TomG

I use the Tandy SS keeper staples. 1 to 2 per keeper depending on size. Quick, easy and secure.

What thickness of leather are these intended for? I've been using them on 4 oz, but recently, I've been having problems with the male parts coming loose from the post. The post just doesn't seem to form properly inside the male piece. I messed around with some today and had to set it so hard it cut the leather on one edge. Any tips or advise?

I mounted a piece of 2mm (think that was the size) round lace to my stropping board with glue. Applied rouge and drag my #126 edgers down it every so often. I've never sharpened them, but that stropping makes a world of difference in how they cut. Tandy has an excellent book on use, care and sharpening on most tools.

You might also find it by searching like this... http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/hardware/11386-00.aspx

I do straps up to 1-1/2" and generally use a size 3 in that same model. For smaller and thinner leather I have a size 2 that I sue, but I found with the thinner stuff, if I lay it on top of a piece of scrap strap and flush up the edges, it cuts much easier and smoother.

Yeah, they are all that way from what I've read here. the only one from ANYONE that has been reported as sharp out of the box, is the one from Weaver, I believe. There was a thread about it recently.

How about 1:4 and dip dye?

I just picked up red and pearl. Played with it a couple of days ago and as long as I mixed it very well, it seems OK. If I added too much and didn't mix well, I did see a little splotching in a couple of places. I think I did about 1 part pearl to 2 parts dye.

Maybe it's the pieces that are missing from your original :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I guess we're lucky here in the Atlanta area. The Tandy staff is friendly, knowledgeable and honest. I can't tell you how many times they have bent over backwards to help a customer.. And no, I don't work for Tandy.. But if the staff is crappy, I'd raise hell with Ft. Worth.

Yeah.. That's garbage. Call them or email them. They are usually pretty good at making this stuff right. If the shipping label shows which store it came from, call them direct and speak to the manager. Usually Tandy distributes orders to the store closest to you... Or at least they used to. Make them pay all shipping back and forth....

There are lots of threads here about how to achieve the same thing. Here's one: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=26419&hl=%2Bcarve+%2Bease

It's really not hard. You have no pattern hat you have to follow. It's totally up to you. ENC mentioned the E294 series of tools and I can see some of those patterns in the collar, but it looks like there is more there. I could be wrong and it would not be the first time <g> Experiment. Later

I was gonna back out of this and leave it alone, but I'm a blabber-mouth and can't help myself. 1) Since I know of few hardware suppliers who carry the depth and volume of our kind of hardware that OTB does, it's hard to go elsewhere for a lot of stuff. So where do I buy that buckle that no one else seems to carry - at least in the quantities I can afford to purchase in? 2) Has anyone complained to OTB about their handling fees? 3) Are you asking for the most economical shipping on your order with them? I just went back through my last 3 orders from OTB. 1 probably weighed 1 pound - small USPS flat rate Priority box. Charged me $7.75 S&H. Probably cost them $5.05 in postage. Second order was about 2 pounds. Same small USPS box. $7.79. Not sure what the extra 4 cents in handling was. Third order I checked. 19 line items. Many solid brass. USPS Priority box. $8.89 S&H. I really can't complain about $2 - $3 in fixed costs above actual postage. And anyway, who can I buy from that won't charge above actual shipping costs, either as a shipping charge or rolled into the product? Oh. As a comparison, I use a lot of aluminum side release buckles in my products. My cost at OTB is $3.40 ea. I DO have another supplier who actually lists their prices to include shipping. (the product quality is inferior to the OTB product) My cost for 1 is $6.15 ea shipped. OTB would cost me over $10 for 1. Obviously, I don't order 1 at a time.

Lay it on a rough surface like a concrete block grain side down and hit it with a mallet up and down the length, move hit again, until at the end. How much effect is up to you. You can actually use anything rough to indent the surface with. Chunk of granite or marble's rough end, brick, etc. Those look like they have had some light finish like Leather Balm or Resolene applied and when dry, antiquing gel laid on thick and wiped off to color the holes and speckles. Pretty easy effect to get.

And that is pretty much exactly what I was saying. I think the issue started with offense over the word "handling". Your formula is exactly correct. It's just that most businesses lump everything after "Shipping costs" in the Handling part of it. I also have a major problem paying the excessive handling charges. I don't have a problem paying reasonable ones. And by reasonable, I mean a dollar or 2. I do realize that there are many, many costs to ship items out that some might not consider. This is more true for large volume businesses than us small, home-based or mom & pop ones. I don't need a crew of people to pick drive a forklift across a warehouse to pull my order, pallets to store them on temporarily, very expensive inventory and control software to direct things, etc. And all of those things have to be paid for somewhere in the system... It's a cost of doing business and comes out of the selling price of an item or in a handling charge.... but.. we're gonna pay it. Otherwise, the company goes out of business. But, I have a hard time envisioning that handling cost being $8 - $10 for a small flat rate box of buckles or a first class envelope of patterns. And yeah, insurance is to protect the sender, not the buyer.....If it isn;t, then why does the sender have to file the claim???

