Ferg

Sorry, never heard of it. Are you familiar enough with the machine to see if it is built as the Fortuna? Many clones with most having almost all the features of the Fortuna. If this machine is new I would leave it where it's at. ferg

Looks fine, need to work on your burnished edges. That would make it "dressy" ferg

You are truly amazing! ferg

It was snowing heavily and blowing to the point that visibility was almost zero when a young Blond teenage girl got caught in a blizzard. She made her way to her car and wondered how she was going to make it home. She sat in her car while it warmed up and thought about her situation. She finally remembered her daddy's advice that if she got caught in a blizzard she should wait for a snow plow to come by and follow it. That way she would not get stuck in a snow drift. This made her feel much better and sure enough in a little while a snow plow went by and she started to follow it. As she followed the snow plow she was feeling very smug as they continued & she was not having any problem with the blizzard conditions. After an hour had passed, she was somewhat surprised when the snowplow stopped & the driver got out , came back to her car and signaled for her to roll down her window.. The snow plow driver wanted to know if she was all right as she had been following him for a long time. She said that she was fine & told him of her daddy's advice to follow a snow plow when caught in a blizzard. The driver replied that it was ok with him & she could continue if she wanted, but he was done with the Wal-Mart parking lot & was going over to Sears.

If you have a program on your computer that will let you convert the image to a "Grayscale" image first then a line drawing, this will help you get the image transferred easier. ferg

Please remember my critique is meant to be constructive. You need to plan your design before diving into a complicated Coat of Arms. When you do Coats of Arms you will eventually get hammered by someone that believes all of them should be perfect, as in original, with no little "asides". Doesn't matter if the person you are doing it for has little or no requirement for same. Use a more subtle backgrounding stamp, the image is your focal point don't obscure that with deep colored dye plus a deep impression. Your swivel knife cuts aren't even. I know, you have only been doing this work for a short while, doesn't mean you should ignore this. You should do your swivel knife cuts, modeling and shading stamps, apply a resist, a paste dye, wipe off, then do your painting with a better paint than available at Tandy. All of these processes should be allowed to dry thoroughly before proceeding to next. Buy some good quality artist's brushes. The broom you are using isn't going to cut it. LOL Never get discouraged by what someone like me tells you. Work, read, study, and buy the best materials you can afford. AND PRACTICE! ferg

Well, you did ask for a critique. You need to do a lot of practicing with your Paint/Stain before attacking an image such as a Coat of Arms. The dark stain in the background is totally out of whack. The painting simply isn't very good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your work that practice won't improve. ferg

Your holsters are a nice clean design with one caveat, you need to burnish the edges or if you are burnishing, you need to work on it. ferg

If you mean what machine did I sew it with, Seiko Cylinder Arm and Consew 206RB5 flatbed. It is 138 Bonded Nylon thread. Sorry, she has it full of her "stuff". Unable to take a photo of inside.

Ron, From my own experience.... I don't have time to do much leather from July through Christmas so whatever skills I have with my sewing machines is hard to get going again. Stitch something just to be doing it, if you have time. Keeps the mind working anyway. ferg

Wife did not wish to have any pockets. The purse holds everything well and in intended place. I am in the process of making a change/occasional paper money, wallet with blue interior to match the Checkbook/card purse. ferg

An embossing wheel on a handle can be done in a few minutes by hand and you didn't screw up an expensive piece of machinery that was never intended for a purpose such as this. ferg

The feed dogs can be lowered or removed. A narrow slot plate can be made to fit the machine. Wiz has this machine and I am sure he has a narrow slot plate for his. It may be an accessory Bob Kovar has in stock. I have a slotted for my Consew but not for the Seiko Cylinder Arm. Biggest advantage to the slotted plate is the nice smooth backside of the stitching. Gets a little tricky in some leathers without a feed dog. ferg

I think, just maybe, those are not made from "Cordovan" Shells since Cordovan denotes the color of the stain/dye used in the manufacture. Nice job on the wallets. Many years ago I made the Cordovan wallets and sold for $6.00 each. ferg

Well, No matter what you are being told, your presser foot is too tight against the leather. Either you are not lifting the foot when you think you are or there is something wrong making the foot "hang-up". There is always a possibility that the foot is bent or made wrong. If you have another set of feet try them. Have you checked the "TOOTHED" feet below the table. They may be adjusted too high. ferg

I would strongly suggest you consider one of the 441 clones. Most all are great machines for a lot less money. The accessories are less also. ferg

I don't like to only give the negative side of things plus this is too good to not share. Dymo is in Australia, they bought Endicia recently. Endicia has been somewhat of a problem off and on with their software. I finally sat down and wrote a program to add functionality. They were a little overcome at first, by our volume of sales to Canada etc. Dymo obviously decided Endicia had not been making enough money so they put out the word they would only accept stamps made by them, no third party. We put the news on several forums, TV , radio, etc. Yesterday evening my wife got an e-mail stating that Dymo/Endicia had given the wrong information to their customers. Folks with an account with them weren't affected by the change. This morning we were informed that even FREE accounts were not going to have the need for Dymo labels. LOL The power of the computer age must not be thrown aside. They even do some good some times. ferg

Rayban, Your query is not up to your standards of logical thinking, I will answer it anyway. I remember a home we were repairing after a Tornado tore through our area. I had a number of workers, we were extremely busy. I had left several to apply a shingle roof on this home. When I checked on the job they had almost finished the roof but one entire side had been screwed up. They removed the shingles and redone them correctly, ON THEIR TIME! ferg

Any of you who are printing your own USPS postage, read this carefully. Dymo owns Endicia, don't know when they acquired same. We decided to ship via USPS several years ago. Three years ago we began printing our own stamps that we bought from a third party company that was/is approved by the post office. They cost about $50 per 7000 stamp blanks, we use between 20,000 and 25,000 per year. Dymo Endicia charges about $55 for 200 stamp blanks, I don't need to do the math do I? We received an e-mail from Endicia today that they are no longer accepting the third party stamps, we have to get a new activation code each time we buy a roll of 200 stamps, put into the computer so they can check it's validity and then when you ask for release of the next 200 count roll you need to wait until they contact you with the activation code. During Christmas season we ship 700 to 1000 parcels per day. Have an idea how many we would ship with all this crap? The postage is higher and higher and they want to pull this on us. Seems to be the mentality of a number of people I could mention. Several third party stamp suppliers have already quit selling blanks for fear of having excessive inventory unable to get rid of. Sure does help the small business community. If you use these people, please let it be known you will not stand for this. Totally unacceptable !!!!!!! BTW: They did not contact us today, my wife seen it on FaceBook. The "Change" will be Monday. ferg

From what you are saying you definitely need a machine with the capabilities of the Cowboy 4500 or one of the other makes that are clones of an original. I am sure Art, Wiz, Ron and others will chime in on this. ferg

Mine is stored in a closed closet. That heavenly smell just lingers in there until you open the door, then you really get hooked. LOL ferg

Looks good Fred. Beautiful work and craftsmanship. ferg

The default setting on the servo is 5. If the servo is moving fast enough for you just leave it alone. In the event you wish to slow or speed it up just follow the directions Bob gave you with what you are seeing don't worry about the other digits. ferg

I still have mine setting on another wooden chest I made about 45 years ago. I would have bought that little metal drawer cabinet about 1953 or '54. Wonder what I paid for it. Hadn't opened it for a long time. One drawer has some mirrors in it as well as the good tough plastic we used for ID card windows. They are still clear as a crystal. Guess I need to use some of them. ferg

Beavercreek ferg