Northmount

Go to the slaughter houses and buy the hides. For the most part, they are a by-product. A small slaughter house, or abattoir may be happy to deal with you on small quantities. For the big operations, having to handle a few hides for you would just be a nuisance. Cattle ranchers and feedlots make their money on the beef (meat), not on the hides. By the way, the price of beef (on the hoof or in the supermarket) has recently doubled. That is due to so many ranchers and farmers reducing their herds several years ago due to BSE and the loss of foreign markets. It's now gone full cycle so there are fewer cattle and higher demand. Now it will take time to build the herds up for a few years until they can meet the demand, then the price will start to decline again. It's a familiar cycle that animal meat producers go through about every 5 to 10 years. Tom

I think what I see is trouble with following the cut with the beveler. It could be how you are holding the beveler, or it could be that your swivel knife is undercutting on curves. Keep your knife blade perpendicular to the leather. Tom

I think it is time to close this thread. The vast majority of people here appreciate all the work that Tom Boyce does and shares with us. He's doing a great job. Tom

Do a search here and you will find lots of info and lots of fairy tales too. Many tablet and smart phone manufacturers sell their own branded cases with magnetic flaps. They also use separate magnets to turn the device's screen off when it is holstered. They use rare earth magnets for these cases, holsters, sleeves. I had one case where it was questionable as to whether the magnets had caused a smart phone to seize up. Had to be rebooted by removing the battery and restarting it. It turned out the molded case was a bit too tight and was holding 2 or more buttons pressed on. Stretched the case and problem solved. The processors and memory used in these devices are not affected by magnets. They don't have magnetic properties. Even the old floppy disks were relatively immune to magnets. It takes an alternating magnetic field to erase or damage magnetically stored data. You might be able to simulate that by rapidly flipping a magnet over the storage material, but I haven't been able to do that. And by the way, CDs and DVDs are optical, not magnetic. So no risk at all to magnetic damage. If you want to be paranoid, keep cell phones away from DVD and CD players, and other sensitive electronics, including unsheilded network cables. I've seen the results for these, sometimes just a reboot, other times expensive repairs required. Tom

Wet the whole surface so it is even. If you are using tap water, it may contain various minerals that leave traces in the surface of your leather. Demineralized water might not leave stains, but I would still dampen the whole surface just so it is all treated the same. So try dampening the whole surface to see if it evens out. Else the next step would be lightly bleaching with oxalic acid or lemon juice or ... There are several threads about water stains and bleaching that you can research further. Tom

Pulleys are typically measured at the outside diameter since the belt surface should ride even with the rim of the pulley, not on the bottom of the groove. You don't want a belt to ride on the bottom of the groove as you lose the surface area contact on the side of the belt and pulley. Then you have to tighten the belt too much to stop it from slipping. Overly tight belts may damage the supporting bearings. Pulleys and belts should be bought as matching widths. Tom

Your method should be fine with all things flat. It looks fine. Just watch that there is no creep to skew the zipper as you are sewing it (hand or machine). Tom

Have you tried lubricating the zippers? Use either paraffin or beeswax. Rub it on the zipper, them zip and unzip a few times to work it in and spread it. I think it also helps to use a longer zipper with an inch or so buried behind the gusset. I think it makes a smoother transition. Also when installing, pin at the centre on both sides, and work to both ends when fitting the gusset. Glue or staple in place, then stitch. You should be able to test the fit before doing the stitching to make sure it is nicely aligned. Tom

With a laser, you just burn/brand the leather. You won't get silver. Tom

Welcome back! Tom

I'd consider using a laser instead of hot foil stamping for this size a project. Most hot foil presses have a small type box/platen. About 2" x 3.5". Tom

Which version of IE? I normally use Firefox, but just tried IE 10 and it works for me too. So maybe some settings in your browser might need to be changed. Click on the gear in the upper right corner (for settings) and pick "internet options". On the security tab, for internet, I have "medium high", and protected mode enabled. On the privacy tab, I have "medium high", pop-up blocker is not checked so allows pop-ups. For IE add-ons, I have Java enabled. I think that Java is required for some of the options. So if you could check these settings and if they are different, try setting them the same as mine. I have suspicions that it is likely Java or pop-up blocking that may be the issue. Tom Edit: Later versions of IE give me a problem with remote access to my office so had to downgrade to IE 10.

For this post, I selected "MultiQuote". While I was in the quick reply box, "no quotes" were shown. When I clicked on the "More Reply Options" button, then it displayed both quotes. I reviewed all my personal settings, but did not find any that would impact quotes or multiquotes. So that should not be part of the problem. Please try again now using "More Reply Options" and see if that makes any difference for you. I'm pretty sure it will. Tom

We need more information to figure out what is happening. What browser are you using, what operating system, tablet, PC, Mac, phone. Might be able to replicate what is happening. I don't know the ins and outs of the forum server software, so Johanna would have to look at that side of it. Something's have no obvious solution because there are so many variables. Tom You can ignore this post unless the instructions in post #6 don't work.

Are you only concerned with the corners, or with all the stitches? If you want the corners to be all the same, you need to count the holes and lay them out spacing wise so all the corners will appear the same. Right now my brain won't let me figure out if you need an odd or even number to accommodate what you want. Do a small test sample to see if odd or even works. Tom

Either you will have to twist the lace in every hole, or think about getting some lace without a smooth grain side. I don't think twisting the lace is going to look consistent from one hole to the next, and you might break the lace doing it. What about buying a thin split and cutting your own lace? Make sure it has a suede look on both sides. Tom

You're having way too much fun! Tom

Our current exchange rate is a good portion of the price increase! Canadian dollar is sitting near $0.80 US. Not nice. Also increases your cost for US purchases. Tom

Increase the top tension to pull the knots up into the leather. Tom

Do a Google search for "ocr abbyy finereader free download". I used it several years ago. It was being supplied with some scanners too. There are others too, search "ocr software". There is open source, etc. Most should run in Windows 7. Tom

Well the converter didn't care about the language. I haven't proof read the files so there could be characters that didn't come through correctly. The PDF includes the graphics and text. You should be able to copy the text out now. In case you have problems, the text file is only text so will definitely be able to copy the text from it. You will be able to compare the text visually so you can match up with the illustrations. Attachments.pdf Attachments.txt Have fun! Tom

I'll see if it will work for me tonight. If I can find German settings in my software. I bought PDF Pro a while back. Around $100. Has worked ok for me so far. Tom

Very nice job. And it does belong here! Tom

Basically, it is a picture, not text. (Scanned and saved as a PDF document.) It would have to be run through OCR (optical character recognition) software first to convert it to text. Then you can copy and past to google.Tom

Also, the tension strip/spring should have a smooth curve to its shape. Make sure it is not bent.