bullrope braider

thank you, I printed this out and will give it a shot here shortly on edit: didnt take but a couple minutes to fix the needle position. thank you for your help. also the speed is re set now so it's not haulin it when I step on the pedal. thanks again

interesting post, like some others here I thought it was normal for my Cobra to just take off right away even though I was easing into the pedal. looks like I'll contact Tom about my EPS motor about this mod, It'll sew slow but I cant get the slow crawl I need going around corners or turns and is making me miss my stitching lines. also with this EPS needle positioning system to get it to stop needle down takes a heel tap on the pedal, if I just take my foot off the pedal it'll stop needle up. is that right?

not so much the angle but it's a little convex according to Luke. I couldn't get it as I was using a scissor grinder which makes it concave, I'm using a belt driven sharpner with a 220 grit belt to develop the shape and finished with a 600 grit till I get the burr on the bottom side. I hit it with a flat scissor hone enough to remove the burr keeping the stone completely flat. you could do the same with a good strop. Since Luke explained this method to me my tandy splitter works much better, with my spare splitter blade I stropped it both flat then the top side staying with the shape as I pulled it across the leather strop. now that i have both blades like this it only takes a little work on the strop occasionally to keep the edge sharp. it's still a Tandy splitter and will never be perfect. I've bought one of Steve's new Leather splitter and cant wait for it to ship

thanks

Hey Steve, are you getting close to shipping time yet? have you got any pic's of our new splitter yet you could share? thanks bud, John

it would help also if Tandy used good hard steel for their splitter blades, when I run mine on the scissor grinder it acts like it's no harder than a lawn mower blade. too soft to be a splitter blade. I can get it sharp and honed with a slight burr on the back side then run it on the strop but it stays good for only a few sessions then need to re hone again. aggravating doesnt explain it I keep a pan with cold water close and never let the blade get hot, warm to the touch only

thanks for posting his contact info, I've tried different bevels with my splitter blades using my scissor sharpner grinder but would like to know what blade angle he prefers

thanks Steve, I've been watching for the updates. I looked on your website but didnt see anything on the splitter there. I'm real anxious to get my splitter and put it to work. thanks again my friend, John

it came palletized shrink wrapped, the head is in a cardboard box incased in a styrofoam shell. the stand is put together and bolted down to the pallet, you'll need to install the rollers first then you can move the stand around easily. when you un pack the head don't tear up the box, you'll need in for return shipping of the head if you ever have to return it for warranty work (probably will never need to but save the head packaging anyway) open the top, invert the box and slide it off the styrofoam casing. save that stuff too. it wasn't hard to get inside but you'll need someone to help you lift the head up onto the stand. the head weights right around 175 lbs if not more so be careful setting it up. I believe shipping weight on the pallet is right at 320 lbs if I remember right but if you can get it close to the door it'll be easy to get inside. the truck that delivered mind had a tailgate lift and just backed right in close to the door and I did the rest myself, my step daughter came over and helped me lift the head onto the stand and held it till I got a couple bolts in. take some time and watch steve's DVD first and keep it handy, I knocked the timing off a bit and the DVD walks you through re setting the timing. the cheap screw drivers and allen wrenches twisting and rounded off so get you some quality screw drivers and a good quality set of metric allen wrenches, my allen wrenches are falcon tools with the ball end one the long end and work well. the screws and bolts you'll have to loosen for re setting the timing and even changing out parts to sew leather or thick webbing are really tight so be careful making adjustments. oil everything before first use and as steve's recommendation in the video. I think I spent a couple hours putting it together and started playing with it, the only problems I've had were my own fault and Steve covers it well in the DVD and he's always just a phone call away if you need anything. I bought my Cobra from recommendations from my sister's boyfriend, he's been using one in his saddle shop for a while now and loves his machine too. it's a great machine hope your Cobra arrives soon, John

it will be worth your wait, I got my class 4 before the problems in Japan, back then I didn't have to wait very long when I ordered mine. your going to love your machine

this is the place I buy from, if you don't need the core for braiding it's easy to pull the cords out with needle nose pliers. http://parachute-cord.com/

