TwinOaks

No problem, buckskin. It's what we do here- help each other out any way we can.

What about fabricating one Ray? I've seen hydraulic presses made with three steel cross beams, two uprights (and the "T"s for feet), four strong springs, and a bottle jack. Seems the easiest way to get one the size you want, and you can pick the pressure for the jack. Subsitute wood (legs, feet, top rail) for a lot of the steel and voila! Something like this, but scaled to your needs: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...Itemnumber=4711

Very nice maker's stamp, but for laser cut delrin, I thought it'd make better impressions. But then maybe there's an art to making the stamp all fuzzy looking.

Roger, you can take heart in one of two things: One, nobody that looked at it likes it, or, two, everybody who saw it was left speechless. Good looking seat, sir. Did you hand stitch by choice?

Here, maybe this will help a little: Hope you don't mind me tweaking the values a bit...or was it a byte..?

Hi and welcome to Leatherworker.net. We're glad you found our little corner of the internet. There's lots of members, both amateurs and professionals, who'll be happy to help with any questions you might have. Ask away, and enjoy one of the friendliest sites on the 'net. Oh, I almost forgot...we LOVE pics! Don't be shy about posting pics as you progress. The members here are willing to offer insight, tips, and experience to help you improve your work. If you need help posting the pics, there's a topic on it here.

Josh, Just do it as a tutorial and we'll get it pinned for you.

One of the first mex. basket braids I've done came out like that. The lace was too small, or the spacing was too wide...maybe both. Excellent work on the seat.

"Late. As usual."

I think trying to drill it with a punch could cause some probs, depending on the thickness of the leather. If you're using lighter weight leather, and don't have it secured like whinewhine said, you could end up twisting the leather. Worse, if it snags, you'll end up wrapping the piece up the shaft, or twisting to the point it tears. Granted, that'd only happen on REALLY thin leather. But, you got me thinking.....(dangerous thing) .25 inch holes, spaced out...... sounds like 00 buckshot at 20 yards. The pattern would certainly be unique, and I remember a fad a couple of years back for "shotgunned jeans"..... well, it'd certainly be ventilated.

Well, I just don't know how to react to my company right now. In Nov. of last year, Sylvania Lighting Svcs bought Amtech Lighting Svcs. It's a pretty good move and the important part is that the merger is supposed to make the best of both's business practices. The real result is that former Amtech is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Some of us welcomed the change (as I'm formerly of Amtech) but it's causing some problems. SLS has a different way of doing things, relying on a lot of soft- and hardware to reduce paper. On my end of things, it means the elimination of petty cash. It's replaced by a corporate credit card. That card has a cash advance feature for per diem as required for travelling electricians like me. Here comes the problem. Last week I had to fully reimburse all petty cash funds disbursed to me.....on the info that our shiny new credit cards would be there today. They weren't. As there is no longer any mechanism to issue cash nor any other form of advance, I was left with two choices: Finance my week long trek from my personal account, or not. I don't have the spare funds to go run company business for a week. I shouldn't have to. In the past, I've run into situations where I needed to spend some of my own money- and I had it to spend, so I did and it took about two weeks to recoup the money. There's also the small but significant element that since everything's on the new system, there's really no way for them to reimburse ME for expenses. So, I persued a few avenues of recourse and in the end told them that I couldn't pay to work for them this week. Result? "Clock out, go home, we'll call you when the cards show up. Maybe you can use vacation time to cover the hours." Has anyone else ever experienced this, and how did you handle it? Oh well. At least I have some dead cow skins to beat on.

It'd be a whole lot simpler if you just ask for cow leg leather.....rolled, not split

Check out: Cowboysew. Leathermachineco. NeelsSaddlery. Springfieldleather. add a "com" to the end of those for websites. There's also a host of others- Sew-mo, Ferdco, Adler, Highlead.... and you can get specifics in the 'sewing machine' section about each type of machine. Get one set up for leather. Things to consider: Flatbed will do great on the belts. If you need closer work for bags, holsters, etc., then consider a cylinder arm. There's an attachment that can make a cylinder bed into a flat bed, but not vice versa. Feed mechanisim- feed dogs vs. unison feed vs. needle only. All that info is available for your reading pleasure. CobraSteve (leathermachineco) and Ryan Neel (Neel's Saddlery) are both members here and are 'in touch' with what's needed in this craft.

I'd like to jump in here and cure a case of ignorance. For "general" lacing purposes, is it better to use vegtan or chrometan? Oddly, the answer is just something I've never run across.

Hi ponygirl, To the best of my knowledge, the only leather suitable for stamping is veg-tan. Chrome tan can be embossed, but it's part of the manufacturing process. No info on brain-tan. There are several good tutorial right here on Leatherworker. Do a search for "basketweave", and you should get some hits for tutorials.

