leathersmyth

I will dig out my manual that is original and see if i can scan it. It is leather bound so will check if can put on scanner bed.

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You are going to have a tough time finding 3/4 oz. 40 years ago it would of been much more common to find thinner weights in english bridle. But with so many tanneries closing and limiting to what they produce,makes it harder to find the thinner leathers. Years ago i came this close to getting a splitter that did a whole side. They decided to keep instead of selling. But the reason it would of been sweet was because i would of then been able to get a heavier side and split to what i wanted. As is, i can split 14" and get the same thing,but it sure would of been nice to be able to do a whole side instead of being limited to 14"...... One option is if you get a drum load done at tannery,then you can get what ever thickness you want. But you will need to buy alot of leather if you go that route esp.with all the colours. 60 years ago we could order a drum load of what we wanted,but times Have changed to way back then.... All you can do is check with all the suppliers, and see if off chance someone has a job lot of english bridle to sell..... There is a supplier that i have contacted that gets a lot of leathers form europe. I am waiting to hear back from them to see what they can come up with. I use a lot of 3-5 oz in cases i make up, and always looking to find. Would not be wickett but if english bridle...... also, what kind of footage are you after? A bundle? 1000 feet? or a hide of each colour?

There are a few ways to go about. A) depends on how many are many? To do belts in large (Large) quantity you could use a beam press,(clicker bed usually not big enough to lay die out on table and do one press ) Then you would need to have dies made up for each width and size you are making. Then it would be a matter of laying the hide on the beam press putting dies on, push a button, and instant belt with all the holes/slots done,then just the finishing aspect left. Lots of outlay of money to get started. B ) you can get machine strap cutters that can cut as many strips from hide you want. Biggest time is setting up the machine to the size you want. But if you are doing all one width then you don't have to bother with to often. Once hide is cut into strips, you punch holes where you want. I have a gang punch that i use, which centers the leather and then punches all the holes at once with a push of a foot lever. So depending what size holes and how many holes i want to punch . Use the dies i have and it takes two seconds per belt. C) A simple way, depending on leather you are using, Get a Good Plough gauge ( I prefer over draw gauge) Cut the straight edge along back,set gauge to width you want and start cutting. Once you have all the strips from hide, you start making the sizes you are after. Use hand tools to punch slots and holes needed... It all depends on how many,what type of leather and what is your profit margin per belt.... Belts are pretty standard for sizing, so once you know what size you want, you put holes in same place on each belt. Usually they have 5 holes the center hole is used as the size you are after and then there are two holes on either side of that hole. Ie) a 32 belt would have a center hole at the 32" mark,with two holes above and two holes below that point. Finishing again,depending quantity and type of belt you are making. The edges will need to be rounded and then dyed,polished to finish the edge. If you are doing a stamp belt,you can get dies, premade or made to order ( yes, the purists will cringe) once the leather is cased you run the blank through the machine and you get a imprint on leather. Then the finishing part needs to happen... The other way, is to carve and stamp the belt blanks out by hand. (time consuming if you have a few hundred to make up.... )

Pretty much all my machines are leather belt driven. Biggest concern is the stretching that happens in first little while of use. I do not think staining would change how they operate. Always have to adjust them once have been in use, but then they get to a place it becomes no worries.

Will these work on ferdnand bull stitcher?

The handle rings do go through a rod. They are a screw pin type. So instead of being a solid ring the one spot is threaded so you take the pin out slip through hole and reinsert pin. I use locktight on threads to hold in place . I prefer solid rings but as long as the pins stay in place there should never be a issue. As well, sometimes you can not make solid rings work with designs....... Some rings use a watch pin sort of. so instead of being threaded there is a spring loaded pin that you push in, place pin where it is suppose to go and then release. Those do work, but i prefer the threaded types of pins. if using the screw pin,you do see the screwdriver slot (usually phillips) where as the "watch pin type" both sides of the d ring are finished and look solid.

Just finished up a matching one in Black Pebble leather,Nickle Hardware. The second one was Much faster,now that have a design made up.....

i think, if you remove all the circles in your head you will see that the outline left is the leather. The zipper will start and finish where the little clear circles are sitting. If that helps make a clearer veiw for you. The circles are there to get the placement of corners and zipper placement......

Just finished designing and making up a chef's knife roll case.

My guess is post machine on both bags. But...On the tan bag, depending what the back looks like (If it is same as front,the cylinder would not be able to stitch front and back. If only the front is that type seam, then a cylinder would be used to stitch the front first to get that look,then the back attached after. One of my machines has a 3 foot post, so i can easily sew hat boxes,golf bags or anything like first bag as well. I use several different machines during the building process so depending how i build it depends which machine i use.

Depends on the case, But i make a lot of cases with it for linings.... I have used red, yellow,blue,purple colours. Makes the inside "fun" and will last forever and easy to clean with damp cloth... and No, it is not Too stiff to use as lining, in my opinion....

My experience, I picked up a clicker that was wired for 550 volt for the motor. I was in a place that had three phase 220. I picked up a inverter from out vancouver way, had it wired up to kick the voltage up to the needed 550. worked like a dream. Moved it to single phase 220 place and no longer could use that set up. I pulled the motor out of clicker, picked up a 220 single phase motor and installed into clicker. On mine, the 550 volt was just for the motor. inside there was a Transformer that actually took the power down to 110 volt. The only thing that was 550 was the motor, the rest of the controls, switches,etc were 110. So it runs perfect now on 220 single phase. So yours Might be something similar to that. and you might get away with just swapping out the motor.....

Good question on hours.... If i have a design all ready made up and is one that have made in past ,I can make up a case in 5-6 hour depending how intricate it is.More things can take 10-15 hour to make up if lots of pockets etc. Someone sent me a picture of a briefcase and asked me if i could make up something like it. So to make up from scratch takes a lot longer to make as i go. This one, had lots of other stuff going on with life so there were a lot of off and on times and never really took a look at time, more just to get it done. Someone once sent me a picture of one from the 1930's and asked if i could make up. That one was about 50 hours of time to make up. But if i had to guess i would say took about 30/35 hours to make up .

Thanks, Been using them for parts for about 40 years... They have not had those barrel feet for about 8 years,nor any other supplier that i have used. So only way to get was get 6 feet of solid brass stock, metal working tools and make up. In one way, a good thing because before there was only one size fits all. This way, i can make them to whatever the case is i am making up.

Thank you ! Here are a couple more pictures as asked... The brass feet on edge, no one is making anymore so i turned them myself out of solid stock.

I have a #6, It still does a Beautiful stitch. I also had a #9 at one point because the shuttle nose of #6 sometimes gets in the way stitching but ended up selling that because even though had basic design of the pearson it could not do as nice as stitch as. Also hearing the clickity clack of everything messing as the machine is stitching makes a wonderful sound to listen to.

Thank you, Will get a few more pictures... And, I lay the hide out and start designing/cutting/sewing/building as i go...

Just finished off this week. 5/6 english bridle , solid brass hardware. Just have to stamp initials before sending off...