Northmount

All is forgiven

Try a piece of dowel sharpened like a pencil, or a sylus or modeler to gently rub back and forth along the kink to work it back out. If the kink is already in a stich, then use a stylus to pull back a little room to play with so you can work out the kink. Be careful pulling it back as you could make a new sharp bend or kink. I think a sharpened wood dowel is more likely to work to smooth out the kink than metal tools. You may have noticed too that if you pull the wire too tight, it does a nice job of cutting the leather between holes. Like you say, small lenghths are going to be much easier to handle.

Matt ... you can straighten the wire by taking a partial loop around a wood dowel and draw it back and forth under a little tension. It will have quite a curl, but the kinks will be gone. Then pull it tight to straighten it. For sharp kinks or snarls, time to start over. Wire is worse to work with than lace is. At least with lace, you can recover from most snarls without any real damage.

If the wire was not varnished (insulated) before winding a transformer or motor, the coil would be a dead short since all the individual turns are layed against each other. The finished coil/winding is also dipped after the winding is completed and then baked to ensure it has dried throughout. Then it is tested to ensure no shorted turns. As well, I have bought bulk wire (spools) and wound my own coils, rewound motors, and rewound automotive alternators. You will also find that if you attempt to solder this wire without scraping the varnish off, it won't solder. I don't happen to be an electrician. I just have a wide range of experience in many areas having grown up in an automotive garage (from 6 years to 16) and came from a life where there was little money. Therefore you learned how to do things yourself, fix, build, etc. so you could have many of the things others take for granted. I quoted the house wiring since I thought a few people could relate to having at least seen that size of wire.

If you buy coil, transformer or motor winding wire, it is coated with a varnish, so would stay the same color forever as long as it has not been scratched or worn through the varnish. You can buy from hair thin to large or very large sizes. You would probably want to stay with AWG 22 as the largest diameter. AWG numbers increase as diameter gets smaller. As a point of size reference, most of your house wiring is AWG 14 for standard 15 A circuits. See http://en.wikipedia....ican_wire_gauge for a table.

It's really hard to understand the lack of knowledge of a few conversions between metric (SI) and English units in both North America and Europe. I see it frequently here, plus in engineering offices! 1 inch = 2.54 cm or 25.4 mm from there on it is a little simple math to do the conversion. No special tools or software or websites required. 1/4 inch = 6.4 mm And for the metric folks, 12 inches = 1 foot. 3 feet = 1 yard. As a rough comparisons: 1 yard is a little short of a metre. 30 cm is a little short of a foot (12 inches). For volume, 1 litre is very close to 1 US quart. For weight, 1 pound is 454 grams, or 1 kg is 2.21 pounds. For temperature, I'll leave that for you to think about, but you should have learned the conversion formulae in grade school.

If your camera has a manual white balance setup, place a white card, poster board or similar "white" material in the tent under the lights you are using, then set the white balance. Photoshop type software often has a function to remove a color cast. As long as there is a grey, white or black object in the photo somewhere, sample it to remove the color cast due to the lighting you are using. Playing with the contrast and mid tones can improve the aparent color depth of your leather, making it appear warmer. Experiment and have fun.

You can also get lever operated 1 to 3 ton arbor presses. SOme of the die makers sell them, but you can get a better price where they sell machining tools.

I have seen people shorten sleeves on fabric coats, jackets and shirts. Typically, there is a cuff. Remove the cuff carefully so there are no nicks. Observe how the lining was attached. Shorten the sleeve and lining, then put the cuff back on. The problem I see with leather is the old stich marks on the cuff to sleeve joint. Maybe it would be best to hand stich the cuff back on rather than use a machine. Then you can use the same holes and it will look just like the original. If there is not a separate piece as a cuff that can be removed, then I would again carefully pick out the stitches. Shorten both sleeve and lining by the same amount and reassemble same as it was originally done. Becarefull to keep the same alignment. Don't want the buttons or snaps to be twisted around to different positions. Might look like someone has a broken arm! Try looking up sewing alterations on sewing websites. Should be some examples and pictures of how to.

