billymac814

I just re-read wizcrafts post and realized he said IF I'm getting the sewpro 500 motor I won't need the speed reducer, at first I thought he said I will be getting it. I'll have to call Bob and see what's the best way to go. I ordered the machine with a servo motor but I don't know which he puts on in replace of the clutch motor.

Thank you for the reply, I read some of your other posts about the Sewpro 500 and I was thinking about calling Bob and finding out what the cost would be to get that, I didn't realize that I'd be getting. I'll get the rest of the stuff I need, I know it'll be much easier to figure out after I have it I really wanted to make sure I had everything I needed so it's at least useable when it comes in. Thanks alot.

I just ordered one from Bob at Toledo last week, I got it with the servo motor and also got thread in several colors in each size along with the needles for them. I'll be using this machine for belts, wallets, jackets, purses, etc. I probably won't be doing many long runs with it so I'm not worried much about high speed. My question is what feet come with it, what feet will I likely need, do I need a speed reducer? Any other parts or accessories I'm overlooking? I use a Boss for my holsters and heavy stuff and an Adler or Singer patcher for lighter stuff so this machine style is new to me. If there's anything else I need I can probably call him tomorrow and still have them shipped with my machine. I'm looking forward to getting it, there's a lot of things that are difficult to sew with what I had before, my next purchase will be something to replace the Boss. Thanks

Clay, I'm sorry but the press just recently sold. Thanks.

Ok........ For what its worth(which is nothing, similar to the previous post) Bulman has orders that are over 2 years old, I was in our local gun store and he had Bulman customers calling him asking if there was anyway to get a hold of him to find out where their order was so that's the reason for the "made" comment. If he is making them its for old orders, his site has been saying he's catching up on orders for at least a year now. Bulman is in the town right beside Altoona where I live.

The part that goes around the ankle and the strap is about 3-4 oz, the actual holster part is about 7-7.5oz and the strap is probably about 4 oz. It is basically a holster that's mounted to another fairly large piece so the price would have to be more than just a holster. It easily took 2x longer to make than a regular holster and took more materials. It's hard to guage how much time goes into something the first few times around and I'm sure I'd get a little quicker but it'll probably be twice as much as just the holster would be.

I don't often post my work since it's usually all very similar but a few weeks ago I asked about finding wool felt for an ankle holster I was preparing to make. It wasn't easy finding exactly what I wanted but I finally found it as a saddle pad so that's what I bought. It's 1/2" thick 100% wool felt and it's quite comfortable and pretty heavy duty stuff, it wasn't very easy to cut. I really didn't want to use sheeps skin, mainly for cosmetic reasons, after handling this stuff I have no doubt it'll stand up to probably a lifetimes use, afterall it's made to go in between a horse and a saddle so going between a holster and an ankle will be nothing compared to the abuse it's supposed to recieve. So this was my first design, I made this as a tester before making the actual one that'll go to the customer to make sure the design was ok. The obvious thing that needs changed is the location of the holster in relation to the band, I'll move it up on future ones to allow for a better purchase on the grip, I really can't believe I didn't notice that before glueing it all together but other than that it feels good and wears well and stays very secure. They will end up being rather expensive so I doubt I'll be making a whole lot of them. The design isn't really something I came up with, Alessi and Bulman Gunleather both make (or made) similar looking ankle holsters although I've never seen either in person to really compare. I'm going to make the holster adjustment and try to come up with a more accurate way of cutting the wool for the next one and maybe clean up a few other things. A nice little outcome of this is I now how very thick felt to cut up and use to dye edges, I just hold it in a small clamp, I believe Al Stohlman says to do it that way in one of his books although he used a clothespin.

I Offer a rush service, the charge is 50.00 per item and the timeframe is under 5 days. I explain to people that it is my over time and done "after hours" so it doesn't push back other peoples orders. I don't see any problem with doing this if your on schedule with the rest of your orders. At one point I was running a bit behind so I turned down the rush orders until I was caught up. It has been pretty popular, I've sold way more rushed items than I ever thought I would when I added it. The only small glitch is when someone wants a holster and a belt or magpouch together, I don't really feel right charging 50.00 extra on a mag pouch so I usually cut them a break. I think I should update my site and charge 25.00 on rushed mag pouches.

I use Weldwood too although last time I ordered Masters from Springfield because I had to place an order anyway, it's about the same as Weldwood and costs twice as much. Is anyone thinning the Weldwood, if so what are you using?

