so I can't just stick a side through it, I need to cut pieces that'll fit in. Even with all the shortcomings though it was the best thing I ever did to cut down time next to buying a sewing machine. This situation is similar to when you're handsewing and then buy a Boss you're super thrilled at how fast an easy you can now sew, then after using that for a few years you buy a 441 or something and suddenly you look back at the Boss and think how slow and inefficient it is and maybe that is true but the boss would still stitch circles around two needles and an awl.

The weavers press is pretty small. Harbor freight has their 12 ton press on sale for 99.00 and you can get the plates and cutting pad from weavers for another 80.00 or one could get by with two thick steel plates and a poly cutting board and do it for less money. I just cut the ram rod off of mine and secured the top plate to the bar that comes down so it also goes back up, one could just lay the top plate on top of the die.

It makes sense for sure, I tried it tonight, I needed a piece of about 3-4 oz so I grabbed a scrap and split it down, it worked out but I could have just grabbed a scrap of 4 oz too. Ill pay more attention to my scraps from here on out, I usually throw all my scraps in a bin and set them out in my shop and sell them by the pound, if I need any I just go dig through it. Bruce, when you say crank skiver are you talking about one with a really short blade like the type on a 5in1 or is there another type? That's too short to do a lap skive for a belt buckle but would be ok on smaller straps maybe. Would it be possible to use a jig(like a shim looking thing) and run that under a strap on a crank splitter to do lap skives? I seen a tutorial of someone doing it with a pull through splitter, I guess you'd have to do it backwards on a crank splitter. I was going to experiment but figured someone may already have tried that.

Chicago screws are certainly stronger and easier to install, they are my personal choice on most of my belts. The only time I use snaps is if a customer specifically requests snaps and that's pretty rare. The only people who prefer snaps are people who often change their buckle. I just recently got the Chicago screw tool from Weavers, it makes screwing them and unscrewing them a little easier and is pretty cheap.

Ok, that makes sense. I would like a better way of skiving the end of belts and straps, right now I usually just run it through the splitter and then back it back out and finish with a knife. I was just curious if people were splitting a lot of their leather, it never really dawned on me to do so, I use the Landis to thin down leather soles occasionally and strap ends but I never really considered it for much else. Bruce, is there any advantage to a chase splitter over my landis, other than the fact you could do belt ends better? I've never used the pull through type, it always seemed like it would be hard to pull a piece through but that's probably not the case.

I often read here about splitters and it seems a lot of people have them and id assume use them. I do have a 6" Landis 30 but rarely use it. I normally keep a side of various thicknesses so I have whatever I need. That always seemed easier than splitting pieces down but I recently watched a video someone made using the Cobra 14" splitter and it intrigued me but for nearly 2500 bucks that would buy leather in every thickness and from there you're just buying leather as normal. My question is are you guys just keeping thicker leather around and splitting it if you need thinner leather? Seems like that's just an extra step but maybe I'm missing something. I can see how having that Cobra splitter would be handy to have around at times. Maybe I should just try out with what I have since its very similar, just smaller. I can see for someone that doesn't go through much leather where this would be a great advantage. I think my advantage would be that instead of stocking different weights I could stock colors as well but then I'm just trading dying for splitting so its probably a wash.

Here's the difference between the two dies. It would be very simple to modify one into the other. These are factory ones.

Thanks, Its probably not feasible to try to ship that, I have a fullsize finisher so I don't need it anyway, I was just thinking it would be nice to have a mini over near another bench to save a little walking around. The boot jack I'm looking for are the metal last stand to work on shoes. I'm looking for a more modern version though, I have enough old ones that have poor fitting lasts that move when you pound on them. If you get a list together of the rest of the stuff let me know, I couldn't make out much in the pictures. Thank you.

You could do that with the machine too, just run it off the edge and then back tack. I'm not sure it would look quite the same since there'd be a lock on the edge but it might look close enough. I think I'd hate going through the hassle of putting needles on for every one but that would depend on how many you're making too.

How much do you want for the sander with the heel breaster? Also do you have a boot jack? I guess I should also ask where you're located?

This is a funny topic. Truth is I bet you could sell the final product for MORE money by using repurposed leather. It could be a good marketing ploy, similar to the items made of reclaimed barn wood. These days people pay a premium for stuff like that and it could be considered "Green". Of course the finished product has to look nice. I recently made a planner out of a recycled suitcase. The suitcase was this woman's dads and I was able to incorporate alot of the details in it like where his initiials were monogrammed on there and a pice of leather from the zipper pull was used and a button was used to keep it closed. It was a bit of pressure though as I had no room for messing up as there was just enough leather, it turned out well though and she loved it, I'm sure it'll get passed down to someone else.