Tandy SKU 3084-00 http://www.tandyleat...ts/3084-00.aspx

There are a lot of back-up programs available out there that can schedule and do incremental back-ups (only adds changed files to the exisiting back-up). Some are very complicated. Some allow you to compress the data, but you have to be able to uncompress to retrieve your files. If you have lots of back-up space, uncompressed files (depending on the software) can just be copied back to where ever you want without having to load the back-up software. Roxio Creator has a very good back-up system. I tried using Paragon. It took hours to do simple back-ups, never finished, and the files it did back-up were not able to be recovered. It is most important to back-up files that can not be replaced like your photos, finance, documents, address book, etc. Program files can always be reloaded from CD or the internet (as long as you can find them). If you are trying to back-up your whole system, including operating system and all program files, then use something like Norton Ghost by Symantec. Make sure you have a recovery disk (usually a CD (now-a-days) to reboot from after a system crash and you need to re-install everything. It can also be used to move to a new computer. (caution about hardware changes) One word of caution ... system back-ups work fine as long as you don't change a bunch of hardware. A fancy new graphics card screwed up my system and could not reboot, or recover since the back-up was with the old graphics card too. So it was time to install the next OS version anyhow! Regards, CTG

I would say it depends on how large an internal compartment you want. If it is just to slide a few thin objects into it, then a simple piece glued and stitched on the inside of the front piece. If you want more room (which I think is a better idea to start with), then more of a bag like pouch on the inside makes more sense. The bottom and sides of the pouch need to be fixed to the front pice so stuff in the main compartment doesn't get "lost" behind it, frustrating the user. I would make the internal pouch with accordian like gussets fixed to the front of the bag and a single piece for the 2nd side of the pouch. The gussets could be worked into the bags gussets, so the construction would be similar to a bag with accordian dividers. Just the top is closed off so it's only accessible from the front zipper. You might want to line the pouch with lining leather to match the rest of the interior.

Just an added thought about magnets and credit cards in a money clip or wallet. (Takes a little time for all the ideas to gel into something that makes sense!) Where this dude's current money clip hasn't affected his card in many years ... The likely reason is the mating bar that the magnet snaps to is nearest the card, and is acting as a 'keeper' for the magnet and preventing the magnetic field from reaching the card. It's also not likely the magnet and bar line up with the magnetic stripe. So from a designing point of view, make sure the metal bar is at least as large as the magnet, place it in the center of the flap so it doesn't line up over the magnetic stripe regardless of the direction the card is inserted, and keep the bar on the credit card side. Magnet away from the credit card.

Strength of magnet is some concern, but to really wipe a magnetic stripe (or diskette or tape) requires an alternating magnetic field. If you just lay the magnet against the stripe, it may not do any damage (not guaranteed), but if you keep moving it around to produce field reversals, there is very likely going to be some damage. A few years ago, I did a test on floppy diskettes, both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2". (People were paranoid about magnets close to diskettes.) I used a very strong large magnet. The disks were still readable. Dropped them in water, froze them, drove over them, bent them, damaged the sleeve or plastic case, but when I replaced the sleeve/case, the disk was still readable. As long as the bend was not so sharp that it caused a crease, it was okay. Used a simple electromagnet on alternating current ... wiped all info and had to re-format. Some diskettes would not re-format as the iron oxide was permanently polarized. That is why you never drop your card on the devices that deactivate security tags. AC current induces a current in a strip in the security device and burns it out. So they are not reversible. It wipes your credit card. So chances are, most people would get away with having a small magnet next to a credit card for a long time. But eventually, they will run into problems after repeated snap open, snap shut actions.

Try Calgary Shoe Hospital downtown or Fantasy Leather & Calgary Shoe Hospital in Bedington. For the occasional sole leathers and such, I'm sure they would help you. The owner is often in the Beddington store during the afternoon. A very interesting older fellow - he may have some tips for you and might sew the soles on for you.

