bcurrier

Wow, if that's a practice piece, I'd love to see a production product! Bill

You know Art, it's interesting that this comes up as much as it does. Maybe people think the terms are merely guides to use and not definitive terms. The reality is that industrial sewing machines are ALWAYS called exactly that, when it comes to modern machines (say from the WWII era on). In addition, with the machines from appx. 30 years ago to-date, there is really no similarity between design and build of industrial machines vs. home machines, except superficial. I actually think there is a legitimate blurring of usage lines and terms when referring to machines up into the 1st half of the 20th century - not with heavy-duty machines being used in homes, of course, so much as common lockstitchers being used at home as well as seeing widespread use for activities like commercial tailoring and dressmaking, or even light manufacturing. The Pfaff 130 falls squarely into that camp. Where it starts to get abusive is terming the metal-geared (often pot-metal) and metal-cased mechanical home machines of the 40s - 70s "commercial" or "industrial strength". Bill

Nothing, ever. I find it too distracting. Bill

Hmmm - tried a local monument place. He was "willing" to sell me cutoffs, mistake pieces, and tombstone blanks for more than I can get a new surface plate! He had a scrap piece of silestone (manmade quartz/resin composite) that gave me pause. He said it's actually harder to break than granite. I'd want to look into that first, though. Bill

I use a 3" thick, 10" diameter piece of stainless steel that I found in the cut-offs section of my local steel service center. Bill

That's a good description. I used electrolysis to de-rust a 48" lathe (everything but the bed) - dozens and dozens of parts. Things I learned along the way: Rubbermaid tubs are handy for the purpose and cheap. The scrap piece the + is attached to has to be big enough - I started out using large nails, and wound up using heavy aluminum foil and a 16" x 4" piece of 1/4" steel. When I used foil, I tore off a long piece and rolled & wadded it to shapes that worked well with the piece being de-rusted. The foil completely deteriorates in a use or two. Washing soda works a LOT better than baking soda. I have no idea why (any chemists here?). I can't say exactly how much to use, but I used a fair amount - maybe a half-cup per gallon. I had to turn pieces to get all the rust off, and occasionally had to go through the process a couple of times, wire brushing between. The water gets pretty cruddy after a few uses and has to be changed. I generally left parts overnight in the solution with the charger going. My charger puts out a 2-amp trickle charge, which I think is a reasonable minimum. Freshly-cleaned metal re-rusts FAST, in as little as a few hours. I wound up wiping them down immediately after taking them out of solution and wire brushing, drying them in a warm oven, and spraying several coats of a rust preventative spray. The nice thing about warm parts is that the spray dries immediately. Take seriously the part about not submersing the + electrode. I did submerse it at first, and it took the copper coating right off. As the clip is made from steel, it's now - you guessed it - completely rusted. Bill

I never tried Coke (or even heard of using it). What does it do to the rust? Bill

As an FYI, center-finding rules come in two forms: those with a zero in the center, requiring you to line up matching marks on both sides; and those with two scales, one exactly 50% of the main scale. On the latter type, you use the full-scale measure across the item, and then find the same reading on the half-scale to get the center. The second type is adaptable to longer rules, like tape measures. Also, most architect and engineer scales can be used in this way, as they usually have a 50% proportional scale. Bill

Just to be crystal clear, this was a reference to putting pictures on walls, and not a reference to the esteemed moderator of the same name! Bill

I've owned center finding rules for years. They're used in wood and metal working, sewing, construction - all kinds of places. Mine get the most use when hanging art. I've never seen a center finding T-square, but quite honestly, don't see a need for one. I can't think of an instance in which both squaring and center-finding were needed at the same time. I actually prefer to have functions in dedicated tools. I typically use an un-marked square for squaring, for example. As to precision, when I need really precise measurements, I take them off markings in the center of the rule and don't use the ends. In other words, I'll start with "1" and not "0", so the manufacturing precision of the markings means less to me, again when combined with the squaring function. Bill

You are all making me nervous! I also have a carpeted work area. I also agree that Fiebing's tends to leak more. In fact, I got my last Siegal's shipment black dye soaked! Fortunately, it was a tool order, and the only damage was a single dye blotched hammer handle! The rest was all encased in packaging that protected it. No fault of Siegel's either - it was all well-packed - it was definitely the dye bottle itself. Maybe I'll move dyeing to the basement ... Bill

