DavidL

A rumour I hear are cops aren't allowed to have a university degree or higher. This seems like backwards thinking to me. Easier to control I guess. Most people I find doing part time have no clue other than the repetitive task they need to do. I asked the border service agency agent which company I should look out for so I don't have to deal with going to the headquarters every time I get a parcel to get the handling charges eliminated. She shrugged her shoulders and said she doesn't know even though all day every day thats what she does . All I know is UPS shipping to Canada the fees are ridiculous and Fedex and Purolator are equally as bad. USPS seems like the only option to get shipped into Canada. I ordered 3 packages at the same time using UPS and got hit 3 times for 50 dollars per parcel. On the fourth delivery the driver told me that its just a scam the company pulls to get more cash and that I could get the paperwork done myself. If only the other drivers would have informed me I wouldn't have spent 100 dollars on nothing. Of course I didn't do my research - you live and learn.

i know very little about sewing machines what is compound feed? Il try to do that dirt clod, I wouldn't know how to pick a proper machine and would be just guessing. Are there any machines in particular that are widely available vintage machines. I've seen some singers for leather go for around 150-200 unsure if they will do leathers that are 7.5mm. What I'm looking for- The needle doesn't need to be shaped like an awl but does need to work on 7.5mm leathers or thicker working condition hand operated between 100-200 dollars vintage is better Are there any machines off the top of your head that fit the bill?

Do you mind taking a picture of the jig so I can use it for a reference to show the woodworker. These dowels are what size and available at hardware stores? The last sentence does that mean to drill a hole for the cap without a dowel? I also appreciate that you took time to make the jig. Thank you.

Th Something like an old singer that doesn't use electricity. By heavy duty it can punch out up to 1cm of leather. Just by looking at the old machines I can't tell if it will work.

very nice project. What brand of acrylic? How is it holding up? I will try that. thanks

Melted beeswax with turmeric or with the syrup. Interesting to see if it will work .

Paid per piece to the worker, meaning the worker would get 15 cents a shirt or whatever the factory would pay him and a wage below minimum ($5 for example). That way there is an incentive for the worker to not slack off so they can get paid for their skill not by base pay. The very same way a waitress gets paid with tips and base wage of $5. the size of a regular sized cap, perhaps a little larger say 1.2cm diameter and 4mm tall. I won't be doing it with male or female ends just 2 caps that are flat on the bottom w/ two holes and a small dowel connecting them. So breakage should be few if not none I would imagine. I was throwing out ideas that could be done instead of exotic wood plugs. I had the impression from most people on this thread that it couldn't be done at my price point so a cheaper alternative was through 3d printer. But I am not decided yet on what I would go through with. I want to make a fair product thats not 200 to 300 dollars. So if I can get one set made for 4-5 dollars including labour,material and shipping the price won't be 120 dollars for a 3 pocket card wallet, something in the 59-79 dollar range for a 3 pocket card holder(in the middle of high end and low end). 4-5 dollars for a plug is still not high end but is sure a lot better than a 20 cent rivet. At that price it is high quality but not in the ball park of silver, gold or precious material. This product won't be low end but somewhere in the middle of high end looks and quality with a reasonable price thats slightly higher than what they would pay for a regular wallet from the store. I also want a product that will stand out from the rest but not command a price way over price because of personal choice,. If the plugs were made at 10-12 dollars a piece which would need 4 plugs for a wallet = 40 dollars plus leather costs and supplies and my time, it wouldn't be worth it in the end to both reach my price point and make a profit. So a lower price is what I'm looking for in the plugs by finding a easy manufacturing process to lower the cost. I just haven't responded to some people because I didn't want to get into an argument, otherwise I had nothing to say. I took on the advice of the members so that the idea can be established further. I've went through the process which was first chicago screws, which was not recommended by members because it would take too much work to get those done. So i resorted to male/female ends (one end is a solid rectangle and the other a rectangle hole). Then tree reaper sent in a response which I thought could work which was the two ends with a dowel through the middle which is the least labour intensive. gluing the two wooden pieces together would be the best way but to get them glue together and act like a wooden cap plug to secure two leather pieces together like a jiffy rivet I don't see how that will work without one plug having a secondary cylinder cut out so it can fit in the smaller hole of the leather. I don't think I will go out and try this because I don't have the a whittling knife, a bandsaw and bass wood to try to get the original idea of a cap w/ female and male ends. It may take 2 months before I'm able to get the skill to make a cap and cost of material. A skilled worker would be able to make one plug in 30 minutes or less(taking time to plan it out) the way tree reaper responded. Each would take 2 -3 minutes, however I can not be certain until it is tested by the worker. Through all of the post I came up with the decision of the plug below. The process will be a 1 cm diameter square cut out of a larger material thats a few feet long. It will be rounded so it is shaped like a cylinder. Then the worker will run the top on a belt sander to establish the rounded shape and wittle the top of the cylinder till it resembles a cap w/ natural markings and finally measure and cut off below the cap to get a flat bottom. Holes will be drilled on the bottom so a dowel can be inserted.

