Northmount

Plain belts, carved and tooled belts, embossed belts? Tell us the type of stuff you want to do. Providing the right details gets to the answer with information that is useful to you sooner. Tom

These guys are also answering many of your questions, even though you may not have bought a single thing from them. They also know what works best with real "leather" sewing machines and stand behind their equipment and provide the support you need. They are also very busy, so if you don't get an answer immediately, don't give up and wander off somewhere else. Phone calls help too. Tom

I replaced the servo on my 2700 with the SewSlow gear reduction unit from Bob. It helped a lot, but still wasn't slow enough for me. At the slowest speed, it couldn't punch through hard 8 - 10 oz leather. Added pulley speed reducer as well. Now I can go as slow as 3 seconds per stitch and still have the torque needed to punch through the same leather. Flat out is now a little slow with the servo pot turned up as fast as it will go, but it's fine for me. No trouble going around the point of a belt, just have to be a little patient going down the side. Tom

Takes moisture. Other chemicals and contaminants will hasten the process. If it is kept dry, no green! Tom

My dad taught me how to set copper rivets about 50 years ago. I was trying to set them in just a few swats. After setting the burr, and trimming to less than 1/8", tap gently with the ball end of the hammer in a circular motion as noted above by RavenAus. It's the heavy hammering that does the damage. With a little care, you can make a real nice rivet job. Tom

Likely yes, especially if the motor pulley is the same size. Bolt pattern for mounting to the table is fairly standard. If the pulley is smaller, and there isn't enough adjustment available, you might need a shorter belt. Tom

For buying a few items at a time, small orders, or for no account, go to HardwareElf.com They sell Ohio Travel Bag items in smaller quantities and list the prices so you can order online. I see Ferg just answered while I was composing this. HardwareElf is $19.29 and $20.49, so cost is $10 higher than wholesale. For your bag frames, go to http://www.hardwareelf.com/elf/PurseFrames.jsp Tom

Yup, about 53 years off and on depending on how busy full time work, studying, and family kept me. Made and learned from lots of mistakes in the first couple years, but turned out some pretty good work during the third year. Had no mentor or access to anything but one book I bought from a hobby store and a few Tandy patterns. Used to use an opaque projector to blow up pictures of templates in the Tandy catalog! Used the earnings from wallets and stuff to pay for more leather and tools, and a few dates in 12th grade. Tom

I think I get it now, standing in the rug so the pile hides the bottom! I was trying to figure out if there was a problem with how the picture was processed or posted. Makes an interesting effect! Several years ago, my son left his new wallet laying somewhere a dog could reach it at his friends house. The dog chewed a corner out of it. Managed to skive off most of the damage, layer a new piece in, refinish it and re-lace around the corner. It still has a couple bite marks, but not very obvious. This picture brought back the memory, was a very sad boy when he came home that day, nearly 30 years ago. Tom

Interesting, looks nice. Looks like someone chewed off the bottom! Tom

Pretty interesting, looks nice I notice some fuzzies on the edges of the bag. They need to be slicked down and burnished. Tom

The speeds listed above are for 50 Hz line frequency. In North America, line frequency is 60 Hz. So 4 pole motor speed, loaded, is approximately 1725 to 1750 rpm. No load speed moves closer to synchronous speed of 1800 rpm. 2 pole is 3450 rpm when loaded and moves towards 3600 rpm with no load. I would suggest that since this problem appeared after the head was worked on, and since it can hardly skive anything without bogging down, that something in the head is either seizing up, or severely misaligned. So remove the belt and turn the pulley by hand. Should spin fairly easily with no leather in the machine. Since it used to work, increasing the motor size to solve a seized up machine is just going to further destroy it. Solve the root problem first. If the pulley turns easily with the belt off, then look at the motor and clutch/brake mechanism. Is the bell knife sharp? Jamming leather into a dull knife will slow the machine down cause it has to wear away the leather instead of cutting it. Tom

Shape the pieces together, folded, then glue in the same position. Gluing flat then folding over normally won't work because the inside piece needs to be shorter (has a shorter radius). Possibly if you dampen the outer layer, it may stretch, but you are still going to get wrinkles on the inside, and it won't want to stay folder over. If it was iron or such, I'd say heat it on the side you want it to stretch on, or the side you want it to wrinkle on, then bend. But that's out of the question here. Tom