Awesome, cant let the wife know it's not work. I enjoyed your post, thanks for the chuckle John

maybe it is just me but I had a tuff time finding this info, I know Steve's a really busy guy so just hated to call someone for something I should be able to find on my own. just the way I am I suppose, anyway sticking this up again may help someone else speed up their search a bit. entering this info into the search bar within this forum without knowing the right names of things on here didnt help me much. I ended up just doing a google search and actually found links right back here for what I needed, who'd thunk that one? Lol and need to give Art some credit too, it was some of his postings that led me to the thread exchange links. Thanks Art John

very good point, thanks

I've been picking through this forum and other leather forums forever looking for the proper thread and needles for my Cobra. I've found bit's N pieces of past threads that other members posted information. I've got a wide range of materials I'm sewing so I needed to find needles and thread for thin to really thick projects. I've just ordered an assortment of needles from Campbell Bosworth Machinery so I'll post the link to their needle page. some of this info was from Cobra Steve posting's I found so I'm thankful again for your help Steve. the thread link is to the thread exchange, I found a good assortment of thread to cover my projects there. I'll post back here latter on how well these products worked for me. 794 or 7x4/7x3 needle system for the cobra class 3or 4 I believe the same needles work in the Toro 3 & 4000 models. http://www.campbell-bosworth.com/catalog/index.php/cPath/3_125_235 http://www.thethreadexchange.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TTE&Category_Code=nylon-thread-138 I hope those links work, and I hope this information is helpful thanks, John

they really liked the chaps, I've had parents asking about chaps for their kid's too from that day so I lined up more leather and looks like I'll be developing more pattern's pretty soon. I'm going to do some sewing repairs for some local team ropers to the headgear for the roping steer's soon as I get some heavier thread. I'm really enjoying this Cobra machine, just a pleasure to work with

Thanks for the reply's, I've been learning all kinds of new things with the Cobra. A couple thoughts on my experience with the class 4, it's harder to sew a nice straight line than it looks, Lol. much less sewing around curves but didnt take long to get it going my way (that pile of crooked stitching leather was really scrap already is what I told my wife) as time moves on I know that pile shouldnt get too much bigger. I had to experiment with thread tension upper till I finally got it dialed in for the correct stitch top and bottom, this machine sews a very nice tight stitch and it's hard to see the difference between top stitch and bobbin stitch. I've made two pair of kid chaps for my two grandson's that I should of put off till I had more experience with the machine but I'll tell ya there's no time like the present to just jump in and start learning. from the first piece sewn you can see the improvement's made with the sewing by the time I was making the second pair the stitching was starting to look decent, not perfect yet but decent work. more important, the boy's love their new little chaps. I've ordered more thread in different sizes to match all my future projects so I'll be prepared. I'd like to thank Steve for the great DVD and extra information he include's in the manual, every little problem I encountered was simply answered either from the manual or a second look at the DVD. thank you Steve and your awesome crew for the great job packing/crating and shipping this machine so well and all the help you were in getting my machine to me. thanks again John a couple pic's of the new Cobra sitting in my little work room and just added the pic of the boy's showing off

ordered the class 4 with EPS and it's finally in my shop and earning it's keep! what a cool machine, thanks a million Steve. Best investment I ever made, John

Hey Ken, How's the saddle makin business treatin you? what are you using the Cobra 4 for mainly, I'm getting back into leather again and we have a Cobra 4 on hold with Steve for my business. I thought about a class 18 just for chap projects but decided I need to sew heavier stuff here N there so the Cobra machine is my choice. I'm sewing the leather wear strips on the bull ropes when ordered by the customer and it just takes too long, this machine will be a huge time saver for me. take care, John http:www.jwebullropes.com

