Mark842

Very nice looking. My only critique is what the others have touched on. In the future you may consider using a bell like Weavers #115 sleigh bells. They come with a hole in the bottom instead of that tab that sticks out. This allows you to punch a hole in the leather for a tubular rivet. Install the rivet from the bottom up through the leather and then into the bell. You can then insert the splash stamp to set the rivet into the bell and set the rivet. You will have a nice smooth rivet head on the back. You can leave it as is or line it and it will be smooth. The bells will be firmly attached and the ring great. Been making them for years this way.

Are you wanting to tool or stamp a design on this purse? If not I would not use vegtan leather. I would use something like Horween Chromexcel is similar Chrome oil tanned pre dyed leather. The color will be sealed for you and will not bleed and it will stand up to weather. Vegtan can be dyed and sealed and made to last but it is a process that has many solutions with varying examples of success as you will find out when the responses start rolling in. Everyone has a favorite method and formula, some work, some not really.

Haha..good old spell check! Maybe you will get more traffic this way. I wanted to see what kind of bonus I would get....

I use liquitex brand varnish. It comes in matte and gloss. It is an acrylic and it is flexible. It will last and it will not crack when the leather is bent or folded. It goes on super easy with a brush, sponge, rag or airbrush. Anything you put it over will no longer bleed...except the cuts on your fingers...

I have the Cobra Ak 20. Both turn together.

Wayfair Vs South Dakota. Google it. On June 21, 2018, The United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in South Dakota v. Wayfair that states can mandate that businesses without a physical presence in a state with more than 200 transactions or $100,000 in-state sales collect and remit sales taxes on transactions in the state. Since that ruling 43 states have passed legislation and the rest are in the process. Your bigger venues like eBay , Amazon, and Etsy are collecting for the states in question whether you are above that threshold or not if you're registered as a business seller. If you are not registered as a business seller and you do over $20k and over 200 transactions in a calendar year, you will be either registered as a business seller the following year or you will not be allowed to sell. If you are selling on your own website it is kind of the wild west right now. Nobody really knows what it going on if you are selling under $100k to the states collecting (which will be all of them this year). That is not $100K total from all states, that is to each state. That put us in the position this year where we are bigger enough to be notices by some states and not big enough by some. We have elected to now collect sales tax for all states and submit them as we have decided we don't want to find out in 5-10 years that we owe a massive back tax bill. California is currently trying to collect back taxes on Amazon sellers that have sold over $100K in past years and for some the back taxes are adding up to millions.

I don't know if we all are but I do.

I have the Cobra machine. A friend has the new Tandy machine. It seems like a good burnisher. Whether it will last as long only time will tell but it seems made well enough. As for using the Harbor Freight Buffer, I guess it might work if you want to try and burnish everything @ 3450 RPM. The Cobra and the Tandy burnishers are variable between 2000 and 3450rpm. Personally I never use mine anywhere near full speed or it will just leave burn marks on the leather.

Yep, never tried the process with a sewing machine but I have purchased quite a bit of packaging machinery from China in the past. As a general rule, anything that fits on one pallet and weighs 450KG or less plan on freight charges being around $750. As for the duty you paid...we can thank the current tariffs in place for raising them. What many don't know is the customs value you pay tax on consists of product cost, freight charges and port loading costs on the China side. Bottom line though is I would rather buy them local if someone here stateside would manufacture them. Bottom line is the process nickle and dimes you to death. Then you are faced with the fact that if there is an issue with what you purchased, you are on your own unless you are dealing with a company you do a lot of business with. In a situation like this with a one item purchase, should something go wrong and your machine doesn't work...you are S.O.L.. IMPO, on something like these sewing machines, for the $7-8 hundred more I'd rather buy from a dealer, let them deal with all the stress and paperwork and I get customer support and warranty.

Your machine is a great machine in the upholstery class. At 1/2" , KGG is correct, you are pushing its limit. That being said I would move up in needle and thread size. Pretty sure that machine will handle up to a size 24 needle. That will likely stop the needle deflection. One size doesn't fit all in leather sewing. I have 8 different machines and they all have a range for what they will do great. Looking at your pictures you can see where your stitch length shortens as your machine is struggling to feed the leather.

Yep, I think about the only thing you can do is what YinTx said. I would use Barge all purpose cement. Find a strong thin patch that won't hurt your foot. Be sure to follow the instructions with the Barge cement. if you do it will hold stronger than new.

I never done business with Techsew so I don't know how their customer service is . I have several Cobra machines and their service is top notch. There is actually a FB forum (Tips and Tricks with Cobra Class Leather Working Equipment) ran by two guru's that have the knowledge and contacts with the Leather Machine Co to keep you up and running. The very few problems I've had over the years, I went to that forum, put up a post describing the issue, and within minutes had help from one of the two guys running the page. Sometimes we sorted it out on FB and sometimes I called them and they talked me through the issue live. All times I was up in running in a short amount of time. Because of that forum and the custom service I've received directly from LMC, I'll always shop there first unless they don't have what I need.

Here is my safety disclaimer. I recommend adjusting it with help. If you are like me and safety is something other people worry about....I put a floor jack (make sure it is jacked up at least the amount you want to lower your stand) across the back of the bottom plate behind the pedals. Put a 2x4 on the jack to support the table and machine. I then loosened the two bolts and slowly dropped the jack height to the desired height. Unless you are a he-man I don't think it is possible to loosen the bolts, support the machine at the desired height and then tighten the bolts.