Hi all, At the request of She Who Must Be Obeyed, I'm looking for info on fitting Arabian horses for both Western and English saddles. Our mare wears a 20/22 cut-back English (she's broad across the withers, 15.2 hands) and we're trying to find the right size Western. Thanks,

Say, it wasn't some funny lookin' feller named TwinOaks was it? He's been tipping folks off about this forum all over the dang place.

For that weight leather, NONE of the old singers on ebay are appropriate....except maybe a 29- , or a 153. And even then, you'll be well into several hundred dollars. There's more advice than I could type in several days over in the sewing machine forum, but here's the quick version: You'll want a cylinder arm machine because it lets you work in tight spots. Needle feed is great because you can work with grain out and not chew it up with the feed dogs. Look to spend somewhere around $2000 for a NEW machine, and get it from a reputable distributor. Make sure it's set up for leather. Most of the large machines are the same as what's run in factories at high speed. You need slower speed and more torque. Several distributors are active on the forum, and have earned their trustworth reputations. Thread suggestions for that weight leather should be in the 207-277 range. That gives a good look, but I don't suppose anyone would be upset about running 136 in the bobbin and 207 on top. Thread is the biggest issue with the older machines. The won't take the bigger threads in the bobbins, nor handle a large enough needle.

Thanks for the heads up, Dave, I'll get this out to a few other forums as well. Glad to hear that nobody got hurt. ...check that. I see you're already a member at Rugerforum.net, and have already posted it there. Good deal. I'll still let some folks know about it.

Ah, okay. Here's how to do it: Take a ruler and make two parallel lines the width of your belt across a sheet of paper (1/1.25/1.5 inches). Now lay the pistol on that paper to see how you want the pistol to sit at your belt line. Once you have that figured out, trace around the pistol and remove it from the paper. Now, draw in the back piece- where the attachment points will be, sweat shield, etc. There's your pattern. Case an appropriate sized piece of leather, lay the sheet on it, and trace over your lines to transfer the pattern to the leather. If you don't have the pistol, well a trip to the local toy store gun store should provide you with plenty of examples to choose from. NOTE: THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS SHOULD BE FOLLOWED ONLY AFTER MAKING THE PISTOL SAFE, AND FOLLOWING SAFE GUN HANDLING PRACTICES. It does no good to make a nice tight pattern and then shoot yourself with a ND.

Hi Jd, I just recently got one of those! Despite popular myth, the "anything under the foot" isn't exactly true. Sure it'll punch holes in it, but there's sewing, then there's Sewing. One of the other members here (ryano) helped me out with mine, so look for his posts as well as posts by Art. Art is the sewing machine guru. As for weights....well, mine topped out at about 10oz. Like, it wouldn't get all the way through the bottom piece, even with leather needles. Maybe it's just my machine.. Thread size is one of the biggest issues. I've found (with help) that size 46 is about the largest the bobbin will take. Where this relates to leather is that skinny thread looks really funny on thick leather. So, generally speaking, wallets, zippers, lightweight purses, etc., are fine on the 66, but you won't be sewing holsters, belts, or saddles with it. Hope that helps, You can also go over to the "leather sewing machines" subforum on here and do a search (upper right corner of the window) and type in "singer 66"...be sure to include the quote marks.

Hi Lokiprime, to Leatherworker.net! It's the best site on the entire web. While everyone's on their way to say hi, check out the 'specialty' section and subforums. I'm pretty sure you'll find what you're looking for.

Welcome to the forum. The last part of your post is a wee bit confusing. Are you asking for a pattern for a dakota defender, a 1911, or a 1911 holster? If you're wanting a pattern for the DD, well, that's copyrighted and we can't give you that. If you just want to make a holster with leather and kydex, heat the kydex and wrap around the gun. If you mess up, just reheat it! It'll flatten back out for round 2,3,4,5,etc. If you're asking for a pattern for the kydex....sorry, that's a no-go. Kydex pretty much needs a 3-d form to mold around (IMO), and just having a pattern won't help there. Jump over to the holster/sheath section and there's quite a few tutorials on how to make various types of holsters. Good reading. Since there's so many different types of 1911s, you might do better to swing by a gun store (if you don't have the gun in question) and find that model then trace it- that's covered in the tutorials too. When I say "so many different types..." I mean that Springers, Rocks, Paras, DWs, NHs, are all 1911s but have little differences like light rails (tactical models), different sized dust covers (Springers), BTGSs (non-milspec/GI models), sight heights, etc. I can whip up a doozy of a holster for my Colt and it won't fit a Springfield armory, but it'll be a little loose on a RIA milspec.

Well, I think Tina pretty much explained it, but I was gonna suggest having a shaded background so the image isn't so stark. Instead I'll just say