I need to make a few ankle holsters soon and I'd like to line them with thick felt instead of sheepskin as I think the felt would look better. I've seen this on the Bulman ankle holsters as well as some others. I tried finding it locally with no luck. Anyone else know what I should get and where? As it turns out there is a lot of variables when it comes to felt and while I know what I want to see it but I don't know what kind it is to order. I tried doing a search but "felt" can mean a lot of different things so I felt I had to ask. I'm looking for something about 1/4"-3/8" I think. Thanks. Billy McCabe

I have a Heritage Foot press that I'd either like to sell OR get dies for it so I could actually use it. I use Line 24 snaps as well as the Pull the dot snaps, I would assume they take the same die but I really don't know. I use some small double cap rivets too but I'm mainly concerned with the snaps. If any one has anything that could help me out let me know. I'd either buy them outright or trade something, I have a self centering attachment that I'd trade, or an edge guide. I would think that would be a good trade for someone. I may even consider trading the whole press for the right thing(s) My email is Billy@Mccabescustomleather.com. I can get pictures if anyone is interested in it. Thanks

I have a Heritage foot press in very good condition that hasn't been used much. I have several dies for spots and such ( I don't know for which though) it has a self centering attachment to punch holes in the center of the strap, a 3 hole punch, an edge guide, and the tray with eight compartments for holding stuff. I would consider selling this or trading it for something capable of doing snaps, mainly line 24 or DOT pull the dot snaps. I would also consider purchasing the correct dies for this press and keeping it if someone has those they'd like to sell. Shoot me a reasonable offer, if anyone is interested I can get better pictures. This machine was part of a deal I got with my sewing machine, I use it to cut straps off sometimes, but not too often. I'm in PA but I can arrange shipping, it is pretty heavy though so I don't know what that would run. Billy@McCabescustomleather.com

I figured I'd add something to this in case anyone else gets the idea, or maybe someone already knows how to do it. I bought a few pounds of beeswax from ebay and made a rather big batch of the beeswax/paraffin blend. I also just read the other post where it said about a Lou Alessi using colored wax for the edges so I figured I'd try to make some black and a dark brown. I poured the melted wax into small candy cups and then added a little bit of black dye to one and brown to the other, I mixed it well and put into the fridge to speed up the cooling. After I peeled the wrapper off I found that the dye made it's way to the bottom and didn't stay mixed very well, the wax was colored but it was rather messy to work with so it went right into the trash. It seemed like a good idea at first but it wasn't. Luckily I didn't try it with a big batch. I figured I'd let everyone know as both threads were rather close to one another, I'm sure someone else thought about it. There must be a way of doing it, but probably not the way I did it.

I almost got the 6 ton, but the more I kept thinking about it I figured I'd have to have some type of stand which adds more money and I thing the 6 ton only has a few inches to work with if I remember correctly. The 20 ton one looked like it was built much better than the 12 was but for pressing holsters the 12 is perfect, especially for 110 bucks. The 6 ton would be perfect though if someone already had a stand, and at 65.00 bucks it's hard to beat. If you bought the extended warranty they'd let you upgrade I think. I bought a power washer a while ago and got the warranty because I figured it would break and when it did I took it back and they left me have a store credit for anything if I didn't want the washer, I ended up getting a belt sander instead. I normally don't go for the extended warranty though unless I know I'm going to need it.

That was an interesting read, I will still be oiling my holsters though. I did notice that he starts them and finishes them the next day, when I'm in a rush and need to have one done quick I ommit the oiling because it essentially cuts a day off my time not waiting for the oil to soak in and the color return to normal. I wonder if that has any reason why he doesn't oil. It's interesting he re dipped them in dye to do the molding, I take it he didn't use white stitching?

I could probably make clips, I've played with Kydex a little bit. I would think I'd need some sort of jig to get them perfect each time and I don't have the time to really mess with it now. Someday that might change though, or I might need a different style that I can't buy. The metal ones are really the ones I'd like to find, maybe without the cross for a more discreet look, some people like it, some don't. The ones from Tandy and Springfield function the same but the radius of the metal under the clip doesn't really fit my design and it doesn't look right.

That really sucks. You should absolutely have recourse against them. Just out of curiosity is Dave still doing seats for them? The worst part about it probably wasn't really the money, I can just imagine being excited about a new steady gig with your seats going on nice bikes then having it all pulled out from under you on top of being out a bunch of time, money, materials, etc. Thanks for the heads up though, I'm sure they'll be looking for other people to make seats for them.

I'm down to a little tiny ball so I'll probably be making some soon, I always made it in very small amounts by putting equal pieces into a freezer bag then putting it in boiling water, thinner bags will break and then wax will get all through the water and all over the pan. Now that I have a dedicated pan and after reading Lobos post about the larger quantities of Beeswax available on eBay I ordered 2 pounds of it so I'm going to make a larger batch. I can send you some once it's done, it'll probably be a few days if you don't mind waiting.

