billymac814

I would price the clicker at 100 dollars. I'm also interested in it so let me know. Just kidding of course but I would agree that selling the machine separate from the dies is your best bet otherwise your either limiting your market to just to those who make or want to make chaps, I certainly wouldn't consider buying it for my holster business if I had to buy 100 dies I didn't have a use for unless it was a really good deal in which case I still wouldn't want the dies so you may as well have kept them and sold them and made more money. I would seriously be interested in the clicker however if you are in Canada that would probably make that un feasible.

I should also note that with my steel rule dies the cutting blade is actually pretty thin so it takes less pressure to push them through the leather than the heavier type dies. Also if I were to do it over I would have got the 20 ton shop press, not because I need the extra power but because its wider. I originally bought the press to mold holsters though so I already had it.

I just started making my own dies (steel rule dies w/plywood in the center) and I modified a 12 ton shop press. I used the plates weavers sells with their cutting pad and replaced the bottle jack with an air powered one. I have about 300 bucks invested in it and another 500 or so in the bender for the dies and some dies for it. My patterns are roughly 7" X5" and it takes a considerable amount of force to cut through 7-7.5 oz leather. I doubt that machine would do it but its hard to tell how big it is. The biggest downfall to the shop press is you need to have pieces that fit in between the arms. Some day ill get a real clicker press but for now this works better than any round knife I've ever used.

The first picture is a seam stapler, I use mine on occasion, the staples are made by Apex, I don't know if they are still made though, I have a fair amount of staples left so I haven't checked. Everything else has been described, I may be interested in the trimmer blades if they still fairly sharp and you want to sell them.

Does anyone know if the weaver blade is the same as a Landis 30 blade and if you can use that plastic guage with the Landis. I have an old landis 30 and I just sharpened the blade, it works much better but I have no idea if the blade is adjusted correctly. I'd also like to get a spare blade to have on hand, I'm not 100% sure how effective my sharpening (polishing really) was so it would also be nice just to feel a good blade so I have a basis for comparison.

Talk about a day late and 32 dollars short. I wish I would have known I could have modified the die, I figured it was just a matter of a flat spot being different but I wasn't sure what exactly the difference was. Oh well. Also fwiw. I have a very small bench vise that claps on to the bench, I clamped the pres-n-snap in that and it works good as a bench mount. I did put two pieces of leather against the jaws to prevent scratching. It is easier when its clamped down.

I didn't see the die for the directional snaps on their page. On the Sailright page it specifically says "die for pull the dot fasteners". Its only one die, the rest are the same as the line 24. Rochford has the dies for the baby snap dies though which Sailright doesn't have. The pres-n-snap comes with dies for line 24 snaps and dies for a grommet(I don't recall which size). The tool is cheaper at Rochford so you may be ahead ordering the tool from them and the die from Sailright if Rochford in fact doesn't have the pull the dot die.

I just picked up a Pres-n-snap off someone from the forum. It works great so far although I just got it. I ordered the die for the one way snaps but haven't received it yet. There's also a bench mount that is available, I may get that at some point. I've been using either a modified arbor press or just the hand tool and mallet. I've been wanting a pres-n-snap for some time now and kept putting it off. I will say that they are much larger than you can tell from the pictures, its a very beefy tool and worth the price. I can see where having two would be nice if you're doing a ton of snaps but for the average holster maker one should suffice, the dies come out very easily. They run about 130 bucks new with the dies for line 24 snaps, and the die for the directional snaps is another 30 bucks. Sail rite is where I ordered the dies I needed and they shipped the same day. I can't speak for the other machine as I haven't used it but it looks fine as well but is more expensive but if you can do rivets on it that may be worth looking into as well.

Received the tool today, I had to order 2 dies for what I need which wasn't bad. Its much larger than I thought it would be, had I known they were such a substantial tool I may have ordered one a long time ago. Thanks again!

Here's my update. I went to Home Depot and got 3 more fixtures, they are the two bulb, 4ft T-8 made by Lithonia. They have small reflectors and were 19.99 which was only 7.00 more than the cheapest ones that use the T-12 bulbs. I replaced two of my existing fixtures with these and added the third over where I moved two of my sewing machines. I also got the daylight bulbs which are a brighter looking light. The added feature of these lights are that they have a pull chain so I can easily turn ones off that aren't needed so the two I replaced are in areas I don't always need lit. I will over time switch out the rest of my existing lights for these ones which should save some money on electricity. I still hate looking at all the chains and cords but I will just live with that and route the cords a bit neater as I replace them. Another thing I changed out at the same time was my sink, the only water source in my shop was a small bathroom sink which was always a problem because I couldn't even fit a bucket under the faucet so I put in a large laundry tub type sink with a pull out faucet. It will be much nicer having a legit sink in the shop for cleaning items or just filling up a bucket or even a large spray bottle. That was a fairly cheap project too, the sink was only 25.00, the faucet was 40.00 and a few extra bucks for some fittings and I had to change the direction the door swung so it didn't hit it but that wasn't a big deal. I should have done that a long time ago. Once I slow down a bit, maybe over summer, Ill try to get the ceiling and maybe even some of the walls painted. Thanks for everyone's opinions.

In my old shop I did something similar except I didn't hang them by the ceilings, I basically made a ceiling from my workbench by running 2x4s up, everything was white as well, including my workbench so it made a nice bright work area and gave me extra storage. I could probably do that now but now I have a lot more room and more work stations so I would need to do it at each station.

I'm going to give the daylight bulbs a shot and add a few more fixtures to where I moved the machines too and then at some point this summer ill do some painting. That'll be as good as it gets for a while. I may start replacing fixtures with those high efficiency ones as I go along too.