One thing that I found with stamping with letters or other larger stamps is the stamp and mallet always bounces and if I'm not really careful, I get double impressions (like a ghost image). Instead of using a mallet, I have started using a 'dead-blow' hammer. Wood workers use them. They don't bounce, the stamp stays in place and no ghost image. You can whack it again a few more times while leaning the stamp in sort of a rotational motion to get the image to have consistant depth across the width of the image. The dead-blow hammer has a cavity in the head loosely filled with lead shot. So if you don't use a press, this may help you avoid the ghost image. Happy stamping!

A felt boot liner might be suitable material too. If you are disposing of any, keep the top few inches that are still good. If the felt isn't thick enough, or firm enough, fold it over tight and use a clothes pin.

Wax, grease, oil --- the only extinguisher is to remove the air by covering it. Either with a lid that fits the pot or a fire blanket. (other non-flammable blankets can do the job, make sure what you are using doesn't combust) Spraying a burning pot with any extinguisher will stir up the surface and spread burning wax, grease or oil all over, creating a much larger fire than just leaving it burn would have. If you can't safely cover the pot, get everyone out of the building and call 911 in that order. Wear protective clothing. There are lots of resources that tell you what to wear. But to keep it simple, don't wear fabrics like polyester that melt. They melt right into your flesh. Don't wear fabrics that burn easily. Generally cotton or wool are a reasonable choice. No bare arms. If you do have a fire, how would you put the lid on it safely if your arms are bare? Gloves at hand would be a good idea too. If you aren't wearing them, stop to put them on first. Above all, keep your head and don't panic. Panic maims and kills. Move slow and deliberate, keep control. A face shield is a good idea too, though many people would think that is overkill. A splash of hot wax on your face, espeically near your nose and eyes is going to be a lot more painful than on your hand and will cause an immediate reaction (backing up and tripping over the dog) that could do a lot more damage. Safe work habits will help you enjoy your work and help to keep you out of the hospital.

Your English is just fine. I worked in an engineering office with a number of ESL people and wish their English was as good as yours. And great carving too. I enjoy seeing the great work done here and am trying to hone my skills to keep up with all of you. Keep up the great work.

I use a curved perma-lok type needle bought from Tandy about 45 years ago. Lost it a couple times and luckily found it again. I decided recently to get a couple extra needles. The new ones are way too thick. My old one works for 3/32 and 1/8 lace with no problems. I'm going to take a file to the new ones and see how much I can remove from the tip. The tips look like an elephant stomped on them! I have found good perma-lok needles are far better than the spring leaf types with a couple barbs. They just don't hold on for tight pulls. If you break the lace off flush with the end of a perma-lok, heat it up with a match or lighter and burn the lace out of it. Tap the ash out, clean off any soot, and go back to work. It has only happened to me once, so I am a little more careful about how tight the pull is. It it's too tight, I enlarge the slit a little and make sure the layers are properly glued and lined up. Happy lacing!

Many years ago, my grandfather asked me to make him a plain belt since he couldn't get one in a store to fit. He told me his waist was 48". So I added 4" fold back plus 2" for the buckle, plus 8" for the tongue. I only had one long strap left, so cut it accordingly. When he tried it on, the tip of the tongue just met the buckle. 58" So he never did get a new belt!

Take a look at a special issue of scrollsaw magazine, http://www.scrollsawer.com/features/pyrography-special-issue.html for lots of examples on wood, leather, paper, etc. and tools available. Very interesting and informative. Well worth the $10 to order. List of 28 woodburners from $10 to $205.

You could try different pipe sizes from your local home center. PVC or ABS pipe is not all that expensive. Pipe is usually measured by inside diameter so take a tape measure or rule with you so you can get the size you really want. Once you buy a lathe, you also need a set of lathe tools. A cheap set starts around $100. You also need a place to put it. Then to learn how to use it. You can make a lot of shavings or firewood in a short time.

Very interesting video. A couple little gaffs that always seem to happen when you are putting something like this together: email sketches home in 1944 "narriation" I found it interesting that Al and Ann spent many years in Canada!

See this link for a speed reducer http://www.leightons.ca/new-speed-reducer.html