billymac814

You can slick it down, there's many methods out there to accomplish this. I normally will use some gum trag and a bone folder and slick it down. I think you can use saddle soap and I've even done it with resolene when I'm feeling kinda lazy. I also start with good leather that doesn't have a very nappy flesh.

Also be careful of the fumes if you go with kero or propane, I used to use a torpedo heater and a kero in the garage while working and they both got pretty nasty at times. I wouldn't have been able to do that everyday. The torpedo did a good job at warming it up quick though but it sure made a lot of noise and burned up the fuel in short order. Mine didn't have a thermostat which made it very much a pita as it was always too hot or too cold and required a lot of turning on and off. If you go that route make sure you get one with a thermostat. I ended up using it to knock the chill off and the kero heater to maintain it. Also make sure there's something on the floor between the concrete and your feet. Harbor freight has those foam tiles that go on sale pretty often.

I really feel for you. I have Reznor natural gas heaters hanging from the ceiling in my shop, and on other out front in the retail area, they keep it plenty toasty and don't run very often. What will you do when it's below freezing? Your cased leather will freeze as well as other liquids like glue and finishes etc. Milwaukee makes a heated jacket that uses their batteries. It would keep your core warm which then keeps your legs and arms warm. I use a heated vest on my motorcycle and it does wonders. This doesn't help with everything else though. Before I had my shop now I often thought about setting up in the garage but this is exactly the reason I never did. I had a shop space in a room though, I often miss working at home, I've thought about setting up a small scale shop back in there to work occasionally but it would be fairly costly to buy the stuff needed a second time and besides, I wasn't out of there 15 minutes before my wife started moving stuff in there.

I have several stamps and each one I get usually gets smaller and smaller. All I use now is a small one that says "McCabe" in a italic script to resemble a signature but legible. That is all I need and I usually place it somewhere you'd expect to see a signature or somewhere tactful. I recently got an email from a guy who purchased a used gun and it came with one of my holsters that had that small simple stamp on it, he was very impressed with the quality and googled "McCabe holsters" and it quickly brought up my site and contact info and he was able to send me the email. That stamp did exactly what it was supposed to and it didn't matter where it was at so it would have been pointless if it were "in your face" so to speak. It didn't have to say "maker" or "McCabes custom Leather" or Altoona Pa or any type of Logo or picture or anything else (yes I have those stamps too). When I first started I wanted them to be large and have all that on them and be right out in the open, now I I just do the best job I can on the item and let the quality show because that's the real makers mark but people need to be able to track me down if need be, for this reason I don't think initials really do any good although that's exactly what I used in the beginning. Also none of what I said is saying there's anything wrong with putting a stamp front and center or wherever, we can all do what we want,I'm simply sharing what works for me, your results may differ. On belts I put my stamp on the back side between the Chicago screws along with the date that way if they ever come back for any reason I know exactly how old it is, this mainly only applies to the single layer ones I sell in my store, I don't date the double layer gun belts I sell online since I have a better tracking method for those and make them to order.

Or how should I make an alligator belt. My question is what's the best way to cut the hide. I have a customer who brought me a whole hide from a gator he hunted then had tanned and now I have it to make a holster, belt and a few things for his wife. My initial thought was to cut it in one piece, the problem is ill really pretty much have to split the hide which seems a bit wasteful. I looked up and seen a tutorial kind of thing from someone and he pieces them together which would give a much better yield. Depending on what advice is given here I may just give the guy a call and see what he wants me to do, I think I an make either look good. Another interesting thing I seen on that how to page was that he didn't see the belt together, just glued and rolled it. I have no doubt good glue would hold, after all it holds on shoe soles which take a lot of abuse but it still seems odd to me although I'd probably prefer the looks without the stitching. I also debated just doing inlays which would eliminate the issue altogether and stitching IMO looks much better on regular cowhide than it does on exotics and it would be much better to get a nice edge. Maybe I'll run that idea by him, I didn't talk to him about the belt as that was an afterthought and he called in and added it after he left the shop. I just wanna make sure its as good as possible, he has a small fortune wrapped up in this project between the hunt the tanning and me and he's been waiting patiently for about 9 months.

I agree camano, my wait time is clearly posted on every page of my site and he is a repeat customer so it was no surprise. The only reason I'd offer to sell it is because he's a repeat but I don't think I'm going to mainly because I know it won't sell quickly. I'd like to be able to notify my customers prior to starting them but it takes up too much time that I don't have, I'm already working ridiculous hours to keep the wait time where it is, though they do get notified when it ships with tracking info. I've thought about making a calendar so customers can gauge where their order is but I haven't worked all the details out yet.