I've found the Schmetz needles made in China are 1/16" shorter, with a shorter scarf and for what is supposed to be the same size needle, the hole appears slightly smaller than the Schmetz needles from Germany. I stopped using them because of this. Seemed like every time I would ask a seller if their needles were from Germany or China they would say Germany, needles showed and said made in China. I became aware of this issue after I started fraying thread and occasionally missing stitches after getting some new needles. I switched to Groz-Beckart. This is for 794 system needles BTW...

I wonder if your bobbin is original. my singer 7 is as Constabulary shows. I assume you have already tried increasing the top thread tension. As a general rule you usually don't adjust the bobbin tension until you can't adjust from the top anymore.

The age old search for a quality rotary punch. I punch a ton of holes daily. Many are on straps so I purchased a Weaver table mount rotary punch a few years ago. It is a huge time saver but can really only be used on items you need the holes in the center of. For doing bag straps it is awesome and worth its high price. Unfortunately I also wind up punching a few hundred holes by hand daily also for items that need holes on the edges, not in the center. I used Tandy handheld rotary punches for years and they worked great. I would eventually wear out the brass anvil on them and would just by another for $10. Then Tandy's punch quality went to shit so I tried an Osborne. Same experience, they would worked great for a few years but then their quality went to shit and I started wearing them out in 2 months. My latest attempt was a Herm Sprenger Revolving punch. This was recommended to me by several people as the best they ever owned. Not impressed. It worked OK on veg tan and definitely takes less force to punch with because of it design. The cons unfortunately outweigh the single pro. The punch tips are not removable, can not be replaced. They are not sharp and will not punch holes completely on a 6 ounce chrome oil tanned leather. It will only punch about 90% of the hole and leave the inside of the hole dangling by the other 10%. This means after punching the few hundred holes I have to go back and individually pull out each punched piece. This leaves a crappy looking hole. I have tried to sharpen the punches but it is nearly impossible because you can't remove them so you can't get inside them. I did get one tip sharp enough to use after great effort with a Dremel. It held its edge for about 100 holes. I give this punch the big thumbs down. It was $55 and its junk. So now I'm back to using Tandy punches that I have to replace monthly. Anyone know of a punch that actually has an anvil that lasts, a decent frame, and punches that are replacable?

You are correct. I open the lining along the bottom of the jacket and then you can insert the arm of the machine in between. Not a big deal.

As the last responder stated 346 is a machine thread size and machine thread will not work as good for hand sewing as thread specifically made for it. That being said, To answer your question both bonded nylon and bonded polyester would look the same on the finished product. The difference between the two is that bonded nylon is stronger but not UV resistant. Bonded polyester is UV resistant. My preference is always bonded polyester as my product is an outdoor product that will see a lot of sun.

the needle guide keeps your thread inline with the long groove. If you grind it off your top thread may fray. try sewing without the thread going through it before grinding it off and see what happens.

Yep, You did well in all aspects except letting this get under your skin. I've been doing eBay since 2000. I've come to the conclusion that you will come across a wingnut like this every thousand customers. Many do exactly what this guy did with you. It's like they live for feedback. I leave feedback in bulks about once a month since eBay made it meaningless. When eBay decided sellers could not leave honest feedback for a buyer the entire feedback system became a waste of time. As far as eBay giving you the warning notice, don't sweat it, I've got dozens over the years. I've talked to CSR's on the phone that told me those are canned responses that go out automatically if someone reports a message whether there actually is a threat in there or not. My favorite dirtbag customer story...about two years ago sold a guy something, don't remember what it was. He said he never received it, tracking said he received it 3 days after he bought it, signed for at his address. Guy gets really pissed when eBay sides with me and tells him to go pound sand. Starts telling me how he is going to tell everyone about my bad business practices....blah, blah, blah.. I block him on eBay and don't respond to him at all. I also do business on Facebook under the same name so I looked him up on Facebook and blocked him from going on my biz page and posting. He apparently tried and became even more pissed. This is when he actually got around to real threats. Starting messaging me telling me how he was a bad ass biker and that him and his brothers were going to ride to Utah from Louisiana and kill me. So...while I figured this was all bravado and BS I decided I was done playing with this whack job. Figured I had his name and address, I would contact his local police and see if they wanted to talk to him about these threats. I did a google search on the guys name and address before I did and holy shit! The guy was on parole and was on the sex offender registry for rape and murder of a 14 year old girl in the 70's. Found the number for his local police, called and talked to them. They said they would investigate and that was all they would tell me. Looked up the local police blotter for his county later that week and found he had been arrested for a parole violation.

Thanks Tom!

Why am I not surprised. Seems like if I ask what time it is, all I get is ten people that want to tell me what day of the week it is or try to sell me bubblegum. Sorry I even asked.

Well then you should be able to answer my question. Why do I have to email you? Perhaps I like keeping my contact information private. Seems like every time I email anyone I have to deal with 6 months of spam, so no offense but if some one can't answer my question here I'll get it answered eventually locally.

Yes, it's the fluted piece but I see no need to email anyone unless they live within 5 miles of me. I'm not do business with someone I have to ship my equipment to, to have matching pieces made.

Yes, all my old Tandy dies fit it. I use Tandy snap dies for line 20, 24 and segma. The rest of my dies are weaver