gunfighter48

I use the Reallemon in the bottle. John

After you dye with black be sure to rub it real well with a cloth, old towel or T shirts work good, then I use Fiebings Super or Satin Sheen. After dyeing I let it dry for 24 hours before rubbing it down and applying the Super or Satin Sheen. This works good on the gun belts and holsters that I make. Haven't had any complaints about rub off so far. Been doing it this was for 4 years. John

I have been using lemon juice and water and it cleans the leather very well. But I don't know if it cleans up waxes and such. I don't measure the lemon juice just a couple of cap fulls to 6 oz of water. The manager at my local Tandy store recommended this, he is a long time leather worker and that's all he uses. So far it's worked good for me. John

Hi Bonnie, I have a model 5 also. I have adjusted the tension and the feed dog height and it's helped quite a bit. It will still leave marks but for my work it's not a problem. I bought a spare feed dog and one of these days when I get time I'm going to file them down a bit (about 1/16 inch) and round off the edges just a bit. You don't want to really round them off, just break the sharp edge with a file. I tried adjusting the feed dogs all the way down but the bobbin assembly starts hitting them. So if I grind them down a little I should be able to adjust the height some without it hitting the bobbin assembly. The other thing I found was to make sure the leather I'm sewing is dry, it leaves less of a mark on dry leather. Just a side note, I just bought a Consew walking foot portable machine a few weeks ago. It also has feed dogs and it leaves marks on the bottom of the leather that I'm sewing. I haven't tried adjusting the feed dogs on it yet. I am new to leather machines at this point but it looks like if it has feed dogs it will leave marks. John

Hi Kani, I have the issue with the dollar bill holder. I can scan it into PDF format and email it to you. Send me your email address and I'll get it out to you tonight. John gunfighter48@comcast.net

I've been using Propel Fitness Water plastic bottles with the twist top nipple. They are great for the alcohol dyes and the twist top nipple allows you to dispense small amounts. Once the nipple is closed they are spill proof. The dyes don't stick to the plastic and wipe clean with a paper towel. Just be sure you remove the label from the bottle so you don't grab one thinking it's your drink bottle!!! Haven't done it yet but came close a couple of times! John

Great looking holster!! Your work just keeps getting better and better. Your going to make the big guys sit up and take notice. You have made some innovative designs that should be a big hit with gun owners. John

Thanks for the compliments guys. I tried it on tonight and it carries great. The mouth stays open for re holstering, even with quite a bit of pressure on my belt. Putting the front strap more forward than usual helps pull the front towards the belt causing the butt of the gun to be held closer to the body. Makes for better concealment and the angle is just right, doesn't tip the gun to far forward. I dislike extreme forward tilt, it always feels like the gun is going to fall out of the holster when you bend forward. The 5 oz body and 6 oz reinforcement is just right, doesn't put too much bulk inside the waist band. The customer is coming over Sunday or Monday to pick it up. I think it will work just fine for him. John

Hi PapaWolf, Is 8oz the total thickness or will it be 2 layers or more of 8 oz leather. For a total of 8 oz or less there are a bunch of good machines for under $800 new that would meet your needs. If it's for 2 or more layers of 8-9 oz then the price will start pushing $1000-2000. A walking food machine is preferable but I have a bottom feed (uses feed dogs like a home machine) machine that will go 4 8oz layers like it's going thru butter. It costs $900 new with a table and servo motor. The servo motors can be slowed way down to make stitching more controllable, very nice when you are new. I just bought a Consew CP206R portable walking foot machine to use on light weight projects. It will sew up to just short of 1/4 inch of leather but it's much happier with 10oz or less leather. I'm using it for wallets, book covers, gun bags, etc. There are a lot of used machines out on the market but unless I can personally inspect the machine I stay away from used machines. The exception being machines offered for sale here on Leatherworker,net. The folks here won't steer you wrong!!!! John

Check with Ferdco, the model 5 uses the same presser feet and accessories as the Ferdco 440R Baby Bull machine. Neel's Saddlery may also have a presser foot to do the welting and his prices are very good. http://www.ferdco.com/ http://www.neelsaddlery.com/ John

One of the guys that works for my company wanted a IWB holster for his Ruger P95DC. There wasn't a lot of detail on the gun to do much wet molding, so other than the ejection port, trigger guard and sight track, there's not much to see. I used 5 oz veg tanned leather for the body with a 6 oz piece for reinforcement around the mouth and the sweat shield. I am trying to keep the bulk down since this double stack pistol is fairly wide. Used a 500 watt heat gun to speed drying after wet molding, it also has the added effect of makiing the leather more rigid. Just need to be real careful not to get it too hot!!!!!!! The stitching is done with my Model 5 machine with a modified presser foot so I could get it tight to the body of the gun, worked good. It's tight enough so you can shake the holster upside down and the gun won't come out. Once it's broken in it should be just right. This is the first holster that I've made in two years and I'm a little rusty but I think he'll like it. The reddish marks in the pictures is a reflection from my photo lights. Even with a polarizing filter on my camera I couldn't get rid of it entirely. I love the digital camera that I have (Canon S3IS), it's great to be able to see your pictures instantly and make corrections as needed. Much easier than my 30 years with film!!!!!!!! John

Well I finally got done with my daughter's Bible cover. This is the first book cover that I've ever made, so my daughter is my test subject!! I'm better with holsters and belts!!!!! I need to modify the leather presser foot on my new Consew walking foot machine so I can get my edge guide closer to the needle. My stitching wandered out of the stitching groove in a couple of places but I think the daughter will like it. The inside is lined with pig skin suede about the same tan color. Had fun and learned a few things I will do differently on the next one. John

mliebs8, a clean desk is the sign of a SICK mind. You must be psychotic!!!!! LOL Mine is fairly clean until I start a project then look out!! John

