cmh3821

lost the ebay auction by $10 at the last second. still looking for a used boss. if i cant get a hold of one this week i'm getting a new one. i called tippmann while bidding to ask about service and repair/tune ups for second hand models and they were awesome.

while building out the "leather corner" in my shop i came into the need for a large cutting surface for using my punches, slots, etc. i decided to make my whole "make/fitting" station bench top out of cutting board surface, with an underlayment of 3/4" birch ply for rigidity and stability. i felt the full cutting board surface would be great as it would make the whole bench top safe for cutting tools/punches. I asked a buddy of mine who's in restaurant equipment where to get big old sheets for the bench top cutting board material. he sent me to www.usplastic.com and i saved more than 25% over what i could have gotten the big HDPE sheets from the restaurant equipment wholesaler i get other stuff from. if you need large cutting boards for your punching/cutting tools check them out.

yeah i just saw that on thier website...thier holiday special qt 1200. im looking at a used one now on ebay that still under warranty and already setup for what i want to use it for. if i dont win the auction on that a new one is probably the best bet. still kind of want to stumble onto an already setup BOSS with some extras. im still setting up my motorized machine (got my table, motor, and speed reducer already) but need a boss as backup and to take on the road when we do mutli-day events where custom orders and/or selling out of production items will be an issue. do you like your boss? i talked to a manager at the tandy near me about hers and she loves it, but like everything else i have read/heard, insists that with its quirks it is abit different that a motorized machine. my primary goal with the BOSS is to have a portable machine capable of sewing multiple layers of very thick heavy leather and it looks like it fits the bill for that spec. thanks, chris

good evening, i am looking to buy a used tippmann boss. i am in central va but would pay to have it shipped from you. let me know if ya'll have anything. thanks, chris

ya'll brought up some really good points. i might as well go for it. its already gonna cost me a considerable chunk of change so i figure having the reverse for not much more on top of the total setup price will be really usefull. i'm thinking that the minute or so i'd save over manually rotating the piece by using the reverse feed will pay for the feature in timesaving over a couple hundred leashes.

happy halloween, I am about ready to purchase my first leather stitcher. My business will be making a line of dog tack out of heavy weight latigo and bridle/harness leathers. the machines i am looking into are (techsew/cowboy sew GA5-1 series) are offered with and without reverse. For my work all pieces will be small enough to manually rotate into the reversed position when the needle is down to lock in stitches at the end, but i am wondering if a reverse feed would be worth the additional $. i am planning to set up whatever machine head i get on a table with a servo motor and speed reducer to increased control, but am undecided on if i need the reverse feed or not. what do ya'll think? thanks, chris

i just started the leatherworking thing, as an extension of an existing canine oriented business. we had registered as a abusiness with Tandy whcih is good becuase i live like 5 minutes from a tandy store and gets us good pricing on most stuff. I was looking for a wider variety and better pricing on precut latigo, harness and bridle leather strips. ZWL had all of these. in less than 24 hours after i initiated email contact regarding registering with ZWL as a business and getting wholesale pricing my first order was at my front door. the prices were good for our purposes and the products were great quality. my first order shipped very very fast. i am in no way employed by or affliated with ZWL i just wanted to share the smooth, pleasant and fast experience i had with them. keep up the good work!!!

good morning all, I am currently looking at my options for our businesses first leather sewing machine, I have been spending a bit of time reading about the various leather sewing machines ya'll use and have come up with what i think are two good options for us. Our business allready makes a lot of dog gear from climbing rope, but we are expanding to leather. We will be needing the capabilities to sew through up to three layers of 8-9oz and no more than 2 layers of 10-11oz. I know i will need a reverse. As we expand we will also be making protection work equipment for dog trainers (arm and leg sleeves, reward tugs, bite builder tugs, etc) so i need something that i can also setup for the "french linen" material used in this gear. I have been looking over my options and i think for what we will be doing immediately the techsew gar5-1r would do the jobs we need. just leather leashes and collars and some bitework training gear right now. what are the overall impressions of the techsew ga5-1r? if ya'll have any other suggestions please let me know. Pricing is a factor but if i can do more with a different machine for not much more $ i'd love to know about it. thanks, chris

thanks ya'll. i like the foot operated presses at weaver and stimpson... i think those will do for now and as production ramps up it looks like one of the stimpson auto feed riveters will be the way to go.

good afternoon, i am new to leather working. My business is starting a line of leather soon and i am still playing with prototypes and equipment and gear now. we our starting to make high quality heavy duty leashes, collars, harness and tug toys for working dogs. we work mostly with heavy weight harness and latigo leathers (9-10oz and up) and sometimes need to secure through up to three full thickness layers of the leather. i have been using chicago screws with red locktite for our prototypes. i have set some rivets by hand with the manual setter and anvil but that will take way too long and is far too inconsistent and easy for me to mess up to use with production pieces. we will be needing to switch to rivets for a few reasons when we get production underway, primarily to speed up assembly and for a more finished look than a chicago screw with the slotted side facing out (neccesary to prevent damage to the dogs coat/skin). I was wondering if there are any alternatives to the craftool hand press i should look into? It seems nice and i have used one, but if there are other presses and dies for setting rapid and/or tubular rivets that work better i'd like to know what ya'll think about them. I will need to be able to set rivets of various sizes and types consistently and quickly. thanks

good afternoon, after lurking and reading here a while i joined today. my primary interests in leather are dog gear. I run a company that makes all natural dog and cat treats, and introduced a line of recycled climbing rope leashes last year. we are working on getting a line of leather gear up before the start of 2011. My primary focus on this line is going to be working dog gear (agitation collars, agitation leashes, tracking and agitation harnesses, muzzles, bitework tugs and puppy "drive building" toys) and very durable multipurpose leads. We will also be making some "boutique" style dog collars and leashes. my secondary interests in leather working is knife and gun holsters and sheaths. i have long been a fan of a quality holster (favorite carry rig is a milt sparks VMII for one of my custom colts) and figure we can get all the production gear setup at work and i can "play" with holsters and sheaths on it from time to time. i make japanese style kitchen knives and collect all kinds of knives, mostly culinary, field/survival and high end folding knives. So far i have only made a few btiework collars and leashes by hand, but i'm here to learn more about what i equipment I need to setup sizeable production of high quality leather dog goods in our shop, as well as learn as much as possible to improve my techniques and produce the highest quality leather dog gear i can.