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Northmount

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Everything posted by Northmount

  1. Also, the tension strip/spring should have a smooth curve to its shape. Make sure it is not bent.
  2. There are 2 screws on the bobbin. One holds the end of the metal strip, the other adjusts the amount of pinch (tension) the thread is subject to. So first, make sure you are on the right screw for the adjustment. Some manuals have reversed the screw descriptions, but if you look carefully, you can figure it out. Second, look for a piece of thread that might be jammed between the bobbin case and the tension flap/strip. Take it right off and clean the surfaces. Tom Edit: I assume you are pulling the thread through the bobbin slot and under the tension strip.
  3. I bought a container, 500 g (1.1 lbs) of oxalic acid crystals for less than $20. Bought it through a local pharmacy. Supplier is Xenex Labs at Coquitlam, BC and Ferndale, WA phone 1-800-663-1002. I suspect ordering from the lab would get an even better price. Not a bad price at all, and 500 g will last a long time. Container is a plastic bottle, 5" H x 3.5" dia. Tom
  4. Don't post copyrighted material unless you own the rights. Anything you make yourself is great. Copyrights expire after about 35 years (depends on a few things, sometimes measured from the death date, some not). Varies depending on the country. Derivative works can be copyrighted but credit needs to be given to the original owner. There is a fairly good description of copyright info on Wikipedia. Tom
  5. Look at the Consew 227 variants manuals here: http://www.consew.com/Resources/ Manuals have bobbin tension instructions, though the 2 screws may be labelled opposite. Tom
  6. Use pippettes or syringes to pull small amounts from a bottle, but with shakey hands like mine, don't knock over thr bottle! Brace it against something so you can use two hands to steady the syringe. Tom
  7. See post #1. You will have to use the tile function in Adobe pdf printing for your typical home printer, or take to a printing or copy service that prints in large formats. Tom
  8. Here are a couple threads for your reference http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15121&hl=%2Bheating+%2Bmetal+%2Bstamp#entry93748 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=56446&hl=%2Bmetal+%2Bstamp+%2Btemperature#entry362178 Tom
  9. Heat the stamp in your oven, then mount it on the handle with heat on so it won't cool too quickly if you are stamping multiples. There are other threads about heating brass stamps here, try a search. Tom
  10. There are lots of posts about oxalic acid, but may be daunting to sort through them all. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=38134&hl=%2Boxalic+%2Bacid+%2Bcherry#entry236505 It is available at major paint stores, big box hardware/lumber/paint stores, and by order through pharmacies. Tom
  11. If you aren't sewing through leather or some material, there is no resistance to cause the thread to form a loop at the needle. It just follows the needle back up. It also sounds like some thread caught in the bobbin basket, causing the machine to bind. Cut a strip of leather and sew along the edge with the bobbin cover open, you should be able to observe the loop form and be picked up by the hook. For your big machine, you need enough foot pressure to keep the needle from pulling the leather and foot up. Larger needles and also denser or harder leather require more foot pressure. Where do you live? You may be able to find a member with a machine, or experience that lives somewhere near you that could give some direct help. Tom Edit Has the safety clutch on your 2700 tripped? If so needs to be reset.
  12. Has to be veg tanned leather to work. Has to have the tannins to react and turn black. Tom
  13. Try cleaning with Fiebings liquid saddle soap, evenly across the whole hide. Then bleach with oxalic acid. And of course get some oil back into it. You can test on a smaller piece first so you have a good idea how it will turn out. Have salvaged some old, and some bad smelling leather using this process. Tom
  14. The type of light seems to make a difference as to what happens. I have seen a veg tanned binder that sits in a bright mostly south facing (hot) window. The portion that is exposed to the light has bleached substantially. So that would say that infrared light seems to bleach, since UV is mostly blocked by the glass. But that doesn't adequately explain why leather darkens inside your workshop, since it is most likely protected from UV unless you have lots of fluorescent lamps that produce UV. Maybe it's just the heat that bleached the exposed parts of the binder. More questions than answers! Tom
  15. Try bleaching with oxalic acid. Has worked for me. Test on a scrap piece first. Tom
  16. Fantastic! More ideas to try. Thanks for posting these. Tom
  17. Lots of good information and some new techniques. Thanks Tom
  18. Wetting the leather enough to form it will destroy much of your tooling. Others have posted, best to tool after forming. Tom
  19. Fonzarellis, thanks for your comments. It is easy to get under someone's skin, even when talking face to face, let alone via text. We don't have those visual cues to help interpret a person's feelings or expressions. There are so many different areas of leatherworking that could be considered. Maybe one thing to do would be to look at the forum titles and use that as a guide to split the roadmap into useable sections, making a roadmap for each section that could then be pinned. As people's work load and interests change, the amount that someone contributes will ebb and flow. So this idea could take a long time to complete, but I think it could be very helpful. Maybe the topic could be stored in each section of the forum as a beginners guide to xxxxx. What do longtime members think of this idea? Let's as a group of LWs see what we can do with this idea/project. We can edit a thread (or put the map/guide into a PDF) if needed to make it more useful once we have the content. And newbs probably need to help with this, since they are the ones that will ask many of the right questions for others with more experience to fill in the gaps with their knowledge. Tom
  20. This site does quite well at replying to people's queries, even when the same question is asked and answered many times over. So the "pros" in some cases are getting tired. Since you have lots of time to surf this site, perhaps you could take it upon yourself to put together a list with links of all the topics that a new person would be interested in. I added links to your previous post to aid any others that might be following this thread or come across it later, whether they are of interest to you or not. I think it is good form for posters to link to other posts instead of just making a list, especially when the poster already knows where the answers are located. The search function works well too. Hope you are interested in helping others find their way around this site. You may expand this thread, and we can pin this or a new thread if it turns out to provide a roadmap that will be helpful to many others. Don't restrict it to just tooling and carving. Tom
  21. General Knife Sharpening Instructions Items 4 and 5 from above post are combined (along with other steps) in a couple pinned topics here and here.
  22. If the top thread is laying on the top, and loose, not pulled down into the leather, then the bottom tension needs to be increased. But first check that there is nothing wrong with the bobbin spring, nothing jammed under the spring, clean etc. It doesn't take much to increase the bobbin tension, so go slow! Tom
  23. Rubber cement from your local stationery store. Needs to be something you can easily peel off after. Some cement it to a sheet of Mylar, others to card stock, shelf paper, etc. There are numerous threads here if you do a search, should be able to find other suggestions too. Tom
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