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sorry to add to an older thread havent been on in a while. Yes there are draw backs to using a laser. Cost is a big one. The laser I use is a 350 watt galvo style laser and it cost about 225,000, but its like brand new on the market and we are one of a few to have one. You can see it in action here Our costs to use the machine are more than reasonable. Our labor rate is $120 an hr and I don't think that you will find any better than that anywhere. I use it to cut, and lightly mark out my tool lines then hand finish it. When I made the video of the machine I did a lot of leather marking and put it in there as well as other items. The edge does "soot up" but nothing plain ole water wont take care of. The Italian company that made the machine use it mostly for leather parts for shoes and such and they actually take the parts and have them dry cleaned. If anyone is interested in what would be needed on your end to get some work done by where I work at or most any reputable place for that matter I have a video detailing the basics of what you would have to do to get some work done. If anyone has any questions message me and I will try to help you out. Roy

yeah we take outside jobs, and offer free programming, as do most shops

Just noticed this posting. I work in a laser chop shop and program parts and run the machines. I program all my leather parts in cad then laser cut them out. I also use anther laser to mark my parts instead of using a ball stylus and tracing paper. I have several videos up of all our machines running on our company website, www.smidgensinc.com. If you go to the engraving and marking section of the website you will see a few videos. The first is called laser marking with the way. There are several different kinds of materials being run thru the machine. If any one is interested I can elaborate more on the process and what it is that I can and can't do with the array of machines I run. Roy

Lookin good!

Very nice! Looking at the seats you do gives me the motivation and inspiration to rip mine off and re do it! How did you get that nice gray? Is it acrylic?

that is fine work there. Love that look!

your work is fantastic!

that is a very nice first attempt!

wow very nice work!

Nice work!

very very nice work there!

Lol, Im not to sure what you mean by whopper jawed! I will lay em out flat next time around. The stitching holes believe it or not I laser cut into the leather really small, but i opened them up with an awl to get the diamond shape but i may have opened them up too much, it is something I am still practicing with. The lacing holes are just slits I laser cut into the leather they are like .094 long for 3/32 lace. I am in the process of changing all my .dxf drawings to have holes instead of the slits. I am a huge fan of constructive criticism so keep it coming! Roy

That looks really nice. I like your style! I have a little trouble tooling out fonts, may I ask how you did that? Maybe im using a bevel thats too big or something. Other wise I really like it!

Thanks a lot! Always looking for room for improvement though!

Hey thanks for the advice. Ive been cutting slits in the designs for lace but I think that i wanna go to holes this time. Yeah I definatly need to lace in the corners more. I did the lace on the inside to cover my edge, as I am not sure how to have fabric and leather meet up for that shape I made, and havent figured out how to do a french roll. I dont have a sewing machine of any kind so thats out of the question also. Anyway thanks a lot for the imput!

My Father in law's birthday is coming up and I wanted to make him a wallet. He is a cabinet maker by trade, and I have been wanting to try my hand at a "wood grained" wallet. So here it is, I hope I did it justice. I havent given it to him yet. It has 4 card slots in the front and a single money pocket. I used british tan but It darkened up a bit when I oiled it after dieing which is ok. I also used black antique on it but I dont know if i did it right or even did a good job for that matter. For the life of me I cant figure out how to end the lace. The diagrams and the instructions just go over my head and arent drawn well (or i just cant read and comprehend) As always Im looking for ways I couldve done it better, so any advice or criticism is welcome!

Great Idea those all look fantastic!

i like it alot. How did you get it to color that way? Thats an area of LW I am still trying to figure out.

looks good!

yeah it seems to me that people run from skin like that but i dont know why. It already has built in character! There is nothing wrong with a perfect product, but sometimes the more perfect it is the more it looks like some machine punched it out. I think that some flaws should be left it keeps people humble!

looks good!

This is my second shot at a wallet. I am pleased with it, but I am looking for people to tell me where I can improve and do better. I designed the whole thing with an autocad program, based off of some wallets I've seen on these forums. I laser cut all my parts out, then used a pebble tool to put texture over the whole tooling back. I died the tooling back oxblood, but there are some spots that didnt seem to take. I deglazed it first so Im not sure what I did wrong. I inlayed some peanut colored lizard skin into the wallet, and made the insides out of a pig dressed like an ostrich. The lace is double loop from 3/32 roo lace. I didnt have a problem dry splicing but for the life of me I couldnt figure out how to end it. The drawings in the book I have are about as useless as (insert cliche here). Anyway Im just looking for constructive comments. Thanks! it would help if I knew what I was doing when it came to forums.....

This is my second shot at a wallet. I am pleased with it, but I am looking for people to tell me where I can improve and do better. I designed the whole thing with an autocad program, based off of some wallets I've seen on these forums. I laser cut all my parts out, then used a pebble tool to put texture over the whole tooling back. I died the tooling back oxblood, but there are some spots that didnt seem to take. I deglazed it first so Im not sure what I did wrong. I inlayed some peanut colored lizard skin into the wallet, and made the insides out of a pig dressed like an ostrich. The lace is double loop from 3/32 roo lace. I didnt have a problem dry splicing but for the life of me I couldnt figure out how to end it. The drawings in the book I have are about as useless as (insert cliche here). Anyway Im just looking for constructive comments. Thanks!

wow that is just plain awesome!

looks good!