TomG

Or straight up if resisting. Or 100% Resolene. Or 100% Leather Balm with Atom Wax.

Here are a few other samples. I stretched it out to about 10" long and 1-3/4" tall. Using the Small rivets (7.3mm) for the first one. Still looks bad, especially when I remove the black lettering. That's the second photo. The M is the main problem I set it for a standard rhinestone pattern using SS6 (2.3mm) stones and center line.. Same problem but not as bad.. Still not usable.. The last one, is SS6 stones using outline. Looks nice. But unless you can find some extra small rivets, you may just have to use the graph paper idea that Billy suggested once you see the actual rivet size.

I used CorelDraw X6 with a Macro called DrawStone3. We mainly use it in our Embroidery/Screen Printing business. I have thought of heat pressing some rhinestones onto a belt, but haven't gotten time to do it yet. One of these days....

Well, I ran it through my programs and the issue is the rivet size. Figuring a 1" tall x 7" long name, using the Tandy Small rivets, they just don't fit. The heads are a tad over 7mm. Most rhinestones are in the 2-3mm range. Here's what it comes up with. Even moving and adding rivets, you still have spots that they just don't fit. Now, you could use the small crystal rivets, or even heat press stones and manually place the stones on the adhesive transfer paper. I have done that before and it's OK for 1 or 2 items of small to moderate size.

There are a number of programs and/or macros to programs that do that. Primarily used for Rhinestones or LED's. The primary drawback is the cost. $200 and up. The Macros go into things like CorelDraw and start around $50. You would have to measure the particular rivet heads that you wanted to use and pick an appropriate crystal size.

Yes. Thin with water. Tandy's online catalog has directions and stuff on the product pages for the Eco-Flo dyes.

Bwhahahahaa.. I actually moved my garage shop into our home office. It's where we spend most of our time anyway. this way, I can keep the heat low in the majority of the house unless we have company (seldom) and just heat/cool this room and the bedroom. PLUS... trying to heat/cool a whole garage for one small corner is not efficient. By the time I fired up the heater(s) and got it comfortable, I could have had 4 or 5 tasks done upstairs. I DO try to do my dye work in the garage, though. In addition, some of your dyes/finishes, etc don't do well if they freeze, do there's that. IN addition to heating up the garage, now, you have to go pull whatever fluids/pastes from wherever you've stored them to keep them warm, use them, put them back and so on. I have used a variety of electric space heaters, kerosene heaters and propane torpedo heaters. All have pros and cons... electric is highly inefficient for large areas, kerosene and propane need ventilation in the work area, which negates some of the heat. You may have to ventilate some of the IR heaters as well, since it's a burning gas.. not sure though. If I was going to be in the garage again, I would put up walls and a door, and use an electric heater.. Ideally, I would build the garage room with a window and use a combo window air conditioner/heater. Good luck

Go to a beauty supply store (around here, it's Sally's), and get some foam tipped applicators. Mine have a foam pad at each end. You can use paper towel to remove the excess out of the pad after use and reuse them many times. I paid about $3 for 30 of them. They lay down a nice coat and are easy to control.

What rivets? What setter? What leather thickness? I usually struggle with Glove snaps, line 20 and 24 if the leather is not the right thickness. The posts have to be a certain length above the leather or they either will not roll (too short) or they will bend or shift (too long), which it sounds like you are getting. I think the proper length is 1/16" above the leather, if memory serves me. Use a file to cut it down if it's too long and try it. Tandy has a couple of good videos on setting various rivets. Note how he rolls the tool on some of them as he hits it.

Well, I was interested in answers as well. I have had sporadic results in using denatured alcohol to strip off the Resolene and adding a light coat of dye. But, make very sure the alcohol has totally dried out before dying. I'd do some light dye tests first. Light dye, resolene, then strip and touch up. I think you're going to find it hard to control the levels. When I did it, I was dip dying with Fiebings brown oil dye cut 50% with DA. After I striping the Res, the surface of the strap had a rough, mottled look as it was pulled out of the dip pan. It did even out as it dried, but was a lot darker than I wanted. What I think is happening is that the Resolene gets into the pores of the leather but the alcohol just can't get it out evenly. But I ramble.... Let us know how it works out.

I've achieved a similar effect using a sponge to wipe a light overall coat of dye on then use more dye to dab it on in random areas to darken them. You can vary the effect by how much you dab on the a given section.

I've used lemon juice cut 50/50 with water and rubbed in with a rag. Then rinsed lightly with a rag dipped and wrung out in clean water. I haven't done a saddle, but I would think getting into creases and layers is going to be an issue unless you disassemble it. I'd also toss any fleece or shearling on it and replace it.

I personally don't use that, but my understanding is that it's more of a stain as opposed to a dye. It's meant to be put on and rubbed off. The little bit that I've worked with stains, the color is usually not a deep , but is great for showing off the grain and texture of the leather.. The few items I have stained, I've had no problem with. I still seal with 50/50 Resolene. But I'm sure more knowledgeable people will be helping you out here.

How about a respirator like they use for painting or chemicals? Check Home Depot or a Safety Supply store.