Or you can send a money request to billy@mccabescustomleather.com Thanks.

Ill buy. Please give me your Paypal address and ill send it over ASAP.

That would work. Let me know what day and a time frame and Ill make sure I'm ready. You can bring some things along that need stitched, that would be the best way to find out what you need. A weekend or evening may be best so I don't have to deal with many customers while you're there but we can make due any time. I have a Tippmann Boss, Cowboy 4500 for heavy stitching, a Consew 206rb for flat items in the medium weight range, a long arm and short arm patchers and various other old machines but those ones probably wouldn't really be relevant or practical to your needs.

Karina, The airbrush method is MUCH easier than the other ways. A spray booth will help greatly with the fumes. There's another thread recently where we discussed this, i got lucky and found a spray booth at an auction for i think 5 bucks and someone else told how they made one for about 10 bucks. Maybe someone can post a link, I'm on my phone and can't easily do it. Actually I can do it easily. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=44481&view=getnewpost

I've found that the masters all purpose(white can) seems to be thicker in the smaller jars than it does in the gallons. I'd imagine the gallons may be fresher since alot of shot repair shops go through them. Also with the smaller jars with the brushes in the lids where you open and close them alot during use dries them up a bit. The gallons are only opened when you fill the pot. I never thin my glues using the big boy pots but I'm careful to keep the lid on and turn them on their backs. I also pretty much go through a pot every day or two so its not sitting long. A guy who works for Renia told me not to thin them down and if I needed to I wasn't using it fast enough, this was mainly with the Multi purpose though not the All purpose.

I get them from Frankford Learher. You may need a wholesale account set up from them though. I Sachs in Chicago should have them and they'll sell to anyone. I think they are called Big Boy pots and they come in big and small sizes. I use the small. They are very expensive either.

The last time I bought bulbs I almost went with the daylight bulbs, the only reason I didn't get them was because I was unsure if it would look funny with different types of bulbs and I didn't want to replace them all at the time. I may try them though, I think they were only a few bucks more. My ceiling is pretty much the same, its a drop ceiling so I use the hooks that slide on the rails to hang the lights and I have a track running down the center that has outlets that slide so its not hard to move lighting around. There's a few old not used fixtures all the way up there, I have no idea if they work but I doubt it. It really looks kinda bad though with 12 or so fixtures that each have two chains and a cord and some kinda go on a diagonal to get where they need to be and I have no outlets in the center of my shop so I have to run cords down from the ceiling for a couple sewing machines and their lights that are in the center of the shop. The rest of the machines I try to keep along the wall but I'm pretty much out of walls now. I would love to completely re-do this place and do things better but time and money won't allow for all that any time soon. A lot of this stuff was done by the previous owner. I'd almost prefer lower ceilings however I have shelves along the walls and I can put less important stuff up high so that is kind of nice however I could get a storage container put out back to do the same thing. I think when I do the painting Ill get some cords that are long enough to at least run the wires neatly down the chains and try to make it look somewhat presentable. In most cases customers can't see it but sometimes they walk back here, I can see it though, I may figure some type is switch in with the cord so I can shut down certain stations when not in use without going to the breaker boxes.

Tom, Thank you for your reply, that is very informative. I'll look into the high efficiency fixtures and maybe look into ways to shut down areas that are not used very often. That would be good enough for me. I'll also work on getting the ceiling painted too. I just hate seeing all the cords and chains hanging down but that's pretty much in avoidable.

There's an ad for it in Shop Talk. Its base price is 700.00. It would be good for someone physically unable to use a mallet. Maybe someone could use or modify one of those battery powered hammers that sears sells. I'll personally be sticking with a mallet as long as I can.

Very good idea. My spray booth is basically a very similar design in the way it works. Its a large metal box with a filter and a squirrel type cage/motor type thing. I vented mine outside as well with flexible hose similar to dryer hose vents. I picked mine up at an auction for I think 5 bucks. No one else had an interest in it or maybe they didn't know what it was. As for glue fumes I think you'd want it to be similar to that but have it sucking down instead of towards the back, that is how the ones that are designed for that are made. The plus to that is its basically a work bench but its either mesh or maybe even something like peg board would work. Here is the issue of flammable things so you'd want to make sure that you use the correct type of motor/ blower type thing. I believe a squirrel cage is what you'd want since the motor is outside of the area that the fumes travel in. Its my goal for this year to have something in place to get rid of the glue fumes.

I'll probably end up going with more flouresent shop lights and see if I can spread the light a little more evenly, I don't want to spend a fortune at this point, maybe if and when I remodel the shop Ill seek out a better solution. I may try putting a few more up high to spread it a little more evenly and add another lower one over the spot where the machines are now. I think the high ceilings hurt a little bit in this regard, if it were lower and brighter it may reflect more light down, that's my theory anyway.

I would say that basically sums it up in the big picture. But there still has to be differences as well as different motors that each are shipped with as well as the standard accessories. I know its splitting hairs at that point but would be interesting none the less. I'm still convinced the Cowboy has a larger hand wheel, can anyone clarify that as true or false?It would really take someone that has both and ordered them at about the same time to be an accurate review. Probably wont happen anytime soon and doesn't matter anyway. Either way I still think distance to the dealer is probably the biggest deciding factor since they are nearly the same.

That's a really nice first machine! Leather has a way of getting into your blood, I've pretty much been addicted since day one and it went out of control since then. My grandfather was a woodworker and I used to work with him a lot and I now have some of his equipment but its never really interested me that much for some reason so I never got that good at it.