Ferg

+1 on Goods Japan. ferg

Jeff, Where/who made your grips? My Son-in-Law makes grips for S&W gear professionally, quite well known. ferg

Same as Wiz, I have two servo motors. One is a Consew other is a sew pro from Bob Kovar. The Consew needed a speed reducer set up, the sew pro/sew slow is a gear reduction servo and doesn't need any further speed reducing. ferg

Shannon, If you make bags that you sew the gussets in from the wrong side out, the flatbed will do this in most cases. I f you have any occasion to sew any kind of gusset from the outside, you will have a definite problem most every time. ferg

From what I find about the machine the price is about right, without actually seeing the machine. Be aware, when you sew purses with gussets it is nearly impossible to do on a flat bed machine. If I didn't have any I would be looking for a cylinder arm with a table accessory . Cannot see what the foot clearance is on the machine.Find that you can sew some pretty hard material but that doesn't necessarily mean you can sew more than 3/8" - 7/16" in thickness. ferg

I have one to make for one of my daughters. Rough measurements.....15" wide, 12" high, 4" gusset. I personally think it will be too heavy, she doesn't think so. It will contain, iPad with stylus, cell phone, iPod Touch, two chargers, two small cables, a fairly large wallet, check book, ball point pen,and glasses case. All of these must be accessible from the top. Flap over front, secured with two turn type enclosures. Didn't want straps and buckles. I will be putting a strap long enough to go "Cross Chest". Easier to carry plus more secure out and about. I think maybe she could use it for a sleeping bag at night. LOL ferg

Unless you find one used I believe you would be better satisfied with a CowBoy or Cobra machine that will handle the range you wish to sew. Cobra 4 or Cowboy 4500 ferg

This should be a starting point. http://www.sewingmachinery.com/seiko/seiko-ch-8b.html ferg

I have the Buffalo Calf also. It seems a little stiff for the inside of wallet. Probably okay for lightweight exteriors. Pretty leather! ferg

I think if you spent the money for it already you probably wasted the $20. I believe Wiz will tell you it is a Home machine not intended for leather. ferg

Yes the kangaroo is expensive, from $14 to $20 per foot and higher. Beautiful leather, strong, light weight. I have some Mission Pig lining that is cheaper but I don't like it's texture. Stiff in comparison to Roo but it is a lot cheaper. Tandy has some as does Waterhouse Leather. If you are making high end wallets or want to, Kangaroo is the way to go. There are some leathers available from India that are thin, I am not sure if they are distributed in the USA. ferg

Nice work on your wallets. I cannot help you much on the Juki, if I remember correctly the accessories are expensive. Wiz will probably have some answers for you. ferg

There are a number of lining leathers available that are 1 - 1 1/2oz. You do need to skive the edges of all pieces. I use quite a lot of Kangaroo Leather. ferg

My wife and I built it 18 years ago, we love it. A dream we had for 15 years. http://personalweb.donet.com/~avw/ Thank you, ferg

If you have an account, must have a Vendors license or proof of actual business name, Both 14" and 18" frames are $9.95. ferg

I kept telling the family I wasn't going to gripe about snow this winter if we got any, we have needed the moisture so badly. Don't necessarily want it in March but this morning was an exception. Just a couple photos. ferg

You should have a white wire, a green wire (connected to the chassis of the motor) and two wires of possibly black and red. Switch the black and red, that will reverse the rotation of the motor. ferg

You done a fine job. You do need to work on the burnishing of the edges. ferg

Your English is better than half the population of the USA, no need to apologize. ferg

Well, doggone! I knew I had a problem, I am just a beginner! You may know, there are just about as many ways to do things with machinery as there are folks using them. I chose the servo because it works for me and I am sure for a lot of other beginners. I just may be a beginner the rest of my life but I am happy with my skiving machine running with a servo motor. Maybe I should attach at least three more motors to make it look like I know what I am doing. ferg