I've actually done one of these. Do all of your strap prep work. Then take some upholstery chair webbing. Contact cement it to the back of the straps. Here's the rub. I used only 3 - 4 straps per direction and made them slightly wider than the webbing. I'm not sure how it would be if you narrowed it down. If I remember, it was 2 inches wide... Maybe a bit wider. But for construction, you staple one end under the bars on the inside. Then just clamp the other end in a vise grip upside down and use the chair bar to roll it under and pull tension on the strap. Staple in place. Sorry if it sounds confusing. It's really quite simple. They make a tension tool for the actual webbing and you can see one online at most upholstery supply shops. I don't think it would work for the web/leather combo as it has spikes that pierce and grab the webbing. But looking at it will help clarify how it works. If I can find my pics, I'll post them for you.

Also found at Harbor Freight $50 and up.

Harbor Freight has them on sale for $154

I use the 50/50 resolene and if the surface is flat, I use a scrap of tee shirt folded about 3-4 layers thick. Dab the Resolene and do a light swipe on the newsprint that I keep under my work to take off any excess. Then wipe on the leather lightly. Like Cyber - multiple coats with at least 2 hours between. But Fiebings, Black Oil Dye is the way to go. Very little bleed .

Didn't get back to see the responses, but thanks. In the meantime, thinking "soap".. Hmm.. Water. So I actually washed it in clear running water and did some hand rubbing on the stains. It dried nice and clear. Now we'll see how the dye comes out in the morning. So far it looks good. thanks for the input.

I am making some simple decorative straps for a project. Veg-Tan leather. 2" wide and anywhere from 30 to 72" long. The customer wanted them to be "natural" as for color. My idea was to just use my normal Leather balm with atom wax on the raw leather, burnish the edges and do the cutting and hole punching I needed to do. For some reason, I decided to do the burnishing first. I use liquid glycerin saddle soap on a small sponge to lightly wet the edges, then burnish with a powered Cocobolo (spelling?) burnisher. However, some dripped down the face of the strap at various points. The edges look nice, but everywhere the saddle soap dripped down on the leather, it looks stained. What's the best way to clean it off?

I really can't picture what you are trying to do. We've discussed so many different things, I've lost track <g> What's the product?

1) A 1 screen press will only do 1 color reliably unless the other colors do not touch each other.. It's a registration issue. 2) 1 screen for multiple colors has the same registration issues. Plus you may bot have enough adjustment range to line up the different designs. 3) Unless you pad print, you will want to print the leather as flat stock before assembly 4) you do not want the screen to sit on top of the item you are printing. You want the squeegee to push the screen down onto the leather. 5) Not sure about the laser cut stencils and airbrush. But unhinging and rehinging created alignment errors as well. 6) "Farm out" means to give someone with the right equipment the material and let them print it. 7) Pad Printers print directly on unevenly shaped objects directly. 8) If you want a good education on screen printing, go to Youtube and search for Ryonet and Catspitproductions and watch those videos. They are the most educational and consistent.

I'm not so sure about that. I'm not an airbrush person , although I've used one a time or 2. All the airbrush work I've seen are done freehand or spraying in or around a hard stencil. The mesh will probably have a pretty strong effect on the paint. Screen printing is a rolling, shearing process. The screen does not touch the garment except at the point that the edge of the squeegee pushes it down. You are essentially forcing a very thin layer of ink down through the screen mesh and out of the openings in the emulsion that are your design. Odd shaped items are printed most often with some sort of pad printer. In fact, that may be a better alternative for you... the drawback is that unless you invest in a very expensive model, 1 or 2 colors are your limit. Your other alternatives are DTG (farm it out at first), possibly heat transfer (320 degrees for 20 seconds and medium pressure), the Billy 2-Shews method, MAYBE dye sub, but doubtful. I'm surprised more folks have not chimed in here about the air brush idea. Do you have a photo of the type of design you are wanting to put on?

Thanks Trevor and BareH... If I get them, I'll need them pretty quickly, so out of country won't work. I've told my customer that we'll have to use the roller buckle I found on eBay here in the states. Later

I haven't seen youtube vids on printing on leather, except one. It looks like she's using one of those Yudu screens that you can get at craft stores. I did some more checking and called a couple of my suppliers. They recommended using certain ink additives. Bill Hood, who is a major screen printing consultant said that he has printed 10's of thousands of leather items and recommends NazDar's lacquer inks. He recommended a 230 mesh tightened to 25 Newtons, 70 Durometer squeegee, and listed specific emulsions and techniques. As for costs, that's like "how much does it cost to start in leathercrafting". You can buy a used 4 color, single station press on the used market for a few hundred dollars. Screens, squeegees, emulsion, press wash, reclaimer, tape, platen adhesive, will be another few hundred. A forced air dryer used can be had for under $1K if you look around. You can burn screens using a Halogen light, but it's a painful process and not so good for precision screens. Plus the ink... Check Craigslist and eBay, plus local ads. With a low-end setup, you are going to be pretty much limited to 4 color spot printing, No 4-color process (photo), no Sim process, etc. And yes, the platens that you put the item to be printed on can reused. We normally use adhesive to hold shirts and flat goods down. Not sure how you'll hold down the leather without affecting the flesh side somewhat. As for the Angelus paints, I would think the major issue would be the same as water-based printing inks. You have to constantly fight the ink drying in the screens. Only it would dry faster, I suspect. Your best bet is to find a local, friendly screen printer that can maybe give you some screens and stuff to play with.