Ok, I think everyone confirmed my thought on it as well. The hard to sell one isn't a customized or personalized item, if it was i wouldnt even consider a refund, its just an ankle holster which I don't sell many of and its for a model of gun that I don't sell many holsters for, plus a mag pouch for a different model which would sell quickly but combined its about a 200.00 dollar order, and combined with the other order it's 300.00 bucks. I collect 100% of the payment, mainly because its far to complicated to do it any other way with the amount of items I make. I tried it other ways and it was a mess as well as doubled the invoicing/paperwork portion. I make exceptions on occasions but only for larger orders like a motorcycle seat or something where I'll take a down payment but I don't do many of those anymore. I'm not really concerned with them hurting my business per se but I have maintained a good reputation and would like to keep it that way and as long as I'm in the right I don't care if they post their experience even if it didn't turn out the way they would have liked. Most normal people would understand and disregard it, those who don't wouldn't be a good customer anyway. To Bluesman, I'd love to know how you filter out all the fools because I'd say anyone who's in business has to put up with a bunch of fools. Most of my online sales are all good people but I have a shop with a retail location doing a lot of repair work as well and I unfortunately can't prevent them from coming in and the really bad ones I generally turn down if I foresee an issue but I still gotta feed my family and fools money spends just as good, sometimes better! Thanks for all the replies.

I make and sell holsters online and have for a few years now and never had an issue with people ordering and then later trying to cancel but twice this week it has happened and both times I had already started their order. I maintain a posted 8-10 week wait list and almost always deliver on time. Both of these orders are paid for and even ahead of schedule by a little bit, I have not yet refunded their money and part of me doesn't want to but I also don't need someone posting negative things about me either. The one order I can easily resell the other would be more difficult and because of this I really don't think I'm giving him a refund. From here on out I'm going to have a written policy. These incidents are why policy's exist I suppose. For the one that would be difficult to sell I considered telling him that since its already started that it is too late to cancel but if he really doesn't want it I will assist him in selling it. FYI the reasoning behind the cancelations is the one guys decided he thinks a kydex one would be better and the other said he didn't think it would be this long so he made "other arrangements" but as I already said this order was or will be finished before the promised date. I don't think these are good enough reasons frankly. In the past I had a few people who had problems with their gun and traded it in and I just refunded them as I didn't start on it yet anyway and I had one guy who said his financial situation drastically changed and he really needed the money he spent, I refunded him and still sent him the holster.

I would think just wind it as flat as possible, I would think you'd get a lot less thread on the bobbin if you did a zigzag thing but I don't know for sure. Here's how I wind my bobbins. My Tippman is set up beside my consew 206RB and I use the 207 thread that I have for it, this gets me a little more thread on the bottom and keeps me from I threading the Boss to use the thread on it, I also use the Consews thread stand and the tension disks for the bobbin winder to keep just enough tension on the line to prevent the bobbin from unwinding and using a hand powered drill wind it slow and as even as possible without stretching out the thread too much as I think that is what causes it to snag a bit. I think I've had better luck with the smaller bottom thread pulling the knot back in to the hole too but its hard to say for sure. I would think just wind it as flat as possible, I would think you'd get a lot less thread on the bobbin if you did a zigzag thing but I don't know for sure. Here's how I wind my bobbins. My Tippman is set up beside my consew 206RB and I use the 207 thread that I have for it, this gets me a little more thread on the bottom and keeps me from I threading the Boss to use the thread on it, I also use the Consews thread stand and the tension disks for the bobbin winder to keep just enough tension on the line to prevent the bobbin from unwinding and using a hand powered drill wind it slow and as even as possible without stretching out the thread too much as I think that is what causes it to snag a bit. I think I've had better luck with the smaller bottom thread pulling the knot back in to the hole too but its hard to say for sure.

You should also be able to buy most parts you need from Shoe Systems Plus in New York. Likewise you can often find these machines for very cheap if you need a lot of parts it may be worthwhile to pick up a parts machine. I believe there's one on eBay right now for 50 bucks with no bids and no reserve. Hard to believe really. Thanks for posting the manual, I've fought with mine for quite a bit and I'm sure I will again and that would come in handy if its different than the one I have. You should also be able to buy most parts you need from Shoe Systems Plus in New York. Likewise you can often find these machines for very cheap if you need a lot of parts it may be worthwhile to pick up a parts machine. I believe there's one on eBay right now for 50 bucks with no bids and no reserve. Hard to believe really. Thanks for posting the manual, I've fought with mine for quite a bit and I'm sure I will again and that would come in handy if its different than the one I have.

Also make sure you're not winding your bobbins too tight. This caused me a lot of problems, especially when using the thing chucked in a drill it pulled it too tight. I now use a hand drill and make sure I wind them very even. I think mine works better when using 207 bottom with 277 top. Make sure you are wrapping the top thread around a full loop around the primary tension wheel if you have an older manual it doesn't show it correctly, check the manual on their site for the current version. I also replaced my shuttle with the new version that has the lock screw for the bobbin tension, this helped keep the tension set better. Still occasionally the bottom thread will be to tight and not pull the lock through here and there and ill curse at it but otherwise that machine was a lifesaver for me when I got it.