This may be considered "High-Jacking" this thread but I believe some information I have gathered may be useful to some folks buying one of these machines. I have read numerous articles/tutorials, watched about every video I could find, most several times, still did not have the finite information everyone needs to properly adjust these machines. My machine has the grooved steel feed roller on the bottom. You have probably noticed the feed wheel has the same radius the Bell Knife has. Vertical adjustment for the feed roller is to the rear of left end while the angle of the feed roller is adjusted by threaded adjuster to the front on left end. Adjust the angle so the feed roller fits the curve of the knife. You can adjust the proximity of the roller to the knife with the rear adjuster. Use a couple pieces of copy paper about 1/2" wide to slide between the roller and the knife blade. one toward the back, one to the front of the feed roller. Adjust the up and down until the paper strips just slide between knife and roller. This is almost perfect adjustment for chrome tanned leather that is fairly soft from 1.5oz. to 4oz. Lining leather for instance or Kangaroo leather. The top roller I use most often is tapered from back to front. You will learn quickly that adjustment of where this roller meets the bell knife determines how wide the skive will be. With this leather I bring the top roller close enough to the knife that you can only slide that piece of copy paper between them. Don't allow the roller to rest on the knife, you might distort the edge. There is a spring on a hook mechanism to the left rear of the machine. This adjusts the amount of pressure required for the feed roller to hold the leather being skived, against the bell knife. Light weight leather I place this in the second notch. Thicker/harder leather I may pull the spring all the way out to last notch. Also: Some belt leathers, among others, are very hard temper. You will need to lower the bottom feed roller slightly to allow leather to go through the knife. There are small oiling holes on the shaft of the lower roller, oil them frequently. they are a little difficult to access, be creative. That is a few items that may help some of you anyway. Let me know if I can be of further help. ferg

Get a bottom and top feed machine. I can put any thickness of any type leather through mine without problems. Information on adjustment of all the different knobs etc. are practically unavailable. I don't remember if Steve sells his skivers with a clutch or servo motor but I am sure he would sell you which ever you want. My machine had a clutch motor on it when I bought it. Just too doggone fast for me to handle fine, thin leather. Swapped the clutch for a digital servo, best thing I ever done. I have taken some of my machine apart, have to see how it works. Have tried to do every adjustment imaginable to see what effect it has on different leathers. Yes, I have wasted mucho leather, wait, it wasn't really wasted was it? I am getting pretty good with it finally. Most all the machines, no matter what the name plate says , are made pretty much the same. They all need daily oiling in spots you probably would never see if you didn't have some instructions. Information coming with the machines is lacking for the most part. Anyone buying one of these machines.....If I can be of any help just let me know. ferg

Get off of it. The purpose of my post was simply to inform. Don't give me your high and mighty crap. I told the guy to use one of their fonts since they had trouble with the one I sent. That wasn't the root of the problem. Don't try to make me out as the dunce, when they dropped the ball and were trying to make up lost revenue by gouging me with cheaper product. As for asking Johanna to lock it......Uhhhh she is an admin, that is part of her job with this fabulous service. Of course there are going to be folks that have no problem with this company, there are some that did including me. ferg

As I said before. I know illustrator and my daughter uses it every day, it was converted. I was simply trying to make it easier for the guy to get things done. Whatever their reason for not being able to use the file makes no difference, that wasn't the ultimate reason for my wanting to negate the order. I sent the very same file to Steel Stamps, they are making the stamp as we speak. I had absolutely no problems with these folks, they had the proof back to me in just a couple hours, I okayed it. With all the other problems we were encountering I think the man I talked to was out on a limb, I broke it off. I think we need to lock this thread, Johanna!!!! ferg

I beg to differ with "there's no point in putting a servo motor on a skiver". My skiver has a digital servo. It will turn at almost nothing to 3600 rpm. The speed depends on how hard I press on the pedal, duh! This servo is the best thing I have ever done. The bell knife and bottom and top feed wheel turn at different speeds. There is a ratio there. I can have a very thin piece of expensive leather to skive. I don't wish to allow it to feed at 3600 or whatever rabbit speed is available. A nice slow skive gives me total control. If I desire to increase the speed after starting the skive it is a no brainer. There is absolutely no degradation in the quality of the skive when I run it slow . That misconception should be noted for folks looking down the road buying one of these fabulous machines. ferg