toxo

Nor me. Someone more knowledgeable will answer that. I haven't messed with helicoils for fifty years.

Will do Mac. I have all the bits now. Biggest job now is cutting down the aluminium lump. It's 4 inches in dia and 4 inches tall. Now, not being a thermo guy I'm pondering which way to cut it. I have three 120w heaters (around 9mm) to sink into it along with the thermocouple. I don't know how thick to cut it before it's just wasting heat and taking longer to heat up. I think about an inch will do but that's a guess. I could leave it in the round and just lop off an inch or so. I could cut it "lengthways" and have it 4 inches square. No doubt clarity will creep up on me. I've hijacked this thread enough. I'll start a new thread when I update.

It's amazing how we ideas people will always find a way. I went the easiest way. Pay £17.50, use it once and put it back on Ebay for £15 used. Just hope I don't break the bloody thing.

I'll add a sideways rant here. I'm building a hot foil press and the thermocouple that screws into the aluminium block is M6. I have M6 taps but being a belt and braces guy I bought three more on ebay for around £8 the three. The first thing that pissed me off was the thread pitch is not standard. Instead of being M6x1 which is standard it was M6x1.25 (which is standard for M8). The second thing that pissed me off was no one I knew had a M6x1.25 tap and the only one I could find anywhere was £17.50 . I'll only use the thing once. I got onto inkbird and suggested they change it because that amount of money could well tip the balance when considering the cost of the parts to build versus buying ready made.

Thanks man but it's a Dieselpunkro pattern and the stitching holes are marked on the pattern. Still need to be careful but it's hard to mess up and his patterns always come with a video and instructions.

My daughter Joanne has been working really hard lately so I thought I'd make her (another) bag. I had a bag in mind that she said she liked a while back so I printed out the pattern and I even spent $35 on a Sergey French Bulldog (she has two) That I was gonna gold foil front and center. Of course she'd gone off that pattern by now and chose this one instead. Fortunately I'd had the pattern printed out for a year, just never got around to building it. Main leather is Oil Tan PU and the other bits are veg tan. Magnetic clasp under the nose. She loves it to bits and hasn't stopped talking about it since she came to collect it.

Can only be Cechaflo.

I use one of those kitchen types for hole punching for stitching but like I said, after a while you're looking for fresh spots. I did buy a couple of harder ones but they were really hard like plastic. The one I got for the arbor press has a similar feel on top to the kitchen type but is denser and rigid. I think HDPE is high density polyethylene but must come in different formulae because milk crtons are made of HDPE as is a lot of other stuff.

I've trird looking for the one I bought. It was a hard HDPE board. It's hard and rigid. Was suggested by Fred and works a treat. I walk around my small clicker dies and there's no danger of going through it. The surface is soft enough to not damage knives/punches etc, The silicone ones are soft and fine for cutting and punching where you're not going too heavy but edges will cut into it necessitating renewal after a while. Look for a HDPE chopping board around 12mm thick.

Ha Ha! I'm a bit too old fashioned but I love to see others enjoying themselves. You don't say where you are but here in Kent UK there's a Historic dockyard nearby and it has some enormous buildings. Once a year they hold a steam and Transport show and Steampunk takes over a whole building. Here's some pics from a few years ago. Don't know how mwany I can get in but i've shaved em to the bone so not brilliant pics.

Excellent answer. I hardly do any toolng so not best placed for that but Yin knows what he's doing. Your corset reminded me of the steampunk movement which I love which might be a bit strange for an oldie but I love people expressing themselves without the ironmongery.

Excellent job all round. Love the handle.

That looks good as is. is it comfortable to wear like that or do you intend to put in side panels. It's a shame the interior background got so dark. It kinda robs some of the contrast. Overall a great job. Being an oldie my interest is piqued so can I be nosy and ask why? Is it a personal thing or a group thing or simply for sale? Of course you don't have to answer but well done.

Computer monitors are not capable of seeing all the information in a photo so most of it is just wasted and takes up bandwidth. I use an old version of Fireworks. Crop the picture, resize to 600 pixels and reduce resolution to 70% or even less and no one will see any difference. Remember to save it. Unless you intend to print from a picture at sometime, if your computer keeps an original size copy as well as the resized one you might want to delete it because those will use up a lot of memory/space.

This sort of thing doesn't really float my boat but this one does. Well done.

Good job. Another, perhaps easier way would be to extend the left hand side (first pic) so it comes up against the shaft making it impossible for the edge to reach the stitches. Then no need for a welt along the bottom.

Welcome woodshed. Looks like you're doing ok but what we can't see is if you're making sure the edge can't get to the stitches?

As a hobbyist I can't justify spending that kind of money. The parts to make one of these will be here in the next few days. I already have the arbor press. Don't know how it'll turn out but I'd rathe spend the money saved on letters which I'm finding are rather expensive. Apart from the Aluminium which I have coming from a friend the whole lot only comes to a bit over £60.

Very nice. I hope you don't darken it too much.

Excellent work. Does any of it have any special meaning?

