Ferg

Small steps, then big ones. If you have any scraps of leather, you can buy bags of them, practice "stuff" on them. When you begin thinking that is for the birds, make a key fob, wrist strap, etc. The first thing I tried many years ago was a wallet. I kept it for a long time just to remind me of how bad I really was. LOL ferg

I have no idea who you bought your CowBoy from but any of them that I know would not let you have this kind of trouble with your machine. Actually I know of no dealer that advertises or posts on this forum who doesn't take care of their customers. Has it occurred to you, maybe the machine is not properly adjusted plus you are trying to use the wrong size or type of needle. Check with Bob Kovar at Toledo Industrial Machine. He will get you straightened out. No point in blaming the machine for something that very well may not be the problem. Also: You can get real close to top and bottom stitch appearing the same but it takes a lot of trial and error some times. Proper tension is at least 85% of sewing. ferg

You may find that the heavier the machine the less likely it is to sew thin leather if you may wish to do that also. ferg

Look in Amazon for the "Bumper Edges". I got a set of three for less than $7 They are just as good as the more expensive. Came direct from China in 7 days. Use ultra thin Velcro to attach the phone to the case. You can barely tell it is there and the phone is removable if need be. ferg PS: JoAnn fabrics and Amazon has the Velcro.

What ever works. lol ferg

The thread you slightly cut into the wood won't hold real well but that said, your burnisher will "back off" the grinder shaft because it is not a reverse thread. Remember the wooden tool with a cutting "V-Groove" blade in it? You can make children toys and furniture with them, they come in different sizes. Deep threads in hard maple. ferg

You have some experimenting to do. Shaft for grinder is probably not going to match the hole in your burnisher. If this is true, you need to have a shaft made with male end to match burnisher, female end to thread onto the grinder shaft with a "reverse" thread so your extended shaft won't unthread. What you place on the other end of grinder may throw it out of balance and in a short time wear the bearings of the motor. Simplest set-up is a separate motor mounted on a heavy board or work bench with a shaft that will match the hole in the burnisher mounted in pillow blocks. More to it than that but maybe you get the idea. Has it occurred to you that you began this endeavor from the wrong end? There are burnishers available with a shaft epoxied into them so they can be mounted in a drill press or Dremel. Saves a lot of time and money. ferg

Thanks Matt, Forgive my elderly brain. I forgot you were carrying some of the products. Are you offering the "Free" kit? I wouldn't think so. lol ferg

For any of you living in the USA interested in trying the Giardini edge paint. The FREE trial kit doesn't give you much plus the shipping to Ohio is just shy of $40. ferg

Since you haven't had much luck with answers...... My first thought is, "Why chicken leather" when there are a number of other more popular leathers with interesting textures more readily available. Another thought, using chicken leather may have a stigma connected to it that would turn off some lucrative buyers of your watches. Just my .02 ferg

Received my SLC liners today. One four pocket wallet in Simply Classic One Ladies Clutch The Clutch purse is definitely the better of the two. Quality on the wallet is questionable, it is not their best. I believe I will continue making my own. ferg

The 20 ton air/hydraulic jack comes with heavier springs than the 20 ton hydraulic. Works fine so far. ferg

I didn't care for the look of those. I did order a couple of the higher priced to see what they looked like. I prefer making my own but like to see what folks are doing plus a ready source helps if you get real busy. ferg

I installed a 7500 BTU electric heater in our shop two years ago that mounts on the ceiling. It has a thermostat inside, I wanted an exterior to use with it but didn't find a good one that would handle 40 Amps. I have a timer for it. We spend 14 or 15 hours per day 7 days a week from October through most of January in the shop. We have about six folks working a portion of each day. Machinery running warms the shop above 80 degrees until our weather gets real cold. Heater has a blower. I set it so it maintains about 65 to 70 degrees while we are working. Shop contains about 3500 sq. ft. with 12' ceilings. ferg

Mine has 3/8" plates. Largest clicker die I have right now is about 7 1/2" x 8 1/2". My Air/Hydraulic has absolutely no problem with 1/4" plus, thickness of leather. I have one of the thick red plastic cutting boards on the bottom. This unit will cut into that 1/4" if you don't stop it. ferg

