billybopp

Been there. Done that. Tastes awful.

Waiting for stamps to arrive ... Can't wait to try them.

I haven't tried it, so can't say for certain .. but super sheen and resolene are both acrylics and should be OK together. Bill

The "herd of naugas" joke is an oldie but very much still a goodie! Marketing departments started actually advertising naugahyde as a "feature" in the 70's - before that it was just vinyl. I suspect the change came about to set newer more durable vinyl products apart from earlier products that became brittle after a few years. Vinyl is pretty useful even for leatherworkers. It's a great cheap material that behaves much like leather, and can be used to make mockups for stuff. I'm pretty sure the original is at least partly vinyl. If you look at the piping around the center piece you can see a bit of very light color peeking through. Since garment leather is usually mostly struck through, we wouldn't see that. The inner liner does look like it might be leather, however, since that does look right for chrome tan (a bluish color). I'd also guess that there's some sort of bag stiffener behind the main front piece to help keep that curve. There's also some sort of stuffing material there to give it thickness, particularly around the bottom edge and behind the center piece to give it fullness. The piping around the center piece has either no cord or very thin cord. Outer piece, piping and center piece are probably glued and sewn from the back side. Front and straps appear to be a single piece of leather, so could take some creative design to get the straps folded over as in the picture. (forgive the comments about a codpiece with stiffener and stuffing please - I know it's hard to believe that a bad-ass like Vader might need stuffing and stiffening - but then again he had a lot of medical problems - I guess the force can't do everything). Even if the original is pleather, there's no reason why you can't make yours from real leather! Goat is pretty nice to work with in garment weights, but others are fine too. The surface finishes on garment leathers can vary greatly, so your best bet would be to look at some in person to find the texture that you want. I have some that is so smooth and shiny that it looks like vinyl, and other with various surface textures and amounts of gloss. Oh. And just to make y'all jealous - I got meet James Earl Jones a couple of years ago when he did a play on Broadway. His voice is even more amazing in person, and presence on stage is phenomenal. Bill

Jim Linnell did an OK video series for Tandy on tooling and making a wallet. It covers most of the basics at least in 13 parts that are short enough to be digestible. Nothing too fancy but not bad! Bill

Printed / copied is the way to go provided that it fits on your paper. If you still like to be able to see through, use transparency film - just be sure to use the right type for your printer! The wrong type can cause some expensive problems. Bill

Barry King offers up blades for his own knives, and for Tandy. MOST other mass produced are Tandy size - but no guarantees. Bill

Here's an example on my round knife sheaths. It's a fancier cam with seeds, but same idea. Bill

I've always used cams as in the picture, although much closer together so that the "rays" overlap and little to no gap for the cutout part. Bill

Maybe this will be helpful .... Groz-Beckert_Needles_for_the_processing_of_leather.pdf

It looks really good! Well done.

One o' these days I've gotta come by Keysew when you're actually open. I usually pass by on my way to Standard Tap from the blue line - I love good beer even more than leather.

Welcome from West Philly.

Matt cutters are awesome. I have a so-so Logan five footer that makes nice long straight cuts every time. Love it. My "boss" used to be a pro framer, and we needed to frame some artwork, so bought the cutter and framing materials for about what it would have cost to have somebody do the framing for us. Leather cutting turned out to be an added bonus. Win-win! Love it! Bill

If you ever give up glassworking, they'll make awesome steampunk goggles! Well done. Bill

Just tap the punch lightly - just enough to make an impression - not enough to cut through.

Just stretch over the top of the paint cup as you pour the paint through.

Which brings to mind some additional research topics: Which whiskey is best, really .. And just how much can you bring back duty free? - And how much are "Lourdes Water" labels?

I love the idea of using bolts to pre-assemble and test the design... Why didn't I ever think of that??

I use old pantyhose or similar to filter stuff that's going into my airbrush. That seems to be fine enough to prevent any clogging issues. Bill

Good advice from TomG - also play around with spraying water until you get it working - its much cheaper and eliminates some variables - once you've got a good mist of water then try other things. You mentioned resolene - be sure to thin and filter it since it can develop blobs over time that will clog. A small air leak shouldn't cause problems, but you don't want to leave that situation permanently as it will bleed down your air tanks and make the compressor run more than necessary - not dangerous or anything but pretty annoying with the noise that most compressors make. If your airbrushes are double-action, make sure that the needle is moving out of the nozzle freely when you pull the trigger backward. If something the needle doesn't pull back and open up, it won't move fluid. They can stick if they've been driven too hard into the nozzle - and the nozzle can be damaged. Also check that the needle point hasn't been damaged - they are very thin and can be easily bent. The fluid passages can get clogged - Try backflowing them - with the paint cup detached or empty put a finger over the nozzle and push the trigger down and back and then see if you can feel air coming out where the fluid would normally go in. If not, it's probably clogged. Hope that helps. Bill

Looking really good so far!! Can't wait to see the rest.

You'll find a good tutorial on using rein rounders on Bruce Johnson's tutorial page. He also usually has some for sale. Bill

I've used the Tandy wood disk slicker with a mandrel bit in my dremel, and it works .. I've also used the nylon one using a bolt and nut as a shaft in a drill. They both work, but I like the pro edge burnisher in the dremel best. I've been very tempted lately by one of these burnishers - the flat bottom with radiused corners just seems to make sense to me. If I had a drill press and tools to do it, I might just try to make one myself. Bill

that's just fun! And I gather from the time change between the pictures that the watch even works! Cool! Bill