bladegrinder

Thanks LittleF! Thanks Gezzer! Thanks Hags, I guess I need to just try a practice piece and see if it's ok, if so great! if not...well, just find a work around.

That looks beautiful!

Thanks PastorBob, here's a picture of the bottom, it's partially closed from the vacuum pulling the bag down around it. I've been wearing it the last two days so it's showing some wear.

Thanks Hags, I'll get there, I've got a few personal guns to make holsters for and every time I look at this holster I see where I could have improved it so the next one should be better. one question I do have is, if I do tooling on the front and then vacuum form it, will the vacuum bag crush or flatten out any carving or stamping?

That's awesome!

This is my first pancake holster for a handgun. it's not perfect, I need to bring the stitching closer to the gun but it still has good retention and it's for me, I wore it today and it felt good. it's for a Ruger SR40. Thanks for looking!

I just stitched six knife sheaths. before starting I glued up the same thickness of leather as the sheaths and ran it thru to check for the stitch spacing I wanted. I also measure for back stitching so I know where things are going to start and I can bring the back stitch real close to the throat of the sheath in reverse then switch to forward and stitch up the whole sheath. I'm still new this also so I run my machine pretty slow right now, almost a crawl but it's working good for me till I get more experience down the road. I admittedly ruined a couple sheaths early on but I've made quite a few since then and a couple holsters and I'm getting better. Practice...practice...practice, and don't get too frustrated when you screw up!

I use Weldwood but I thin it down some with Xylene. so far it works great as a thinner, needs to be stirred in really good for a while and makes it much less stringy when getting it out of the can. of course it's thinned so in some applications I put a thin second coat on a few things just to be sure.

Congrats Hammerhead. I picked up a Cowboy 4500 from Toledo Industrial last year, my first sewing machine also. it sounds like your off to a good start viewing all the videos you can find and reading up on it. start by gluing up and stitching lots of test pieces, and always, always, look to see if your in forward or reverse before starting ha ha. once you get to know your new machine and it decides to play nice with you you'll love it!

Thanks Northmount, I didn't think about that. I'm going to run some practice pieces thru before I do anymore stitch turning on real work.

Thanks BigBore, that was a lesson learned! fortunately it was only about 1.5 inches before it happened and I was able to stop, pull the stitches and start over without leaving any bad trace of what happened... practice makes perfect. I'm dang sure better than when I first got this machine!

So there's probably an easy answer for this question but I'm not real experienced in running a sewing machine. I mostly make knife sheaths and a few holsters here and there. The problem I had today on two different sheaths is when I changed direction of the stitch line, I was going along then before changing direction brought the needle to dead bottom of the stitch, lifted the foot, turned the sheath 45 degrees, dropped the foot and started again. at that point I dropped a stitch. after doing this two different times, the next time I started bringing the needle up a little before lifting the foot and moving the piece 45 degrees and it didn't miss any more. so my question is, what is the proper location for the needle when lifting the foot to turn the work piece and change direction of the stitch line. Thanks for any help here!

Nice...I really like those!

Oops, sorry about that PastorBob, that was meant for you donohueleather, that's a nice looking holster!

That's a nice holster for a great gun PastorBob! I love my Sig 365X, I just made a holster for it too.

Those are some nice holsters!

The problem I had with the shield is it's a .40 and after turning pipe wrenches most of my life my wrist's are shot and that thing hurt during practice. I've got a full size Ruger SR40 that doesn't bother me but that shield was too snappy for me. this Sig's a 9 and it's a lot more pleasant practicing with.

Thanks Dwight, ironically this Sig is replacing my .40 Shield. the shield will stay in the shop with in reach though

That's a really nice looking rig.

Thanks everyone, machine stitched Pastor, Cowboy 4500.

My wife bought me a Sig P365X for Christmas so I made an IWB holster for it with the new vacuum pump bag system I made up. this is my second holster, my first was a western style for a Ruger Vaquero. I was impressed with using the vacuum system, it worked great. I have to thank Dwight here on this forum for the thread he posted on his vacuum bag system, I pretty much duplicated it. And Adams leather for his youtube video on making an IWB holster.

Very nice brace of holsters!

If I couldn't see it in person and pick it up I'd pass. and if I did go somewhere to see it with cash in my pocket, I'd be carrying a concealed handgun and also have a male friend with me...just how I would roll on a questionable situation like this one.

Merry Christmas!, it's currently 55 in North Florida right now but it's supposed to be 19 on Christmas morning.

I can't help you with this one but as for me, I gave up on using the USMC dye because of rub off. now when I want to dye black I use vinegaroon, it turns the leather jet black and no rub off at all.