electrathon

A white candle.

I use kangaroo lace, lubed with paraffin. About 6'-7' length.

It is for sewing soles on shoes. Similar to a Landis 12. Unless you are going to make shoes you probably do not want it.

Great idea Art

WAY to dry. Submerge till saturated, then let sit out for a few hours. Or, use a spray bottle, saturate the top, wait 10 minutes, carve.

No good answer here. You will find that this happens sometimes even from order to order, determining who the particular supplier is. I have experienced this same issue. The issue is the snap is flatter than the setter cap, so the snap top stretches when pressed in.

I read your topic and without reading anything thought kangaroo first, goat second. I would practice first. I would find something on sale till I got the fit and sizing right, then step up and buy good leather as the final product. It will probably take a few tries to get things perfect.

Look up Ed LaBarre, he lives down there and you will not find a more talented person or a better teacher.

Your problem is that the impressions are not "crisp". Antique is supposed to get stuck in the sharp lines. Your tool is making soft lines, so it just wipes off. Antique is like the dirt under your fingernails, it gets stuck down in the cracks, not all over your hands.

Good, but not as good as the solvent based. Smells better.

The shape of the cap in your setting tool is not exactly the same shape as the rivet cap. Press it into the tool and the rivet tries to take the shape it is pressed into.

Quality contact works just fine if you put it on one side, assemble wet, wait for it to dry (could be an hour or so).

What chief said. You can also go back and lift more afterwards too.

I have a few of these. They come in both a clamp version and a table top version. They are great to move all around when you are trying to see as you are tooling.

I just realized you are not in the US, I suspect they are easier to find over there than here, but not sure how that would relate to the dollar value/conversion to here.

I would place that as being about a $300 machine if it was all there (including the missing treadle base), it is not worn out and it sews well. It will cost you far more money for the parts to restore it that it will sell for done. Worse if you count your labor. I recommend you keep it as a parts machine. I recently sold my 29K4 for $400 and it was far from a mad dash for it when I listed it. It was in nice shape.

My opinion is the Leather Wranglers is the best, the Barry King is the best for the money.

that sounds like Barge. More specifically, the old formulation of Barge before they made it more safe.

I would think epoxy would fail fast. It is usually not good with flexing. You need high end contact cement. Try Masters. Where are you located? In the US?

Renia glue in the green can. Cobblers glue soles to shoes and it doesn't let go. You have discovered the main issue of using home improvement store glue instead of leather glue. Using the proper glue will not only hold, it will last.

To be clear, I do not now, nor have I ever been a Tandy employee. If there was a guild in the Portland OR area I likely would be running it. I teach at the store because I enjoy doing and teaching leather. We hold the leather workers support group meeting at Tandy the first Saturday of every month. Anyone that comes in with a question we try to answer it. It is my understanding that Tandy does not hire employees because of their leather knowledge, they are hired as a person that works in a retail store. The line that people are told when questions are asked is usually that they are there to sell the products that are used for leather, not there to do the leatherwork. Admittedly after they are there for awhile many employees do pick up a few answers, but answering questions is not what they are hired to do. Restocking shelves and scanning part numbers is.

I personally teach at Tandy regularly. I know a number of others that do to. I have never been told to teach "company curriculum". To the best of my knowledge there is no such thing. I have taught tooling, hand sewing, lacing, purse construction, leather Christmas bells, leather Christmas stockings, holster construction and more that I can't remember right now. I have sponcered and brought to town out of state teachers that have taught advanced leather. Never once has there been any input whatsoever as what to teach or how to teach it. The only thing we have been told is that we were to encourage the use of Tandy tools, not to sell tools or leather from non-Tandy companies.

There is an endless supply of lead printing type available in different fonts and size. It works far better and is way more consistent than any leather stamps on the market. The only real difference is you need to press it in instead of hammering it in. Another big difference is that it is cheaper. Look up letterpress on Craig's list or eBay.

Yes, you can rub virtually all of it back off if you try to. A soft cloth like t-shirt material works well to leave a little behind. The different colors are used just like different dyes. You can highlight from dark brown to black.

There should be no penetration. The resist is a sealer. The antique should only stay in the cuts and tooling hash marks.