Northmount

Any tube that is bent either has to wrinkle on the inside of the bend, or stretch on the outside of the bend since the inside radius is less than outside. Depending on how the leather is finished, and what type of tannage it is, you can dampen the leather on the outside radius where the lacing and join is, then stretch and form the outside radius to make the handle curve the amount you want it to be. Then it needs to be held in that position till it dries. Depends to on the risk you are willing to take on an expensive bag. Tom

Add some red dye, or blue dye, see which gives the colour you a trying for. Tom

Dental X-rays are too small! Unless he had a patient with a huge mouth! Tom

I chucked mine in a 4 jaw chuck on a wood lathe. Lined it up and drilled the 1/2" hole running the lathe at a slow speed and adding a little cutting oil. (It was too big for my mini metal lathe). Worked out quite well. So if you know someone with a wood lathe, he might be willing to help. I laid out a couple old towels to catch the oil drips and cutting so there's no oil on my lathe. Tom

There have been a number of posts on this subject, one a few days ago. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=48815&hl=casing Hope this helps Tom

Remember that as high pressure air is reduced to low pressure, the expanding air cools. You notice that when you release air from your tires. So you need to find a balance between volume of air, and the pressure drop across the nozzle. Start with a small nozzle and maybe 10 bar air pressure. Depends on your compressor. If it is running about 3 bar, that is probably better cost wise since energy costs are higher when compressing air to a higher pressure. If the small nozzle doesn't provide enough cooling, then drill it out to the next size up and try it again. For people using English units, 1bar = 1 atmosphere (14.6954 psia). Tom There are also vortex air coolers if you want to get fancy!

You can form Kydex and fit it into your molded design for support. It's light weight and can be glued in with barge contact cement. Rough up the smooth surface with 80 grit sandpaper. The Kydex might even do for wet molding your leather. Tom

Nice job. Have you tried it out? Tom

And take multiple shots, bracketing the first exposure setting. Use small lens opening f/11 or f/16. Adjust the exposure time for longer exposures and shorter exposures to find the one you like the best. Then in future shots, still bracket one on either side so you have some room to play with in your software. If you can include a white object and a fully black object at the edge of your photo, at about the same distance as your object, you can use them to adjust the black point, white point, and to remove any color cast introduced by your lights or fabric. Tom

White glue (PVA) is flexible when it dries. Yellow carpenters glue isn't flexible when dry, so you hear it crack every time it is bent. Eventually, the noise goes away after it has been bent enough. Tom

I have used a 1 ton press on a plate 1.5 x 2.5" with no trouble. The hole in the ram can be .5" dia. The side screw will always push the tool you are using over against the opposite side and stay aligned vertically in the ram. The place this won't work is if your bottom anvil or plate is fixed and centred. Then the top tool needs to always be centred too. Then you need a bushing like noted above. Tom

Camano's example looks great. For the conchos, they could be mounted on a slider with slots cut to allow the slide to be repositioned to centre them. Trouble is, the slider might have to be too wide. Or, punch a few extra holes so the conchos can be moved by your seller, or the purchaser, and instructions to glue the threads so they don't come loose and fall off. Difficult to make one size fits all. Something is always lost when you do that. Tom

Fantastic job. I used to stand and watch a cobbler for hours when I was a young kid. Loved the smell of the shop. When we went into town, I'd usually go watch old Joe. My parents knew where to find me when it was time to go home. Keep up the good work. Tom

Looking really good for your first items. Keep up the good work. Using goodsjapan, where are you located? Tom

Use a spoon to rub over the craftaid. Don't need the trace the lines with a stylus. They work quite well for patterns you like and use multiple times. Bought my first ones in 1961. Sometimes copy elements from them when building a new tooling design (since I'm not a great artist when it comes to drawing). If you like the patterns, keep them and use them. Tom

There are other posts on the same subject. Dampen from the back side only, and bag overnight. Keep in the fridge when not tooling so it doesn't go mouldy. If you need to continue tooling and can't wait for it to soak through from the back, then mist with a little water as you go along with your tooling, as needed. Don't soak the tooled side. And as CC says, cover the area you are not working on to hold its moisture. Tom

Great little dog. Very nice. Haven't seen you around for a long time. Good to see you back here. Tom

On your home page, the info on the banner is repeated below it. Many websites place the menu bar below the banner. That's where I tend to look for it, so took a moment to find where I could check out your other pages. Looking pretty good, interesting. Tom

If the leather is tooled, and you get it wet, you will lose some of the crispness of the tooling. If you wash your hands frequently or at least keep wiping frequently with a clean cloth, that will help a lot. Cheap grades of leather, you may need to clean before working with it, so could use liquid saddle soap, or possibly oxalic acid to clean it. Then allow to dry somewhat, and place in a plastic bag for casing. If you do get some oil or waxy stuff on the leather while working with it, use deglazer to clean it off. Dye thinners (alcohol) will work some too if you don't have or like the deglazer. For gluing, depends a lot on the type of glue you are using. Clamping or weights help with slow setting glues. With contact cement, roll it with a roller so you get lots of pressure to squeeze it together. Doesn't need to be clamped or weighted down. Tom

Should have taken it back or refused delivery to start with. If the cushion can be unzipped, you could try gluing a layer of upholstery leather inside to help reinforced the weak spot. Use a big piece that will fit just inside the stitch lines so you don't get the edges of the patch showing through. Would be a good idea to skive the edges of the patch thin. Best idea is take it back and have the seller fix or replace it. Tom

Your photo shows the surface of the leather actually cracked, not just the finish. So cure is like mentioned above, skive the leather thinner, and dampen the leather so the surface can stretch without cracking. If your leather is really dry, maybe even old, so really dried out, you need to add some natural oils to help condition the leather, but don't get carried away with it. More is not better! Tom

Some malls will let you set up a table for a few days for a relatively minimal fee. Some malls may limit it to fit with a craft fair or some other promotional activity they are running. If they will let you do that for an average week, you should be able to test the waters and see what the customer response is like. We did this while when we were getting a computer biz up and running years ago when Compaq and HP were high priced and the little guy could build better computers and not be drastically under priced by the big guys. Once a month for 3 days at a time really helped with the exposure. Tom

Heavier thread does take a lot more top tension to pull the thread back up tight and pull the knot into the middle of the leather. I was surprised too! I'm not familiar with the adjustments for your machine, but you may be able to open up the latch clearance a little so it doesn't snag your thread. Sometimes it could nick and weaken your thread. Tom

It may help to dampen the leather slightly, so it doesn't tend to wick the dye as easily, since it is already moist. Experiment! Tom Edit: Another thing you can do is put a light finish on, then dye with an alcohol based dye. It won't wick, but also doesn't really penetrate the leather, so is not good for items subject to any amount of wear. You will get different response than normal for the colour. Also, be careful putting the finish on over the dye. It will smear easily, so air brush is best. You need to test this first before you try it on a final product.

Are you matching needle and thread size? Here is a chart http://www.tolindsewmach.com/thread-chart.html Is the needle in the right direction, and threaded from the correct side? Thread should enter on the side of the needle with the long groove. Tom