Colt W Knight

Looking to pick one of these up and add a roller foot setup for some more decorative stitching on my bags . Anyone know what the going rate is? I see them on ebay for 150-500$ and a leather site on facebook says 900, which sounds ridiculous.

Those made in Japan Consew 206RBs are outstanding machines. One of the industry standards. They sew with up to #138 thread and 3/8" thick . I have one just like it, and I really enjoy working with it. Going strong decades after its manufacture.

I bought the Weaver rivet press with autofeed hopper. Works great, but it was expensive.

Exact same steps I laid out earlier. That piece just doesn't have contrasting dye or paint

What happened is your leather had some residual grease and oil on the surface from tanning and handling. Applying an alcohol based dye basically creates an oil slick on the leather. To avoid this in the future, simply clean the leather with saddle soap while you are wetting the leather for tooling or casing. You can also take a demo tag with some saddle soap and wipe it off now.

I think you are doing more smooshing than leather tooling. Leather looks to wet when you were tooling. I would suggest looking up some more info on Casing leather

You want to use water based acrylic paints on leather, in my opinion. They are available at wal marts, hobby stores, and just about any where. Even cheap acrylic work on leather, however, cheap paints require more work. A lot of artists paints are really thick and need thinned a little with water to make the brush strokes flow out smooth and for the paint to get a bite into the leather. You end up having to do multiple thin coats to get good even coverage. The best I have used for leather so far is Angelus brand acrylic paints designed for use on shoes and leather. Most even come with a brush built into the lid, which is nice when you are painting letters and such. Angelus colors tend to be more vibrant and cover better with less coats. I am sure there are other brands that work equally as well, airbrush artists use a lot of water based acrylics, so I am sure there a lot of good brands marketed to those folks as well. Here are a few of my Angelus paint jobs

I would do it like this. 1. Print out your design on computer paper. 2. Case the leather 3. Lay the paper on the leather, trace the edges. 4. Use a swivel knife to cut the trace marks (half teh depth of the leather) 5. Use a beveler to bevel the edges. 6. Apply a sealer. 7. Apply an antique 8. Apply sealer 9. Paint design with a contrasting color.

I too shunned gloves at first. The folks at work all started telling me they knew when I was doing leather work by my hands. I now keep a box of nitrile gloves on the bench.

What size thread and what size needle and needle point?

I dropped a quart bottle of Fiebings black on the concrete floor once, and it landed square on the bottom of the bottle. The black dye exploded out like a volcano, shooting a heavy stream of black die. I was mad I dropped it, mad I lost 15$ worth of dye, and mad that I knew better than to wear my new shoes to work in the shop. I learned that one the hard way. Also, lacquer paint will eat the coating out of the paint cans you buy at lowes/homedepot leaving a whole bunch of little enamel flakes in your lacquer.

Do you have this same problem with white thread? I have had black thread that absolutely will not sew, does exactly what your thread is doing in the video.

I have a Consew 206RB-1. I bought it from a retired holster maker who sewed with it for decades using the original clutch motor. It would sew a million mph with that clutch motor, it hummed loudly, and it was very, very heavy. I got a FS-550 servo from Cowboy Bob and it made the machine way more controllable, quiet, and weighed a lot less(makes moving it around easier). I really like my 206. I sew everything from purses to belts to padfolios on it. Built like a tank.

Were the Consew 206 RB-4s built in Japan or China?

I can pop off jiffy rivets by jerking on the leather, but under normal use, I am never seen one pop off on any of my purses or folders. I wouldn't use them on horse tack or holsters.

I just moved to Maine in January.

Something in the Consew 227 R class would be a bag sewing monster. They are designed for light to medium leather, and sew #69-138 thread. They are cylinder arm machines so they can reach inside and sew curves well. Most of the clone machine brands sell a version of this machine. I'm sure Pfaff and Juki make equivalent machines, but I don't know their model numbers.

Some good zipper info in this thread. I really like using YKK zippers on my work when possible.

I suspect you haven't done a helluva lot of sharpening if you have only pricked yourself twice.

In my opinion, I would contact Bob Kovar of Toledo Industrial Sewing and ask him about a FS-550 servo or just tell him what you got and what you want to do, and he can make a different suggestion

My solution was to airbrush findings pro oil dye black, then finish with a few coats of thinned acrylic sealer. Regular black dye seems to never stop bleeding, especially if you use a daubwr or dip.

If I were building from the ground up, I would hang my leather like a clothes closet. That way you don't have to worry about curling leather and you would have full view of the leather for visual appraisal before working on projects.

A properly glued wood joint, the joint is actually stronger than the wood, so the wood will actually fail before the joint. Similarly, when you glue leather together, generally, a failed joint isn't because the glue has failed, but because the flesh side of the leather has given away. Leather isn't near as rigid as wood, so those fibers will break away from the glue joint a lot easier.

Ive been airbrushing mop n glo thinned 50/50 with water. It does not water proof the latigo, but it does a good job preventing the bleeding.

I make GPS tracking collars out of this material, and I have punched thousands of holes in it. By far, the best way to punch holes is to chuck a sharp drive punch into a drill or better yet a drill press. If you use a cutting board or similar material as a bottom support, the bit will stay sharp for a very long time. Melting holes in this material will send out some nasty fumes, and you don't want to breathe them. Plus, if you are punching more than a few holes it is very inefficient. Punching the holes like traditional leather is tedious and dulls punches quickly