Colt W Knight

had the same problem, now I dye before I glue.

I donated a few padfolios for charity auctions. Got 110 for one and 75 for the other. Always cool when people pay up for your art. Good job.

I use that exact bit when I build guitars. It doesn't have to be thinner material if you take multiple shallow passes, but to do this, you have to have a tall template to give the bearing a surface to ride on.

How much are cane toad hides? There are so many in Australia, you would think they would be too much.

You are talking about guide bushings, those screw into the base of the router. If you use guide bushings, templates have to be wider to allow for the width of the guide bushing (pain in the ass), take it off and use a bearing guided flush cut router bit. They cut identical to the template, and are much more handy the guide bushings. Guide bushings are better served making matching inlay.

A compound feed walking foot machine makes a huge difference when sewing leather and leather like materials. I know from personal experience.

Sorry to take up so much of your thread - I just wanted to show some techniques for precision routing utilizing templates.

* You can buy both top and bottom bearing bits and use whatever is most convenient for you. Whenever possible - Use forstner bits and saws ( band saws for outside trimming and something like a scroll saw or jig saw for inside cutting) to remove excess material. A router shouldn't be hogging off material, it works more like a planer or jointer - take small bites. Set the maximum depth on the router, then just work your way down 1/4" at a time - This is where a plunge router is handy, a fixed base router you have to turn off, unplug, recalibrate, and repeat. The plunge router, you simply flip a lever. Need to route a slot, use a fence - just remember to take small bites. It may take a few passes to get through

Learning to use the router, you can fabricate just about anything you want. I do ton of custom routing work, and I always make templates first. The trick with a router is learning how to control the cutting and taking small bites. The templates and a bearing guided bit do all the hard work. *Note - I have a lot of tools, so I use them - but this can all be done with hand tools easily. First - where your eyes and ears - Draw what you want to route - If you have stepped holes you will need to make multiple sets of template ( when you do this, add index holes, so you can screw them down to the table and always be lined up) ums/mm308/coltwknight/From%20Scratch/102_4442.jpg[/img][/url] Glue your template to hardboard - Or just draw on the hardboard and skip this step. cut and shape - The nicer you make this 1/4" template - the more professional your table will look. I use double sided duct tape to hold templates together - Here I made perimeter template - then duplicated it to make the cutout template - That way I had a template for both *notice I use a bearing guided router bit to exactly duplicate the template For the work I do - I make 3/4" working template and save the 1/4" template as a master template - 2 reasons 1) the 3/4" template allows me to take smaller bites with the router to get cleaner lines. 2) MDF wears out, so I like have master templates to continually make working templates over time. For a one time job, this is over kill - however, if you are new to routing its is outstanding practice because MDF is super cheap, and screwing up your table is not. Straight lines require no template, use a wooden straight edge

...duplicate

I added a stronger motor. They have a "walking foot" attachment available, but it isn't a real walking foot. It didn't work for leather, but it worked for felt. Never tried vinyl.

My 66 would sew through vinyl no problem, but since it isn't a walking foot, you may have trouble with stitch length and feed control. They are built like tanks, and are very good sewing machines for fabric. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=54394 Numbers and letters on the needles tell you what size the needle is( what size thread it will sew with) and what style point they come with ( leather points are like chisels and cloth needles are blunt so they don't cut the fabric) you can google search the corresponding needle size, thread size, and material type. Singer 66 takes a very common needle, and you can find them at box stores and hobby stores like joannes fabric.

yikes, that sucks.

Fathers day present for a friend - Rambouilet Ram and his brand 6 ounce Vegtan leather with a lambskin lining. Black is Fiebings USMC black, I used clear acrylic enamel as resist, and Tandy water based saddle tan antiquing for the rest. Stitched on my Consew 206RB-1 using #138 thread. I really like the short stitches I did on this one. [/url]

My Consew 206 RB-1 will sew up to about 3/8" vegtan leather, but the 206 has compound feed. I don't believe the 205 does. I think the 205 was intended for fabric and garment weight leather. Hopefully someone on the forum will have experience with this machine and can tell you its capabilities.

I have had problems with certain black thread not performing well in my machine.

I could be wrong - Do you think this problem is because your motor doesn't have enough torque to turn the pulleys at the lower speeds when you are feathering the pedal? A lot of machines need different sized pulleys to run at slower speed with adequate torque to sew. You can try pressing he pedal and helping the pulley get started to check.

I would be interested in seeing clear pictures of all the tools.

If I color outside the lines, I use something like an exacto knife blade to scrape it off. I forgot to mention that I thin the acrylic paint with some distilled water so that it brushes easier. Applying several thin coats is a lot better than apply 1-2 heavy coats. It sticksto the leather much better.

Computer Board Etchant Solution sold at radioshack will strip nickel plating. I have only used it to age/ relic before, so I don't know what the bare metal would look like if you left it in there long enough to strip all the nickel off. Its about 8$ a bottle.

Very nice rig

I struggled with similar problems when painting black leather, and what worked for me 1. Practice painting USE QUALITY BRUSHES 2. Load the brush bristles heavy with paint, rotate the brush as you paint so that the brush is always laying down paint evenly. 3. allow to dry an repeat Takes me at least 3-4 coats to get good paint coverage

I bought my Consew 206RB1 for 400$, and its nearly 40 years old and was used in a commercial holster business. Still sewing strong. I think you got a great deal. I bought a servo motor from Cowboy Bob Kovar to put on mine, makes it a lot more controllable.

I just checked my 206rb1 When the dots align, the feed dog reaches its highest and furthest back point. Removing the bobbin is easy in this position.