I have a vague idea of the skill it takes to make a cap every time. For those who are skilled at wood working is this not a beginner-intermediate task (with use of power tools?). In terms of leather working skill, making a bifold wallet nicely is the equivalent to making a wood cap? The issue I have with having the caps made for say 4 dollars a set is that the price will have to be high and I'm unsure if the buyers are willing to spend that type of money. Upside is the screws will come out better as they will be entirely hand made and is a selling point. A normal card wallet with metal rivets and stitching will be 35+ dollars retail. To justify using higher quality goods the price would have to rise to 70+ since the cost would be 20 dollars for 4 screws. If I'm able to sell at 300 dollars a wallet then the cost can be justifiable. That will be a task because my company at that point will have to be social proof and established.

yes, thank you sona I am aware its not real wood, however for a small item it is not a bad compromise. Surely it will be on par or above regular wooden screws made in china. I also hope I will find the right person that will do this that will have proper power tools and hand tools already. The type of pay is called piece work. Made in Usa clothing the workers if they are paid by piece work would be 15 cents a shirt. For the pay for woodworkers In Canada is 17 dollars and hour and can be upwards of 40 (I believe the average is 20-30). It can probably get up to 100 for specialized wood working. Certain painters in the downtown area of my city make 100 per hour painting houses. Crazy right?

Acrylic paint on regular leather works well and last, does pre dyed leather accept acrylic paint (pre dyed from manufacturer). Bridle leather also appears to be resistant to stains, how does acrylics hold up? If both questions above answer no, would hand dyed leather by me plus acrylic on top of the dye would work?

I'll have to look for an open minded woodworker. Worst case scenario I pay for 10 screws to be tested and they get shipped to me and can't hold up. I would have spent 30 bucks plus material. Wood printing is still a option and I could also find someone with the proper programmable automated machinery to get it cut out of exotic wood. Thanks for the replies.

Regular contact cement is what he's using. It can be wiped off easily without sticking to your fingers.

I have limited knowledge of cnc machines the only thing I know about it is that it is computer programmed( How it cuts, if the wood will burn, how clean the cut will be I do not know). I would assume some one with knowledge of a cnc can input the design of a screw cap into the computer free of charge if I was to make a order of 100 screws. Although I do not know if it can be done all in one step or if multiple steps are needed (flipping). I also have to look at other programmable machines that can make these caps. The work would be commisioned so the cnc will not be bought by me so maintance and other expenses are not on my behalf. I could also go the other way and buy a 3d printing machine and print w/ wood filaments and the result would be a wooden cap set in 3 minutes without the workers cost and I could widdle the cap. At that point I would have to pay a fee to get someone to program that into my machine for 30-40 dollars or learn to do it myself. The end product is not as nice but is cost effective for a thousand screws to pay for the machine. After that the screws will cost 20 cents a set. Im offering to pay 150 dollars for 3.5 to 8 hours ($19-30 an hour) of work and the time for them to figure out the process which may be 1-2 hours. 300 dollars (labour) for 100 caps + cost of wood ($75) 375 is too high of an expense regular caps are 20 dollars. Most here charge 15 dollars an hour leather tooling for their work Only reason I am paying 19-30 dollars an hour is because it requires a lot of skill and precision and is a custom order.

On hardwoods or even bass wood the rounded portion of not a chicago screw, a regular domed cap should take 30 seconds? The finish product will not have perfectly smoove lines. A more natural shaved look is what im going for. Correct me if im wrong would the cap take more than 30 seconds for something as simple as a rounded edge once the shape is already established. Lets say the cnc machine was to cut the male end, level the bottom and shape the cap leaving a bit of excess to work with. Then the worker will widdle the top to get the finish im looking for. Then the pay would be 25 cents because the time it would take to make a set without cnc machining is less by 6-8 times. Although if it was done by hand it would be better quality. If the price was 3 dollars for a set and machinery could be used to make the male and female end and a dremel or lathe to shape the cap and then wittled that is roughly 100 an hour for 30. At $1.5 it is still reasonable at 45 dollars an hour for 30sets. 8 dollars to make the equivalent of the item i was inquiring about would be making a card case that was one piece of leather folded over once and saddle stitched a 5 spi, no edge finishing, the stitches wouldnt have to be perfect. I could have my time down if I used a plastic stencil and it would take 5 minutes to get one done at the slowest. I was offering my price for 100 pieces. At 100 pieces for 8 dollars is 800 dollars. The time it would take for 100 to be done is 500 minutes which is 8 hours. 800/8 = 100 dollars an hour. In real time it may take more than 500 minutes for breaks and human error. Still it is 800 dollars for 1 hard days work or 2-4 light days. If the item im selling that has the wooden screws on it sells well then every month a new order will come in. That is best case scenario and its well worth the risk and If i was a woodworker that had the proper skill to do this well I would jump at the chance.

