toxo

How surprised was I to find no category for airbrushing or compressors! Anyway, ever since I bought an 801 skiving machine with a purpose made vacuum system and waste bag I've been looking out for a quiet compressor to drive it (the waste system). Thus far I've been using a long air pipe and a noisy 50ltr jobby in the garden but I've just moved into a small 2 bed bungalow with no place at all for a noisy compressor. I learned that the really quiet ones like Jun-Air or Bambi are an arm and a leg to buy so my ears pricked up when an older Jun-Air came up on Ebay for a song. I didn't hold out much hope that it would drive the waste system but at £185 and refurbished I reasoned that if it didn't I could still be spraying leather with a big smile on my face. I ended up getting it for £130 but hold on! This ain't no fairytale. Here it is. I had a mooch around the net and found this Jun-Air 6-4 Quiet Running Compressor - 32 l / min at 8 bar (esska-tech.co.uk) Great joy thinks I. Then it arrived Back down to earth I came. And that wasn't the worst of it. The motor is fine and very quiet but there's no output. Now this is where I'd normally say " If I didn't have bad luck I'd have no kin luck at all", but I don't think this is the case this time. I've been refunded £80 so it stands me in £40. I've shown the damage to Jun-Air and they're sending a replacement for the broken bit gratis, well done Jun-Air and they sent a users manual and spec sheets and parts list and I think I'm gonna enjoy this project so all in all I'm happy.

This ^. It's not as if the back of a shoe is a massive curve. Find something roughly the same shape or better yet use the actual shoe with some cling film around it. Mould your leather, let it dry, find something dome shaped (like the tow ball on the car maybe) and tool away.

Nice job. Well done.

I make a few cross body bags. These are really nice. Now you've got me wondering if my little laser will do delrin? Well done.

Thought I'd posted these pics before. Anyway, I don't think it's a leather machine and it's much too fast for me. It sits in an oil bath so it will go on forever. The motor on the singer was really noisy so I put new bearings in it and it's nice and quiet now and it's still in situ so won't take much effort to get it up and running. The other motor came off my Durkopp 239 which I think I will be selling soon also, nothing wrong with it, I installed a servo motor.

Head, table and motor. Reverse not working. Collect from Gillingham, Kent , UK Also 2nd clutch motor, also free.

For those big long hides you won't get a straighter line than a chalk line. You can buy em but any piece of string will do. Just rub along it with some chalk, stretch it tight along the hide and ping it. And if you ever need an absolute 90 degree right angle on a big area use the 3,4,5 method.

Interesting cutting style.

it also depends on the type of line you're cutting. Straight lines - almost any knife will do as long as it's sharp and used with a strait-edge. If doing a curve I use a knife with a point and raise the butt so I'm just using the point. If you lower the butt the forward edge of the blade will try to straiten out the curve if that makes sense.

Do those seams first with the bag inside out, then the bottom, then the top line.

When I'm punching patterns and sometimes when punching leather also (Depends on the project), I run a candle or a bar of soap along the punch/stitch line and it helps enormously.

Maybe oily fingers when stitching before you put gloves on for dying? The problem only seems to be the edges where it's been handled.

That has to be the best leather craftmanship I've ever seen. Awesome.

Too much of a generalisation for me. Every method of parting us from our money has to be looked at on it's own merit. Every "business" (was there ever a word as abused as that one?) strategy has to go through the morals and ethics corridor which has a bearing on how a company makes it's money. Sadly, over the last 100 years business has learnt to sprint through that corridor with less and less effect on their conscience or accountability.

That's what passes for "business" these days. In the interest of profit they gradually hike up the price until it no longer sells. Then they start reducing the size. Over here we have something called a "Wagon Wheel" and when I was a kid it was around 7inches across and almost an inch thick. Now it's the size of a biscuit. I used to think some of the better stores were better than that. I was wrong.

What's not to like? Good voice/music /content. Well done Yin.

Looks good so far but the shoulders are vulnerable. https://dieselpunkro.patternbyetsy.com/listing/931363776/shoulder-armor-pattern-printed-paper

You don't need to spend big money on punches. I use these in 0.8mm, 1.2mm and 1.5mm and they've been fine. My guess is there's glue involved somewhere. You won't notice until you leave the pellets to stick to each other and the inside wall of the punch. If this is the case just punch a few holes in some non glued stuff and maybe leave the punch in a small jar of solvent or thinners. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122584851260?var=425413248570

You have nothing to lose by trying shoe polish. I'm about to do the same with a pair of shoes that are a bit lighter than I'd like. Failing that if 125c did it in the first place it'll do it again using darker dyes or adding dark dye to the original mix if you still have.

News to me also. Will investigate. Thanks @MtlBiker.

Not my veg tan. It's only about 1.4mm and very floppy.

Well done Fred.

Just glad to help Bill.

I've got a piece of natural veg tan with that milled look on the flesh side and I thought the same thing.

To remove any rivet just center punch with a nail or a proper centerpunch and carefully drill with a 1/8th (or thereabouts). The top will come away with no fuss then pull out from the other side.