Ken G

I own a Harbor Freight 12 ton shop press that I plan on eventually using to click out leather pieces. I have used it to install new wheel studs in the front rotors of my truck when I could not beat them in with a sledge hammer and it worked great. I looked at the Heritage press on Weaver's retail site and it was $440.00 and uses a "Pittsburgh Tool" bottle jack which is a Harbor Freight brand so you aren't gaining anything there. Depending on how you mount your cutting plates the Harbor Freight press does have a steel rod approximately 1" diameter by 3" long welded to the moving part of the frame which may need to be cut off. This could be done with an angle grinder. Depending on your skill level and available tools you could cut the legs off of the Harbor Freight press to make it a bench mounted press, at the minimum you would need a hacksaw, a drill, and some muscle.

Google "Dunlap Saw Set". It is a tool for setting the teeth of a hand saw not a leather punch.

How about something like a Plano 3600 utility box? I used them for fishing gear and they work for organizing all kinds of small stuff.

I know nothing about them but Bogle-Greenwell is still in Texas and still in business. The website has the current phone number, it looks like the area code has changed and the number you posted is now the fax number. http://bogle-greenwell.com/

You can also change the photo settings on your phone's camera to a smaller resolution such as 640 x 480, or something similar. It won't help your old photos but your new pictures will post.

Very nice. I've been thinking about making a couple of high ride holsters for myself and these would fit the bill. These are 2 of the 3 firearms that I need holsters.

They also bought the Puritan chain stitch machine at the same auction for around $100.00 Both showed up on Ebay within a couple weeks of the auction with list prices of $5000-$6000. I would have bought them both if I had somewhere to put them at the time. I did end up with a box of parts to some old machines with quite a few parts for the Puritan machine.

There is a huge difference between 7x4 needles and 135x7 needles. The 7x4 needles are almost 1" longer and the shank is quiet a bit thicker. You can get 7x4 needles in size 22 or 23 for 138 thread.

Try your method with a single pass of the saw, or even on a band saw. Might save you a lot of time with the same results. Any extra "fuzzies" could probably be removed on a belt sander.

Well son of a gun I didn't realise who Darren was. I was thinking the bobbins were about $3 each. The airmail shipping for my package was $13.00 for 12 of them and took about a week. They were lacking a thread hole but that is easily fixed with a little drill bit. 4

I got lucky a few years ago and stumbled across some new bobbins for my 42-5 on Ebay. They ended up being from Anne Bonnys Locker, a member here. Even with airmail shipping from Australia they were pretty reasonable, a lot less than $12.00 each. From the postmark I bought them in April of 2013 and it looks like ABL has not been on the forum for almost 2 years.

I think I used 5-6 oz on that part of the dip can holder. I was concerned about the moisture also so I sort of towel dried the leather before molding. If I continue to do it I may put a moisture trap for an air compressor in between the box and the pump, figure that can't hur With heavier leather you may need to help with some hand molding thru the membrane then let the press suck down for a minute or two to "set" the mold. The 1/32" membrane gives better definition with kydex but a 1/16" membrane may be more durable for leather with some hand work.

The duct tape was actually an attempt to patch a hole in the membrane. It worked for a short while. I think this was the first prototype dip can holder I made with the vacuum formed leather.

Yes I built a box type vacuum former a couple of years ago out of some scrap materials I had at the house. It uses a 12" x 12" membrane so the overall dimensions are slightly larger. The basic box was built of 2 x 4 scraps with plywood top and bottom. I drilled holes in the top on a 1" grid. I sealed most of it with some two part boat building epoxy that I had on hand. I still have some air leaks around the gasket on the lid frame but I leave the pump running so it does not create any problems. I have been meaning to build a couple more with a better design and larger membrane area but haven't found the time. I use a rebuilt Gast vacuum pump (model 1023-318Q-G274X) that I bought from a guy in Michigan who used to sell on ebay. I can't find him on there now but I do have his email address. Not sure if he still rebuilds them or not. It is a 1/2 hp pump which pulls about 10 cfm so it pulls down fast. The Harbor Freight pumps work fine but put them in the other room because I hear they blow out an oil mist from the exhaust port. I mostly use it for hybrid kydex IWB shells but I have also used it for molding some leather dip can holsters and a knife sheath.

I use a high temperature silicone membrane from McMaster-Carr. The item I ordered was 8632k51 which appears to have been discontinued. The new number with the closest description is 1460N31. It is 1/32" 40A durometer with a 500 degree max temperature rating. I use it to mold kydex shells for hybrid holsters and have used it to mold some leather also. I originally used a shop vac but get much better results with a rotary vane vacuum pump.