I know this is an older post but thought I'd add a little more for those that were asking questions on braiding. in the area of braiding rope which can be used to braid leather, rawhide, para cord or anything else that you can hold in your hands, the topic list's this post as a 9 plait flat braid but it is only because it has a flat appearance to the finished project for the sake of the original post topic . let me explain this, in my world of bull rope braiding the standard nine plait braid for bull rope building would be called "9 plait" which in rope terms is using the 9 strands/bundles with the one outside strand/bundle going over two then under two. the true 9 plait flat braid made on a bull rope tail braided flat is actually over one then under one. the 7 plait flat braid is just the same - over one, under one. but the 7 plait braided like the 9 plait standard braid is braided - over one, under two which is what us bull rope braiders call a "cheater nine" braid, other wise simply called "7 plait" when I get an order for a bull rope with a 7 plait tail I'll braid it out in the "cheater nine" style. Most braiders use the standard braiding technique of over two, under two for all the handle and tail braiding when asked for the 9 plait handle and tail combination. very few bull riders use a flat braided 7 or 9 plait anymore, they all or most of them want the tail braid to look like traditional nine plait even though it may be braided with 7 bundles or strands. for instance if you look at some of the bull rope pic's on my website at http://www.jwebullropes.com you'll see we braid the bottom handle on most of our bullropes in the true 9 plait flat braid but all the handle's are braided standard 9 plait (over two, under two) and the tails are mixed braids of 9,7 or 5 depending on what the customer has asked for. the only other braid on the tails might be if someone wants the tail braided 5 plait then it's a true flat braid of over one, under one. if you would like to try this take nine strands of colored chute cord attached to a small steel ring to make a key fob. I'll actually use ten pieces five foot long (you can shorten this up but the finished two foot is easier to work with) and fold them through the ring using one strand to wrap around the others so you have about two foot of the 9 strands hanging, use the tutorial in the above posting to start your braiding from the center out and braid out your fob using that over two, under technique. if you braid it out tight and even it will make a really cool looking key fob. at the end of the braiding when it's the length you want wrap up the strands with waxed sinew thread using the rope whipping/cable whipping method to seal the end leaving the strands about an inch long past the whipping. I made some of these for christmas presents once and everyone loved them, I'll make one up soon and post the pic's here thanks, John

Very nice work, I love the holster for your competition handgun, that'll be one I'd like to make for one of my 45's

Thanks, I appreciate that. Well, the tacsew machine I was getting is not coming as there was some miscommunication on both sides and the bank wouldn't honor the dealers interest rate and payment terms I was promised and the shop owner bent over backwards to set things straight for me and we decided to just cancel the order. What a great guy though and I'm thankful there are still some great shops around that care about their customers. I wont mention any names here but if you'd like to know more just pm me or email me about it. Moving on though it might have been for the best as after going through this forum and reading all the great post's from the expert's I'm rethinking which machine I should get and like so many other user's I've read about that claimed they would be sewing light to medium leather projects but then found out the machine they bought wasn't tough enough for heavier projects as the user progressed up the learning curve. I'm leaning towards something that will handle an occasional heavy leather repair job for my friends to medium projects like chaps and belt sewing and I really like the looks of the Cobra line of machines. There's just too much of a chance if I bought a tacsew that I would regret not spending my money on a machine that would handle it all instead of just the medium jobs. It will take me longer to save the funds for one of the bigger machines but after re thinking how I want my projects to come in out in appearance I'm with the Wiz and some others on the bigger thread and needles and the tacsew just wont handle the thread size. I'm sure it would have been a nice machine if all I did was upholstery but odd's are sooner or latter along will come that piece of heavy leather I'll need to work on and before you know it I'm having to buy another machine. I will keep on reading through the many post's as there is so much good info here I know i'll get it figured out before long. thanks, John

Hi everyone, My name is John, owner of www.jwebullropes.com out of Southwest New Mexico. way back in my younger day's I made my own bull ropes in order to compete, I made a pair of chaps in high school that I still have stored away and never forgot how cool that was to use equipment made myself. those chaps are pretty crude compared to what I'm seeing now day's so I'm here to learn some new stuff from you all and yes I've already found the DVD's and patterns on chinks so I'll be ordering my copy soon. I found this site after ordering a new Tacsew t111-155 for my projects and continued researching this machine. I found other fourms on upholstery but found more information on sewing leather here at LW than anywhere else. I was using a home sewing machine for thin leather but when I decided to start building chaps, chinks, bull rope pads and what have ya I wanted a better machine. I used to hand sew the bull rope pads and ended up dropping them as it was too time consuming and took away from making bull ropes. I made belts back in the day too and really want to get back into tooling again, my first wife made off with all my tools along time ago so I'll be starting all over with new stuff as I can afford to piece them in. I have three master bull rope braiders working for me and they free up my schedule just enough to include hand crafting accessories again. I hope to learn from you all and make lots of friends here, please bear with me as I work through a new learning curve with the tacsew (it's coming with a servo motor) cuz I'll be asking lots of questions. Glad to meet everyone here and thanks for letting me join this great forum John