There are always steps between the finish to the end. I did not state them so that is my fault. I will be using them for production work not personal use so they will have to be product tested. I can only imagine this since I havent done any wood working, in my mind a simple rounded cap with a square post wont be that much of a challenge to an expert wood worker thats put his years in. The look I am going for is a wavy natural top that a wood worker widdles with a knife. It has opportunities to work around errors since no two will look the same. Issues may be that the ends cant match up properly, which may take some time to solve. That would require me to pick a person that has some type of experience in making these sort of thing and has woodworking knowledge and widdled before. Much like some one might come to me to make briefcases and I would have to spend 5 hours to get the technique down, the other person could contact someone who has knowledge and not pay me for the 5 hours of tinkering around. The way I came up with this scheme was that I use to be in school for graphic design and this was the way a designer would get a contract. The first order will be a test batch of 10 sets of the item (all different posts) to test its durability and he will be paid a small amount. I will also pay for the wood which would be working with. After the decision of which style will work the best the wood for the item will be sent out and a deal will be made with a signed agreement.

I think paying per part is a good way for the worker to get paid and for me aswell. If I was to pay for the hour I may get cheated because the worker decides to take unnecessary breaks and what not. For a hour straight of work a worker can turn out 30-40 sets for 40-50+ an hour depending on how fast he/she can make them. For the caps im trying to visualize it. Do they look like the one down below and on the other cap there is a hole to fit the base/rod. If the base just sits flush with the other end wont they come apart after some use? Also I never used a snap/ jiffey rivet other than a plain copper rivet so I have no reference. Shouldn't the part that extends from the cap be a 2-3mm longer than the thickness of the leather so that the other end has something to grab on to. Less stiff leather maybe can get away with base/rods that are half of the leather thickness?

That some great information. The link won't open correctly. Are these the screwcaps you are referring to? If one end has a male end and another a female end and fits tight with contact cement it could hold up. Mainly I want them to look unique w/ higher end exotic wood. How hard would it be for a wood worker to make a rounded cap with a simple rectangle for the male end and a female end on the other cap. Even if they were wittled and cut out with a chisel and sanded to form the cap that would work. I would pay 1.50 dollars per set for the labour alone plus material provided.

Last picture on the right side of the handle you can see where it overlaps. You could consider not creating a seamless handle and it could turn out just as good. There are two ways you can do it. when you make the pattern allow extra length so the bottom two leather straps overlap. from there you can- skive the top of one strap and the bottom of the other strap so the thickness of the overlapping area is consistent. or where they overlap cut straight down from the middle. Never done it before but that is how I would do it. It should be thin at the edges.

I don't think a wood cap rivet can take the pressure of a setter, I could be wrong. If your talking about a chicago screw without the threads that could work.

While we are on the subject how do you get punch holes on belts and get them parallel?

whats the shipping estimate to get it to Ontario Canada by USPS?

Would any one have any reason to think that it would be too costly for a woodworker to make a chicago screw out of wood or a company specializing in hardware like rivets and screws to make wooden chicago screws? Are the metal chicago screws made by a machine that cuts out the threads or are they made from a mold? I will contact some companies, but always like to run things through this forum first. The Chicago screw is used mainly as aesthetics and would be placed on the corner of a leather wallet, not on a bag gusset or any highly stress areas. If it isn't possible I will try to add wooden caps to the chicago screws. Thank you.

Im looking for some chicago screws made out of wood w/ threads or w/ out threads. I haven't seen any available on the web. Id like to buy it pre made rather than a custom order from a woodworker.

How I remember doing the corners with the overstitch is to manually do the last 2 or 3 stitches by pressing down the same way as a pricking iron.

You won't be able to use garment leather to tool with, brain tanned leather I'm not familiar with. If it is stretchy like garment it won't take any tooling. Go for some cheap tandy vegtan leather as a "sketchpad" for your tooling before you get some nicer hermann oak or wicket craig.