This brings up a good question as well, what is the correct way of rolling it up? When I bought my first piece of leather I went to roll it up with the grain inside thinking that would protect the good side and the guy working there nearly slapped it out of my hands to roll up with the grain side out. That is also the way I receive it from W&C so I always roll it up grain out.

I have an Adler 30-1, I mainly use it for repair work and sewing patches on in tough to reach places. I mainly use #69 thread but it works fine with 92 as well and on occasion 138 but that's about as big as it'll go, I always leave 69 in the bobbin and I use the pre wound ones most of the time unless its an oddball color. Mine is treadle powered but I'm getting a power base for it from Bob Kovar shortly. It's is a workhorse in my shop now that I do a lot of repair work but I don't use it much for anything I make. I buy my thread in the small one ounce spools from either Frankford Leather or Wawak except for black brown and white which I get bigger spools. I think you got a pretty good price if it was rebuilt and put on a nice powered base.

I had a machine shipped from Ohio to PA and if I remember correctly it was a little under 300.00, that was freight between two commercial addresses, it was also on a pallet ready to go from the seller (Bob at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machine). I'm not sure if you can use that as a reference point or not.

Up for sale is my Sutton 296a McKay insole stitcher. It is in pretty good condition, me and this machine were never able to see eye to eye so I'm not sure if it may need an adjustment or if its operator error or a little of both but it does function and is still set up in my shop if anyone wants to try it out first. If you're in the market for one of these you already know what they look like so I'm not gonna post pictures but if someone is interested I an email them. It comes with a manual and tools, a few awls and its loaded with Power thread right now. Price is 1500.00 which is half of what the one on eBay is(the one on eBay is not selling so I assume 3000 is too high). This machine is really only for the shoe repair/making business. It is very heavy so it'll have to be picked up

Hello, sorry to hear about your troubles. Is the machine still for sale?

Do you have any pictures of said thread? I might be able to find out. The guy who wrote Johns biography is good friends with him as well and he is writing some magazine articles and including my work in it so he's been coming in regularly. That book is a good read as well, and there are lots of pictures.

Thanks for the update, it's good to look out for one another. I pretty much get payment or at least a deposit up front for any custom item, no one has ever had a problem with that. I've also had people make payments almost like a layaway and since I normally have 2-3 month turnaround time it works well. In my opinion having at least a deposit is a sign of good faith and if someone has an issue with it they are the ones that'll end up sticking it to you, and even someone that normally wouldn't stick you there's a lot of things that can happen in 2 months that could change their circumstances( loss of job, wreck a bike, kids, death, etc). I do on occasion "Profile" people and will collect payment upon completion but this is pretty rare, it's usually older guys who come from a generation where a handshake actually meant something but those people really are becoming rare. I know all those scenarios really don't apply to this as business to business sales are usually handled a little different but anymore the same rules apply. There's not too many suppliers out there that will ship you product without first taking payment or filling out a credit app, and that should apply to us to when we are sending out our work. It's pretty sad the times we live in and with a big company like that I'm sure many of us would have done the same as you even if it wasn't our normal practice. It's pretty much taking a chance because if it did work out its an opportunity to get a lot more exposure and grow your business to the next level.

I'll add my experience here as well, I stumbled upon BRL and really liked the price and look of everything, the leather gauge is what I really was interested in so for the 8ish bucks I thought it was a great deal and shipping was only a buck or so so I added it to my cart and checked out. About an hour later I get an email saying that I got a 4.00 refund for being a LW member. I never even mentioned that I was a member so I'm not sure if they checked or what. I'd like to get some of my holster patterns made to and probably should but I have so many that I'm not sure where to start. Does anyone have any pictures of the makers marks that they make? I'm in the market for a new one for my larger items, Brenda at Laser Gift Creations did all my other ones as well as some other custom stamps for me and I have no complaints but I'm always open for other options as well.

How much for the oil cup and does it have the wire piece that holds the thread in it? Thank you

I have a material guide for sale in another thread if his is not for sale any longer, it's the swing away edge guide from Tippman. I'd like to get the stirrup attachment too but it looks like I may be too late for that.

I have a material guide for the Boss that I no longer use, I'd like to trade it for the stirrup attachment if anyone's interested. I'd also sell it for 70.00 including shipping which is roughly half price once shipping is added on if purchased from Tippman. Billy@mccabescustomleather.com

How much are you asking for the stirrup attachment?

Where can I find a smooth bottom left toe zipper foot? All of the ones I'm seeing online have teeth on the bottom, I could easily make teeth disappear if that's the only difference but it would be easier to just buy them that way.

I just called Bob and he confirmed I will be getting the 500gr motor so I should be good to go, I just have to wait until it ships.