I would take width of a circle as being the same as the diameter. Unless you squashed it down flat first. Communication is one of the hardest things to do ... we each understand something from our own viewpoint, which is often different than what the teller is trying to portray. My son-in-law often starts off with the end of the story, then it takes 10 questions to get him to back up and start from the beginning. My daughter complains, just start at the beginning like we do! Many questions asked here on LW do the same. They start at the end, or miss the technical information that is needed for others to troubleshoot and provide help. So for all those posing questions, give some of the technical detail about how you got there, what you used and what order. This is just a comment, no disrespect to anyone, Dave included. Tom

If you have The art of Making Leather Cases by Al Stohlman, take a look at page 50. If you don't have it, it's probably time to get it. You can purchase the eBook from Tandy. Use either 1/8" Masonite (hardboard) or 3 mm plywood paneling. Your local home centre should have them. You may be able to get off-cuts from a builder or smaller panels at the home centre. Tom

LePages or 3M contact cement, either water based or toluene type solvents should work for you. Follow the directions. Roughen the surfaces to be joined if they are smooth. Apply to both surfaces. Let dry until almost no tack, them carefully position the two parts together. If you accidentally get things misaligned, they may stay like that forever. Pulling it apart will damaged the surfaces. Press or use a roller to ensure full contact adhesion. There is another thread about contact cement that you should look at too. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=46282&hl= Tom

What type of dye are you using? I was using some Tandy Eco dye, timber brown and had spots like this show up. I had bleached the leather with oxalic acid to even out the colour somewhat before dyeing. I've also found that having the leather slightly damp helps even out the dye, and reduce the amount it wicks into the adjacent leather. Anyway, on this piece, it still had some problems with even absorption. After several coats, the "hard" areas closed in and disappeared. So I think the above advice to lightly oil the leather and let it soak in overnight should help a lot to reduce or eliminate the problem. Also, look closely at the leather before you cut into it, and avoid areas that look look like it has wrinkles. Tom

See this article for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking#Product_groups Tom

Contact Bob Park. He has an excellent booklet on Sheridan Design. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showuser=7682 Tom

Some materials, leather included, may absorb the glue and dry too fast. If the material is too porous, run a second coat over the first one a few minutes later. Try another experiment and see if this helps. When gluing large areas, some people run a second coat around the edges to help make sure the edges won't separate. Tom

Welcome. Used to live there for a short time. Tom

Wow! Really, really nice work you are doing. Even with the difficulties you are having, it is turning out really great. Tom

For that height, should be able to wet form a square piece of leather. Make a plug the size of the candle holder (or use the candle holder, cut a couple pieces of plywood, laminate together to get at least your 1" height, drill or cut a hole the diameter of the candle holder plus 2 thicknesses of the leather you are using, sand it nice and smooth on the inside. Dampen the leather, a little more than you would for casing, but not saturated, lay the leather on top of the form and press the plug into it. Let it dry for maybe an hour, pull it out and let it finish drying. (might want to trim the excess off the leather before you pull it out of the form.) I have formed 8 oz over 3/4" so I'm sure you can do 1" with no trouble. You will likely get some wrinkling. Worth a try though and after the first one, the next dozen will go quickly. Then it is all one piece with no joins. Tom

I thought so. It looked like one of mine! The gel antique doesn't behave the same as other antiques. The first project I used it on did not turn out as it should have. It did the same as yours, except I used Saddle Tan and it turned out very red. The instructions on the bottle are much less than adequate. There is a video by George Hurst that shows how to use it. The link to the video should be in the instructions! It would certainly help anyone new to this product. In George's demonstration, he is doing a relatively small project. By the time you get the antique worked into all the cuts and depressions, you don't have much time to wipe off the excess. Have paper towels and a wet sponge ready before you start. Start with your leather slightly moistened too. I don't recall if that is in the video. For your existing project, you may be able to improve it somewhat if you haven't applied any finish to it yet. If you scrub it with mop 'n glow, you can remove much of the overall colour. Since the gel antique is water based, the mop 'n glow will lift a lot of the surface dye. For other types of antiques, there is a video on use of various Tandy resist type products at Good luck with fixing your project, and with future projects. Tom

Read post 98, and several earlier Tom