simran

I'm not much of a whiner usually but man did we get a bunch of snow here in South Dakota yesterday. The winters snow was nearly gone when it came, the lilac's are budding and even seen a squirrel or two venturing out while it was warm. Now we are back at square one. We must have gotten 24". Our vehicles are piled pretty high. The roads are closed and the works. Well at least it melted a bunch before we got this last dumping. I'm not sure we could have found a place for this stuff otherwise. I took pics. and sent them to my computer from my phone but I think Verizon is blocking them or something. I'll load them later. Sim

Now the flywheel concept I've understood from the time I was young and I asked my Grandpa why the rake tractor had those big wheels on it going round and round. In my wilder years I had a Harley and came to know the concept intimately rebuilding the old "74" a couple of times. But I gotta tell ya' I was no less floored when I put the Monster wheel on my little Thompson 201 tonight. It's like it isn't even the same machine. It works so smooth and efficiently it is ridiculous that these little walking foot sewing machines don't come with these on them. ALL OF THEM!!! I'm here to tell you if you have one of these little walking foot machines and don't have one of Sailrite's Monster Wheels on it, not only are you missing out, you are silently frustrated for no reason!!! It makes that much difference. I'm squaring off right now to kick myself for not doing it sooner!! Sim

awesome work just awesome!!

That bag is hell for stout! You could pack rocks in it for years without hurting it!! Nice Bag!!

Love your avatar! That is a picture of my little brother. He was always up to something. They kicked him out of school when he was 16; he never learned how to read until in his 20's his wife taught him. Today he turns 150,000 a year. Heheheehe! I often wonder what those teachers he raised so much hell with would think of him today!!!

Funny how things like that happen isn't it!!

I'm glad I got all the positive feedback on Springfield Leather. They called me later this afternoon and told me they would not be able to complete my order; they were shy one hide I wanted. I asked them if there was anything else that may make a good stand in for what I ordered (it was a color matching issue). They assured me that what I'd ordered would be the only real good match available but I'd have to wait until they got it back in stock. I felt pretty confident that they were trying to do the right thing and not send me something I couldn't use; or was a poor match. So they'll send what they have and the hide in question will be a week behind it. Not a deal breaker for me anyway. Sim

Anyone know of a supplier for brass large heel bar & center bar buckled. I'm looking for 1 3/4" Sim

I.ve never used siegel but have always had good luck with Weaver as well. I like using Weaver for hardware.

I just put in an order with SLC this morning. I'd never heard of them before and they had all of what I was looking for to complete a project I'm going to start once all the findings get here. I ordered the canvas from elsewhere but everything else they had in stock. The y have some kind of membership program whereby you save a percentage on every order from them. I bowed out this time even though the person taking my order told me I'd be passing up $14.00 in savings on this order alone. However, like I told the young lady on the phone, I have no idea what kind of quality they are going to send me. I haven't bought any leather in years. When I closed my shop I kept all the leather I had and over the years been using it up on projects. It's getting to the point where all I have is scraps lying around. I am making a backpack for my #2 son as a gift for completing his Eagle Scout project. It is something he'll have and use for years to come and I didn't want to use scraps to make it. Anyway, my experience on the phone with Springfield Leather was a good one; we'll see what kind of quality the findings are they send to customers. Sim

I'm not really in the market for something like this but I too; notices Luberto no longer carries this model. I would wonder if parts are available for them. Out of curiosity I went to their site to see because I'd never seen nor heard of one of these before.

Gosh dang that's a nice seat!!

Nice Hoo . . . I mean HATS!!!

Good point made here. I think it was Ghandi that said the following "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" Sim

My boys been messing around with all kinds of things that blow up for a long time. When they first said, "Dad come look at this"! I knew we had to have a good heart to heart about such carrying on. Now boys will be boys and my boys are no exception to this rule. I've been raising kids for over 25 years (6) and if they are willing to come to me and introduce me to something wild & crazy I'm gonna listen. However, once I figured out what was going on I called for a time out. We had a little discussion about how something like this should be done. Safety glasses, gloves and what not; now they gear up and mess with their experiments. I'd rather have them doing it right and at home than on the sly somewhere without the proper gear. It is actually kinda fun to watch them progress with the various projects they incorporate into it. They've now built a set up whereby they project all manner of vegetables out into the nearby field with an apparatus they built in the barn out of pipe. It all comes down to "you might be a redneck IF" maybe I don't know. But these are good boys. They are at home using their imaginations, not setting in front of the TV and they're lean & mean. These boys are not in the category of "what are we gonna do; our kids are over weight because they sit in front of the TV & play games all day crowd." They are developing their minds & bodies like we did when we were kids. If we had the directions to this available to us, many of us would have been doing it as well, as young people. Some of what it boils down to is there are to many young people running around not being parented. Mine don't fall into this category. Many do though and it is sad. Doing something like what was shared in this post is in the least unfortunate, and at most, deadly. It is sad that their are so many out there with no one to direct their activities. Sim

I ran into a package deal on a stitcher, edger/creaser & leather splitter. I got a handle on the splitter; I had one once before. I'm still brow beating him on the stitcher & he's about to say uncle I think. He was originally quite high from what I was told but he's softening. This Pearson edger/creaser has me stumped though. I think it may be worth more than he's asking. If that is the case; I might holler uncle first. We are not that far apart on numbers anymore. This stuff is all close too. Means a lot these days! Anybody got a clue on this edger/creaser; it seems to work pretty well. Sim

It is decidedly cold up north this morning -20 with the wind chill. Hopefully this is the last real cold snap until the next go-around. Wouldn't be so bad but the darn wind. I was born on the prairie; you'd think you would get used to it but not me. My wife loves the wind; although I think she's reaching her breaking point this morning. To many days with snow glazed roads is bringing her over to my side me thinks. Sim

I once had a lady bring a 31-15 that someone built a box for with a home sewing machine motor on it. She wanted to sell it to me but I already had a nice on on a table. I almost wonder if something like that wouldn't work for you. I know you would never find one all set up already but it would be a fairly simple conversion. Looking at those bags you make reminded me of sculpted boot tops a friend of mine used to make with a 31-15. He raved about the ability of this machine to sew multiple layers of light leather. The is a 31-20 on ebay right now. Same as the 31-15 except it has a larger bobbin. They are not walking foot machines though! Sim

Thanks for the welcome Bill. I travel all over maybe we could get together some time. I live about 30 miles west/southwest of Ortonville MN.

I bought this machine for a song after it had been bounced off the floor. It landed on the bobbin winder and bent it. In the process of trying to straighten the pot metal, of course, it broke. I'm looking for a bobbin winder for it as well as the plastic cover that goes over it. This is an older Thompson with the tension on the very left end of the machine instead of in front of the needle bar. I tried one out of a tac-sew and it is different. It is still in there and that is what I use but it doesn't function properly and I can't seem to modify it to work either. Thanks, Sim

The Singer 7-27 is a beast of a double needle machine (don't get your hand in there . The bobbins are smaller than the ones in the single needle models (7-31) because there are, of course, two bobbins instead of a single bobbin. Other than that; the thing is a horse man; should sew 3/4". If it has a hi speed motor on it look it over good, to my knowledge, these machines were not made to run at high RPM's. Sim

I do believe! I'm beholden to ya'; Thanks!