Colt W Knight

I airbrush dyes, acrylic paints, and clears through my airbrush. I use mop n glo as my clear coat because its cheap and very similar to acrylic resolene. Yes you can spray resolene through an airbrush, just cut it with water.

When I use antiques, I give them a light wipe with a damp cloth with saddle soap. That removes the build up from the high areas and leaves the antique in the crevices, tool marks, etc. The only way I have found to clear coat waterbased products without getting any smearing, splotching, diluting, etc. is to apply the clear with an air brush. Once you go air brush, you never go back to wiping on clear coat. You get nice thin and even coats with no smearing.

Ive got the one pictured on the Weaver website - Tandy also sells it as their "premium" or "deluxe" model groover. The grooving bit was dull as hell - and it needs constant sharpening. The allen head that holds the bit in stripped out on mine, and I had to improvise buy using a larger allen wrench to switch between the marking and grooving tool. I wish the edge guide was longer. Super easy to get off track. In short, I will be upgrading soon.

Glue mine out flat.

I don't have any trouble sharpening things.

Youll be able to get some sewing done on that machine, for sure.

I need to make quite a lot of GPS tracking collars for cattle, and I have worn out all my inexpensive punches on the last set I built. I have a few Weaver Master Punches ( strap end and oblong) that work great, but I am curious about new C. S. Osborne punches. They are a little cheaper than the Weaver punches. How does the quality of the two compare? I need a 2" english point punch, a 1 1/2" oblong punch and some hole punches.

That is a nice strap.

I have had less than stellar performance with water based contact cement, so I stick with Weldwood original or Weldwood Gel contact cement now. The benefits are it works great, available at all our local hardware stores, and is cheap compared to anything marketed as leather contact cement. Th cons are that it has a strong odor, and I have to be super careful not to to get it everywhere.

I always clean my leather with a good dose of saddle soap during the casing process. If you are not tooling your leather, you wont be going through the casing process, but I would still recommend wiping your leather down with a damp rag and saddle soap. You will be amazed at the crud that comes off new leather. Plus, it will remove any oils that can muck up your dye job. Plus the saddle soap serves as a leather conditioner.

+1 on the airbrush, only way Ive found to apply waterbased products without smearing. I use Mop N Glo instead of resolene. I spray it on full strength for high gloss, and cut it with water for a more satin sheen

Have you tried Hide House in Napa, CA?

If the router bit caught the leather just right, it would wrap the leather around the bit and all hell would break loose quicker than you can bat an eye.

I haven't had any trouble spraying full strength Fiebings leather dye. I will try to do a video and show how I do a sunburst finish.

I use a brush and contact cement. No squeeze out because the glue is dry and tacky when the pieces go together. Apply pressure with a roller, and its ready to sew. If I need to protect a portion of the leather. I put down masking tape.

Thanks Bob

Here ya go Bottom is full strength light brown fiebings dye applied with a dauber the rest is 3 parts alcohol and 1 part light brown fiebings dye. When the coats were wet, you could really tell the difference between 1, 2, 3, and 4 coats applied with the airbrush. As the dye dried and absorbed into the leather, the difference between 2 and 3 coats was nearly unnoticeable.

I actually used the airbrush on a real project. The airbrush is so much cleaner and easier to use. Plus, It uses a lot less dye. I think these bursted edges came out well

Everything was done on the 206. It feeds heavy cloth, felt, garment leather, vinyl, and veg tan leather without any problems. It doesn't feed thin linen type cloth well, but mine has had the serrations on the feet ground smooth to prevent marking on veg tan leather, so I bet with standard feet it would work just fine.

I made these on my Consew 206 RB - Yes a Cylinder arm would be preferably, but you make do with what you got. My consew will sew with thread as large as #138 and will sew almost 3/8" thick. It will sew through 10 ounce leather without a problem, especially chrome tanned stuff.

Yes you can use Chicago screws. I don't like to use Chicago screws unless the leather is a little thicker than the chicago screw because they wont hold the leather together tightly and the screws will come apart without any loctite or glue. If you glue them, you pretty much need to cut them off or grip them with pliers or vice grips.

Lacquer will dry hard and non flexible. Nail polish can be a good source of thicker lacquer in multiple colors.

Are you familiar with kickstarter or gofundme campaigns on social media? I believe you could offer up leather goods for pledges to goto the purchase of a new machine using social media like Facebook.

When I hooked mine to a real aircompressor it was 1/4" but the hose that came with this baby compressor is 1/8" on both ends.