Tex Shooter

I have a 1/2 ton arbor press that I bought in a garage sale for $10 bucks that had a home made line 20 snap die in it. If you use the right length for the leather thickness, it does the job perfectly. I set line 20 snaps in thin leather a lot and need to make grind jig to get the female rivet the right length. Right now I am just adding a extra thickness of leather and it sets it fine. -- Tex

Welcome. I would start small as you will find out that as you go along that what you want will change. -- Tex

Welcome to the forum and Texas. There are quite a few leather workers in Texas. -- Tex

Springfield poly is what i do it with! -- Tex

Here is a new hand stitching trick for me at least. When stitching with waxed poly thread with way too much wax on it, I just thread my needle and pull the entire length of thread that I will be stitching with through it. This scrapes off a lot of the wax and also flattens the thread some, making it somewhat easier to pull through the leather. I use a 0 Osborne needle, but other sizes would probably work. also it seems to stitch a neater stitch. -- Tex

Welcome Pardner! Hope you enjoy the forum. -- Tex

It depends on what you want the manual clicker for. if you want to click small parts for for resale or manufacturing, the Lucris manual clicker is by far the fastest for this purpose that I have seen. I have several small parts that i sell as a vendor and I can make 200 to 250 parts a hour easy with a single and with a triple die for one part, I can make 600 parts a hour. Think about three small parts in a single die. As far as I am concerned that is where a good manual clicker shines. I would not have a clicker that would not use the whole pad and I would not have any clicker for small parts that was not a swing arm. -- Tex

If you find those parts let me know as I need one also. Mine is brazed and I worry about it. -- Tex

It looks like the stroke on that little press is about 1/4 inch in one revolution. If that is right it could exert about 5000 pounds of force. Interesting design, but I would like to see larger guide rods, because you would have to have the die centered perfectly to keep from bending them. -- Tex

The reason that I owned a Microscope was to learn more about knife edges. Being a old "Horse Trader" and knife distributor, I have own many Microscopes. -- Tex

I thought it might interest some to see what they work with a little closer. I have a good AO microscope but my camera is cheap ($65 digital) and I hand held it to the microscope eyepiece to get the 2 enlarged pictures so the quality is not the best. The first picture shows chrome tanned that I use as you would see it with your naked eye (almost smooth). The second picture shows waxed poly thread that I use in hand stitching in the microscope. The white is wax on that thread and you can see the individual fibers. The third picture is of the surface of the leather in the microscope. I get much better resolution when look in the microscope with my eyes and also I can increase the power a lot. -- Tex

Here is the Video -- I moved it -- Tex watch

Here is a (not too good) video I made using my new Stitching Pony. YouTube put it on a new channel and I don't know why as I up loaded it on my old channel. ????? MatkgciYcL0

I like a 1 x 2 x 8 very fine Norton India stone. I use the edges for small tools, that way I keep the sides flat for planer blades. Arkansas does not work well on stainless and I have found that I can not get as good of a edge with even a very fine diamond. -- Tex

I Joyfully picked up this little Greenerd #1 Arbor Press at a garage sale for 10 bucks with a home made tool on the ram and a flat plate on the platform. When I cleaned it up a little and took closer note of the ram tool it appeared to be made for roll setting a tube. I then toot it off and set it in a snap 20 and it appeared to look like it would work to set it. Using bottom snap anvils that I had I set a snap 20 set and it worked perfectly. -- Tex

Here we have one of my first projects.It was a Tandy kit that I did in about 1970/71, so it it about 42 years old. It was stored in a drawer. it is a coin purse and the picture opens to actual size. -- Tex

You can get quality pads from Texas Custom Dies. -- Tex

Here is some belly scrap 1.5 mm chrome tanned leather that I hand stitched myself a cell phone holster out of. You have to be careful not to pull the stitches too tight or they will pucker. -- Tex

It has pretty good tri-angular clearance. It can used to repair some bags. -- Tex

Well I have tweaked my pony and it works much better. It is not near as big as it looks in the photos. It is made to take to to anywhere that I have a hand stitching class and clamp on most tables either right, left or off to the side at the end. You can get under it just like a stitching horse. It works great. It is made completely from scrap except for the C-Clamp. On a 29 or 30 inch high table it comes up to a perfect height for stitching. More hangs down than sticks up. As you can see I make things to use and not to look at, so it is pretty plane Jane so to speak. --Tex

This press is sold. -- Tex

I am in Kerrville Texas just click on the little picture on the left and send me a personal message for particulars. -- Tex

Welcome Hellicap to the fanatical world of leather workers. I think you will enjoy the forum. -- Tex

Isn't defacing US current against the law? -- Tex http://www.moneyfactory.gov/historicallegislation.html

Belly leather? -- Tex