Churches had bells to sound the alarm. Bill

I agree on the price. This is the one thing I DON'T understand about heavy stitcher pricing (Ferdco is expensive too). Feet for common sewing machines (single needle, drop feed lockstitch) can be as little as 50 CENTS in quantity. Bill

How long or how much has anyone here run a drill press mounted slicker like this? My concern would be for the quill bearings. Drill press bearings aren't built for side thrust. I doubt that it would ever be an issue for a slicker a couple of inches long or so, but would think it might be on a longer spindle due to the increased leverage. Bill

I should say that light/medium/heavy depends on your frame of reference. I consider 8-9 oz veg-tanned leather to be in the upper range of medium-weight for things such as belts, bags & cases, and misc. goods. You'd be ok on most industrial walking foot machines at 2 layers at that weight. 3 would be starting to bump up against the limits of some, over on a few. Also, just to be clear, there are a variety of types of feeds. Best for leather is compound feed, which is a combination of needle feed and walking foot. Bill

Forget the 29. While I understand that there were heavy-duty versions made, your chance of finding one of those is one out of a bazillion. If you managed to cram your material into under the foot of a normal 29, you'd stand a pretty good chance of damaging it. I got to tell you, $20 (minimum anyway) from the repair shop doesn't sound like much for what you'd be asking. Plus, he will have the equipment to get it right. If it's something you're going to do regularly, you might cut a lower deal with the shop owner, and you can build his charge into your pricing. Bill

It depends entirely on what you have in mind for projects. If you keep to leather weights no more than medium, there's a lot of walking foot machines at reasonable prices, both new and used. It's the heavy stitchers that run up the $$. You'd be looking at roughly up to $1,500 or so new, often less than half that used. Check Artisan (www.artisansew.com) for well-made Asian imports with good service. Sailrite (www.sailrite.com) carries some interesting machines, if portability is important. They start out with a pretty rough import and make improvements to where they're pretty good. The arm isn't real big, however - but neither is the price ($600 or so for an LS-1). There are a lot of used Singer 111's out there. You might luck into a good one for a few hundred dollars. Sailrite imports a new 111 clone for about a grand, but at that point I'd go to Artisan. Bill

Good grief - FIRST? Wow. Bill

Grizzly carries granite surface plates - up to 4" thick and 3' long. Warning, though, the shipping costs more than the granite! http://www.grizzly.com/products/searchresults.aspx?q=granite Bill

Nice, clean setup! I like your use of MDF for the bench. It must be nice and solid and you've cut it very precisely - well made! What did you use for the top? It looks like a double layer of plywood, but what's on the top? It almost looks like phenolic ply in the first picture. Bill

Would that it was so! I stopped at one last weekend and asked, only to be informed that "they don't have scraps" - but would be happy to sell me a piece any sized I needed. And that was specifically in response to a question about sink cut-outs and other small off-cuts. The interesting thing is that my wife and I are starting to redo our kitchen. That granite place has exactly ZERO chance of getting my business. It isn't that they owe me their scraps (which they do, of course have), rather it was the impression that they're out to squeeze - the impression coming from trying to profit from what they can't normally sell anyway. Bill

One thing I just love is to be taken completely off-guard by something, and this hits a home run! Terrific moment of inspiration! Bill

DVD?

I've bought on eBay, but never used it to sell anything. I used eBay a fair amount for its first couple of years or so. At that time the format looked and felt closer to a true auction, which both my wife and I enjoy. We bought some interesting things at what I consider good auction prices. As time wore on, I found ending bids to be less attractive, hit a few cases of fraud, and, on one occasion, never received an item I paid for (fortunately, I used Paypal, which refunded me). eBay also introduced the buy it now concept, which turned a big chunk of the site's content into a big storefront with pretty ordinary retail prices for the most part. Finally, it got to the point where I just hated sorting through all the small change stuff just to find anything of interest - manuals, signs, postcards, small parts, etc. - including page after page after page of repeated items. Some of it you can get around, but the searching, sorting and filtering mechanisms are pretty clumsy, unfortunately. Just not worth the time. My 2 cents worth. Bill

I managed to lose the only pair I ever owned, and when I went to price a replacement pair - wow! I bought mine in Scotland for about $35. The same pair here was more like $200-250. I never replaced them, and just wear black dress shoes instead. Still, I've thought time-to-time that maybe another option would be to buy a pair of wingtips and re-work them by removing the tongue and reshaping the lacing panels. That's pretty much all ghillies are anyway. Maybe worth a try on a pair from Goodwill to see how it goes before investing in something better ... Bill