I too resort to the £ shop but they're not much use for detail. I have three magnifying articulated desk lamps in my project room and for close up general detail I use these, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Illuminated-Headlamp-Magnifying-Glass-with-Light-Head-Dental-Loupe/282011401286?epid=2134876877&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item41a9307c46:g:jIgAAOSwNSxVUvPT&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACgBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%2Fn%2BzU5L90Z278x5ickk7PdDazAlGltMLJlUhrWsD%2FcszOG1J3gPFOAvJ8petUb8yniic209sbx1%2FQtI7g2klYt3j7%2Fa%2FYpI2NmK1sW1QRslIDMowLy95Bv4mnwoDl011ETdxX%2Bqd1Ae03gOH5i6H1ZO9c%2FpBtfeB4%2Fbp8OUUbhUG6Dvh6Xqlc%2FYj1rmvlOgLV1Jp4qKFzjd7L3Plv8TuNSE%2BqTeNgOmaDjZiM9z4VKehqRbwWG0aG5B2MuUwywxe%2BTQu19mU1Y4iJcG6URQ%2BknyQkbzMBvAE%2BOcYaIcdb9JVhg1%2F0Yen6R8zKDmHQ%2BhYby47b9fLy9%2FtLSMsds4UYtcRmZjsTACFvPp9VElNWV9NfaPdo%2FBJSGK9TEs69f6wWStm3Jd6gwXpTX7tm7B%2F4EETMGZtm%2B0ZFbtetrV3omdPdfdf1byCRdYaK%2Bl04vVzr7ZAUdpM%2BdAcaVCLK3FBzFRK3isczL%2FnyTGoqc0CZx%2B6NMbCscL9QCUNWaNn6Ixp6aobXz%2F1A4W094pEUsSLsRIswSr3kzJ3IkutGym7gPZu4ukAJnibiJRGdhhx2KOb89wMGuG0QFCg0ei0ydQtXJIYWWGdyoNtOx80KVlv8rYsKMsakDN87J2GqKrhq7AulIxZw7v3vPcFCbrMT0GTEx3N8S7DfAxTWk8qE9PtUWvUZAbSHY3lnsMDG0tKySIs0xxkSsVKfSPL8o2AP5S6tl%2Fam4HMHkKV0uHLK011j0VfrlRUVZKgd78Bbz0%2FEkYbhpvAnB33x4CPvHhWGQWrFWX9C1eIIBgHpDf9joCfJYh9GwlwHTtsWMEbi%2FSEqw%3D|cksum%3A28201140128674fbe6a75b4840048a628a21cd9fcf04|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2334524 or these, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magnifying-Glass-Headset-2-LED-Light-Head-Headband-Magnifier-5-Lens-With-Box-UK/313240577229?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item48ee97e4cd:g:2VoAAOSwZfBfdbNm&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACgBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%2Fn%2BzU5L90Z278x5ickkRjLZq23gAR%2BKma9gM2Z1hrxWEOddzPF2JDo12UMTVJJGEfLKfJSmg%2Ft8jzF3Pa5JHQV6%2Bjj0ytNPFW1Mgutkxb%2FpWkOGhs8z5tcGYeyh50f7p5DPC9u1cVxUScFBeFx8M1D2N5hF%2FyDbwHyiBLS8h130DZ5LIdps%2BEOvT76cJiLeEDZXtJb%2FGg05%2F9adiakG1e3lrEuA0R3lUbR%2F4nUVXhsQqZ4DdHgZL237DvRyoMubBAHelGN7%2Fc7LyrDh%2F%2B08%2F6WPyUKFDuZADLP2HLyZN4kaPk%2BT1aJISiS0PczTkSeWIuMuHJjqZU5yyyBqJyA73xGoPnlwmfbF%2B%2BlbjDu4oe7vMseb4oAqR4PXsytgtzi06OynCM5mXtyGoaywwLk0MLGQ2d%2B87KXEXn28j4Jqdyt5WQJUGc0TzJnyjAGZxD8pYiu0HKVMod5Y8AENMJstesiqNsBvHtw8%2FwtRthW62hT1k6AcMrqFLIqzLyPClhBW4Ee4HCb5Z2uQ24II5faEbupkohcp%2FjBzyKs3t9mJLH0nBlgXi2KVF%2BTMF4UfeB09xFxh6xek3gmZSXwwLJ1yxTr9IS%2FGXGwByk58fGBBNwsiokPkN3JJSPxzG37%2BDPN1Q7HXVgP8pmi4DKdhG3kUzmmPpOlzeQ6ue2SSszo6pLUFYXXyz4uw%2FlEqP2qphzhVNANVjl4CQr2rbn8YLxuy6poVc9r%2BU9lzXn5EFEjdB08ljLfsvLBxkyDv0FuJA%2BVsmpJq3qBUJCY%2BSi8HiaB4zl41WGpwM0tWhf3aehA1uwH7q%2FAbmraWB1s8SYHE%2B7k%3D|cksum%3A313240577229c45bf9466ade4d06b9aa868b4487c871|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2334524 But I still need a jewellers loupe for needle sizes.

OMG There's some serious talent and time right there.

An interesting point is that this forum is mainly US based and so a conversation about needles and threads can take on a different slant than say here in the UK. A lot of US sewers are doing heavy stuff like saddles and holsters etc. Over here, not so much. The heaviest thing I make is a handbag/purse so not only lighter leather but colours as well. Most any thread will do for bags so colour takes on more importance than thread size (within reason). I don't have all the colours in all the sizes so sometimes the colour is the key. After choosing the colour on an unmarked cone I will marry it up with a needle and the quickest way is the slide test followed by a scrap test.

Won't slide then will it.

Very clever.