I agree with you - in theory. That would be very nice to do. But at some point, you have to average it out. I think a part of the problem here is the word "handling". For the majority of sellers, "handling" is not just the time spent packaging, but also the supplies to do so. Here's part of the problem with most of us charging exact 'postage' costs. 1) Lots of folks - tens of thousands - sell on Etsy and other venues. That service does not have a mechanism to add shipping based on weight and destination - 2 factors needed to calculate it. You have to list 1 cost per item. 2) My main website however, does do a live calculation. As long as I have the product weight correct, it does a pretty good job of calculating the costs and gives the buyer the option of shipping via several methods. But it does a poor job when I have to use different packaging based on quantity How do you add any real costs into each individual product? Shipping has legitimate costs over the actual postage. I have items that range from less than 1 ounce to several pounds at times. Say someone orders a bookmark. That fits into a regular 1st class letter envelope. A regular postage stamp covers it. So what is that now? 47 cents? But, if they order 4 or 5 of them, I can no longer send them in that envelope. I now have to use a 75 cent envelope and postage jumps top $1.93. If I have added the 10 cents into each bookmark for my envelope costs, I've lost 35 cents on that sale. Plus, they are so light, the website software has no mechanism to know I now have to use an envelope that is more expensive to ship. So, I have also lost another $1.46. If I were to take manual orders, I could do all of the custom shipping cost stuff. But not with my shopping carts BUT - again, I agree with you and LTC about gouging on handling in some instances. EBay is a MAJOR example of this. I can not tell you how often I have seen a $10 item that weights 6 ounces and the seller has a $18 S&H fee, for example. That's a ripoff. So, Honest question here - how do you go about including - packaging, packing slip paper, labels, ink to print them, wear and tear on the printer, tape, gas to drop off at PO or shipper, time to do so, etc. into each individual product when it varies by product? Effectively, that is. And I agree that if it take 5 minutes to do all the prep, packaging, etc, and I want to make $20/hour, that's $1.67 in shipping labor and I could just add that to the cost of each item. Ohio Travel Bag - whose S&H fees started all of this - is a very good company to do business from. I have been using them for years and have never had any issue with them myself. As I mentioned earlier, you can ask them to use the cheapest shipping method and they will do so. Yes, they really do need to fix their website to allow customers to select the best shipping method for them. Oh, BTW, that leash costs about $2.95 in postage on average, plus the envelope ($.75) plus the other supplies, so, no, I don't make a profit on shipping, in that case anyway. Later

LTC - I think you are totally off base here. Ferg commented early in this thread that they use a flat rate to ship. He said he makes a few CENTS on some packages and loses a few CENTS on others. Where did you come up with him overcharging $10 per package? The only place I saw it was another poster commenting about repair shops charging a hazmat or other $10-$20 fee. That sounds like an auto repair shop. And if you have ever tried to ship that many packages per day AND get them right, you'd better have someone pretty sharp doing it. They can be well worth $20 an hour. Especially since the job it sounds like she is doing is Office Manager for a small company. So, you are quick to judge Ferg, and claim he is gouging customers -- tell us how YOU charge for shipping? How many products do you produce? How do you differentiate between that $.25 envelope and the $2 box you have to use depending on quantity? Or the padding some items need that others might not? Is my $3.50 fee for a leash overcharging? I'd love to hear your solution

Harbor Freight Tools sells a buffer than you can put certain burnishers on. I have one of the machines and use it all the time for buffing, knocking off excess black dye, etc., but haven't added the burnisher to the end. I use a Foredom handpiece to hold my burnisher. Others have shown pics here of the ones with the burnisher attached. For some reason, I'm not seeing an Attachment button to post a picture. Here's a link http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-buffer-40668.html

You are right that you have to price each shipment individually. What I've found is that the Regional Rate boxes have their place for larger, but lighter items that fit into that niche of too big for the Flat Rate small box and RR are less expensive than the flat rate medium.

Speaking of flat rate boxes, allow me to introduce a USPS service that I'll bet the majority of users are unaware of... Regional Rate Boxes. They come in sizes like "A", B" and "C". All are supplied for free by USPS, and ship Priority mail. They are not truly flat rate, but ship at a cost based on the "A", "B", "C" size and distance. And you can see the rates on the USPS site, just like other services. Sort of a cross between 1st class and Priority mail... Much cheaper than parcel post for larger packages. And no box costs. But you will need to order your boxes in advance in a lot of places. I was told, but have not confirmed, that some PO's do not stock the Regional Rate boxes.

Agree totally with Ferg. We charge by the item, based on weight, because that is how our costs are calculated by the shipper in most cases. Plus our direct costs. On our Etsy shop, the majority of our items are $3.50 in the US. Items we know cost more are charged appropriately. This covers our USPS costs ($1.93 minimum to around $3 max) for 1st class mail. Add $.50 to $1 for an envelope/box, plus the label, etc. Like Ferg said, some you come out ahead, some you lose a bit. It averages out. On our regular website, the shopping cart can directly calculate the costs for USPS and UPS and the customer can select the method of shipping they want to pay for. We add $1.50 to that calculated cost to cover the envelope, labels, ink, padding, and labor to put it all together. We basically break even on website S&H. Unless you have a small, limited product line, rolling the S&H costs in are not really practical for most of us. Unless you overcharge for the S&H <g>

They need to fix their website. They only offer UPS on the site. But if you put comments in to please ship USPS or cheapest method, they will do it. I think my last 4 pound order came on a medium P-2 box for $12 or so.

Tandy used to carry a double cap rivet with a star on the caps. They discontinued them a number of years ago. Does anyone know anyone who still makes or carries them, or something similar?

I'm considering selling my 111W155 and getting a Consew or other machine with reverse. I've never master the "pull-back" method of locking in the ends of the stiches. It's in what I consider pretty good condition for it's age. I had a new hook put in about 6 months ago and had it gone over. It could possibly use a new plate under the walking foot. Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. The teeth are a bit rounded.. I actually consider that a plus as it cuts down on the marks on the backside. My question is.. What's a fair asking price for it -- just the head? I'll keep my table and servo motor.