I would think it would be fine, Lobo mentioned a bit of smoke coming from it, I would think it's moving pretty fast for that much heat. On a side note, after writing down all my edge finishing steps I wanted to see how many I could eliminate and still get good results and I found that I can completely eliminate the glycerine soap steps and just sand and bevel and while a little damp burnish with my hardwood spindle thing in my drill press at a pretty fast speed, rub the wax on and go over again on the spindle. I get just as good edges as I did before if not better. I haven't recieved the felt wheels yet from durofelt but I found one at a surplus store yesterday and tried it and didn't have very good results, I'm going to wait until the other ones come and see if those ones are better. I'm sure it was either the bob or the way I was doing it.

Thanks, That one is actually the LC9, it looks just like the LCP only bigger. The clips are from Crossbreed, they recently raised the price quite a bit but I havn't found anything comparable to them that look good with my design and that style of holster is the one that sells the most so I go through quite a bit of them and the Jclips. Probably not near enough to have them made though. The belt buckle on that belt isn't actually the one that went with that belt, I used it for that picture because it looked good for the picture, it had an antiqued brass roller buckle type, I think they are more secure for concealed carry gun belts then buckles like the S&W one.

I don't post many pictures so I figured I put some up, theres a belt, IWB's OWB's and a Mag pouch. The ones that it looks like the stitch lines are farther back from where they should be it's because they are gussetted, the middle layer goes past the stitch line to keep everything tight, I didn't get any pictures of the edges though. The ones with the clips are tuckable IWBs. Billy

My process is similar to the other ones with slight variations in the order, I've tried dying after and before and I find when I dye before things seem to go a little smoother, plus when doing browns with white thread it has to be done that way anyway and I do usually do batches of about 10 so it's more efficient if I do everything the same and I usually dye them in advance then work on the previous batch while they are drying. 1. Trace pattern onto leather then cut out the pieces 2. Dip dye, let dry 3. Mark glue line 4. Bevel and burnish the mouth and parts that will be glued to the holster. 5. Glue on any reinforcements or attachment points that need done and stitch them on. 5. Glue, wait, stick together 6. Sand the edge with a belt sander, there's usually not tight spaces but if so I use a drum in a mounted drill press. 7. Mark the stitch line 8. Stitch together, I use a Boss 9. Bevel and burnish the edge 10. I spray my holsters down with my casing solution which is the lexol, water, baby shampoo and listerine. I found I got less dye transfering onto the white thread doing this over dipping and I have a little more control, I can't justify why I use my casing solution other than it what was in the spray bottle the first time and I had good results so I continued to do it, that was when I used spirit dyes though and dye transfer happened more, I just haven't went back to water. 11. Stick it in the press, then to the final molding and makers mark, or do it all by hand, I just started using the press and it was the second best money I've spent. 12. Let dry, I've used an oven before but I just hang them in front of a space heater in a very small room, I'm getting ready to get a larger work area and I'll make something better as soon as I have room. 13. Oil with neatsfoot, let sit 24 hours 14. Apply final finish, I have a few I use depending on which holster I'm making, Bagkote gives me the best feel and look, I use Resolene on occasion but I don't like it that much. I also touch up the edges prior to this if need be. 15. Attach any clips or hardware. 16. Bag it and ship it out. This is usually all done spaced out over the week.

Here are similar ones from the Duro felt company, but they aren't the 1"x1"x1/8", I couldn't find them again today. I ordered some hard 1x1x1/4 since I'll use them in my drill press and some other small ones for in a dremel. http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Felt-Hard-Cylinder-Polishing-Bobs-3-4-x-1-5-x-1-8-/250796954871?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a64a9d4f7 You can go to their ebay store from there as well, they have a bunch of sizes, thier prices are cheaper on ebay but you have to pay a few bucks for shipping so it works out to being the same as what's on thier site, unless you order large quantities anyway. I got 6 to try and if I like them I'll call and order directly next time.

I'm pretty sure the pro oil dyes are still a spirit based dye, I use the same finish for either. I recently switched to the oil dyes after trying them, I find the end result to be about the same BUT with way less effort to get there. I used to buff black dye for ever to remove the excess and I don't buff at all with the pro oil dye. I always used the regular spirit dyes because of cost but after trying out the pro oil dyes it's easy to justify the extra cost since I make it up in shorter labor, it's well worth a few extra bucks a quart. I also think the leather remains softer and more natural feeling with the pro oil dyes. I dip dye almost all of my holsters.

I don't think very much, a 6 ton press is probably more than enough and can be had pretty cheap, I went with a 12 ton since it's a floor model instead of the 6 tons which are benchtop. Harbor freight has their 12 and 20s on sale now and you can find a 20% off coupon. I'm sure you can find better presses but for molding holsters thiers are fine. I had about 110.00 for the press, 125.00 for the two sheets of gum rubber from McMaster Carr (1" 40 hardness) and I got two steel plates about 5/16" thick for free from a friend. So less than 250.00 depending on what the steel plates run, thick plywood could probably be used as well but I'd think steel would be best and last longer.