I got mine for $90 with a hydraulic jack. I spent $118 to put an Air over Hydraulic 20 ton jack on it. Already had a "PanCake" air compressor. To keep the jack from forcing the die too far into the "Cheater" board I made blocks of sufficient height to place between the upper and lower steel plate. Works great! Since we use a CNC Router in our wood shop I am in the process of making Steel Rule Dies for "Clicking" parts. ferg

SLC is making their own liners in house. Has anyone used them. Curious as to the quality of them etc. Don't get these confused with the Chinelli. ferg

You can use 3D stamps if you wish. ferg

It is embossed. Tandy and others have embossing machines and dies. Check out Tandy's catalog/website ferg

Forgot to include the photo in previous post. ferg

This is an impression from a stamp Ron made for me. It is exactly what I wanted, it does a perfect job. This was pressed into dry Lisarda Leather from Italy. I done it with my Arbor Press. Ron is very good with the laser and is prompt with his work, check him out! ferg

I can relate to your story and possible results. You may be interested in a somewhat "short" recollection of my wife and I work in somewhat the same direction. Almost forty years ago we went to craft shows in our state mostly. Some small and some large. Basically we starved. On returning from one show our car was losing oil. We stopped at an old dilapidated service garage, bought two quarts of oil for $.95 each and hoped we had food for the evening when we got home. Attended a very large Christmas show in Indianapolis where we done quite well. On the way home we visited a shop owned and run by folks of a religious order. We manufactured wooden products mostly and had some leather products thrown in along with my wife's Art. We presented the folks with some of our wooden wall hang-ups. One early morning we were awakened by the phone ringing. It was a representative of the "Order" asking for 350 of a rainbow we made, he needed them the following week. We told him of course we could do that. We didn't have enough material to make that many nor the money to buy more. Went to some friends of mine who happened to work in a lumber yard. We made a deal to buy material and pay within 30 days. To make that story short, we made 5600 of those rainbows for that company for that Christmas Season alone. I built machines to make the rainbows. The spray painting of them was more of an endeavor than we anticipated. We visited a Very Large Craft Show in Cincinnati, Ohio. A man and his wife were making Puzzles. The puzzles were of children's name, numbers, and alphabets. I told my wife we could do that! We had a lead on a large over arm jig saw that a public school was selling. Bought it for $100 if I remember correctly. We made our first puzzles on that saw. We were lucky enough and ignorant enough to think we could make a living at making puzzles. Had a 2500 square foot store front for one Christmas Season, we done pretty well but not great. We sold the puzzles for $7.95 each with a child's name. Folks remarked they were too expensive. In the almost 39 years since we made the first puzzle, we have semi-retired, still manufacture 15,000 of the name puzzles at Christmas. Our list of past and present companies we have and still do business with, includes, Pot-Por-Ri, Sears, J.C. Penny, Childcraft, Neiman-Marcus, Harry & David, Horchow, Current, and the list goes on. We have been very fortunate. Our days even now require 14 to 15 hours of work in our shop seven days a week during the Christmas Season. We spent many nights into the wee hours developing ideas for new products. Our workforce peaked at over 20. We now have our woodshop added to our beautiful log home my wife and I built. I still work with leather in our youngest daughter's bedroom, she flew the coop three years ago. I have three industrial sewing machines, a skiving machine, hundreds of leather tools and knives along with about $6000 worth of leather inventory. I have equipment to transfer photos/images onto leather and most every other material. I have a Stained Glass shop. I am presently working on making my own Steel Rule Dies. I write almost all the computer programs for our business. Have my own Hobby Greenhouse that we grow several thousand plants for our landscape and still maintain a 1/4 acre vegetable garden. I write this not to brag of our successes and failings but to encourage anyone who truly wishes to have a home grown business and enjoy it as we have, can do it if you really have the desire to work harder than you can possibly imagine. Also: I will be 82 years young this coming January. Have so many things I want to try. Maybe I can get some of them done if I live to be 100. lol ferg

Hmmm. Never has bothered me. lol ferg

You will love the control you have over your sewing with a servo. Everything I have has one. ferg

Refine your work before trying for the price range you are looking at. I am not trying to be too critical. Your edges need work, tooling as well. Nothing practice won't fix. ferg