I was at my local Tandy store today and they still carry kangaroo lace. A 25 yard spool is about $50 (depending on size). Didn't notice if it was round. John

I have bought from ebay a couple of dozen times and never had a problem until my last purchase. I bought a Consew portable sewing machine form Continental Sewing in Kentucky. They didn't send any email confirmation that the order was bought and paid for and the ups tracking number. It took 3 phone calls to get that information. When I got the order it was the head only, there was no case, foot controller, accessories. So it took three more phone calls to get those items shipped and to get the tracking number for that shipment. In all it took over three weeks to get everything that I should have got in 5 days. I was told a number of times that someone would call me back with shipping info and tracking number, no one ever did. To be fair, they did finally ship everything and didn't charge me for shipping the case, foot controller, accessories. I only order from dealers on Ebay, have not ordered from individuals. This is the only dealer that I have ever had a problem with and I won't order from them again. I ordered from them becuase of their good customer ratings, makes you wonder how accurate those ratings are. John

Here's a couple of sites where you can get more info on the Highlead machines. Don't have any knowledge of this brand other than it looks like a knockoff of other brands I have seen advertised. I have a Consew portable machine that's sold under 6 or more names, seems to be pretty common with sewing machines. http://westchestersewing.com/highlead/ http://www.highlead.co.uk/ John

I used the leather foot the other night and it works great, no marks on the leather. Just what I was looking for, wished they were not so expensive. But I'll keep looking around and see if I can find a cheaper source. Machine works great. I ordered Sailrites DVDs for the LS1 and Advanced Maintenance. Well worth the $20 each, especially the Advanced Maintenance since is shows you how to basically rebuild the machine. John

Nope, two different animals. Prairie dogs can carry bubonic plague. so you have to be careful of their hides. The last I read on some varmit hunting forums, some very large colonies in either New Mexico or Arizona were being wiped out by the plague. If I remember correctly 1 or 2 people had contracted the plague from handling the dead ones and had died(it's rare but does happen). It only seems to be a problem when they over populate a given area but they do carry fleas all the time. (yaklady, looks like we had the same thought at the same time!!!) John

Well I finally got my new walking foot machine, it's a Consew CP206R portable. I wanted a machine to do notebook and bible covers, wallets, and other small items. It was a pain to setup my big stitcher for light weight items. This machine is sold under 8 or more names and is identical to the Sailrite LS1. Sailrites accessories and attachments work just fine on it. Finally got it all together this week and it sews great. I want to give a special thanks to Ed Santoro for the advice to get the Sailrite Monster Balance Wheel II. Much more power with the 7 lb flywheel!!!!!! I also want to thank Dave from Artisan for his advice on 135X16 leather needles, they work great in the machine. So now I have NO excuse for not getting my daughters bible cover done, guess I better get my behind busy and get it finished!!

My mother taught me how to sew a straight stitch on an old Singer treadel machine when I was 7 years old. I never sewed on a machine again until last Sept. when I got my cylinder bed sewing machine. The key is to sit down and practice, a lot. I spent 6 weeks just sewing scrap leather, setting up different threads, different thicknesses of leather, learn to set the tension (that can drive you nuts till you get it down), screwup the settings and then get them set correctly. Search the internet for sewing info, there is a huge amount of info on sewing, mostly on fabrics but it is all useful for a beginner. The techiques are the same just different material. Read all the posts on this site and you'll get several lifetimes of info for free!!! Sewing isn't rocket sience, just takes practice. You'll do just fine!!!!!!!! John

A simpler and removeable way to mount these lights (if there is no way to use the magnetic strip) is to use double sided foam tape or mounting squares. Just make sure you degrease the area you want the tape to sick to. I have 2 of the led lights on my two machines and they are great, no heat and they don't get in the way. No matter what way I positioned my gooseneck lamp it always seemed to be in the way. The lights also come with some plastic squares to mount the wire out of the way on your machine. I found that the tape on the plastic squares didn't stick all that well: so bought some double sided foam squares at my local hardware store, problem solved. You can also get the foam tape at hobby shops, it is used to mount electronics in radio controlled model planes and cars. John

My wife's got you beat Roo, give my wife 3 weeks and it's guaranteed to be dead and black in the pot. I've never seen anyone that can kill a plant quicker than my wife. I think some one must have put a curse on her!!!!!!! John

I just bought a Osborne #70 knife from ST Leather today for $29.95. The have some great prices on tools and leather. www.stleather.com John

If you have a farm/feed store anywhere around you get some bag balm. The last time I had to get some I found it at a Walgreen's pharmacy. It will make your skin tougher in no time. Back in the day when I worked in sawmills during the winter my hands would crack from the cold, bag balm always heeled them right up. Forgot all about it, my grandmother recommended it to me years ago, works great but smells bad. John

Six guns are always carried with the hammer down on an empty chamber. (New Ruger revolvers have a transfer bar safety that can be carried safely with the hammer down on a loaded chamber.) Since revolvers are either single or double action you either have to cock the hammer or pull the trigger, 8 lbs to 12 lbs trigger pull for double action revolvers, to make the gun fire. So western holsters usually have more trigger showing than you will find with normal self defense holsters. The key to safety with any firearm is the gray matter between your ears. Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot. John