TwinOaks

Girlfriend???

The Geeks said they could still retrieve the remaining data...but only by basically cutting out the damaged sections and rebuilding a reader for it...I'm sute you know more about it than I do as you have an IT background. My cost would have been over a grand. I guess my wife thought the pics were worth it, but I had to douse that thought with some cold hard reality. For the more drastic measures of data recovery, it'd be worth it if I had a couple of thousand dollars worth of invoices on it, but for 60 something pics, I had to wish it well.

Very nice job molding to the pistol, and clean stitching. Good job! I advise considering a retention strap to the design. .44's aren't exactly CCW pistols, not fast draw rigs ( too heavy), so the presumed purpose is either a range hoster or a field holster. Both would benefit from having a retention strap, but especially if it's a field holster.

Rdb, if you can get to a Geek Squad, they have a nifty little deal about data recovery. You pay for what they can get back. If it's unrecoverable, it's only a ~$30 diagnostic fee. When my laptop HDD died, I took it to them, and was surprised when I got a call back later the same day. I showed up and the clerk only said one word, but it told me all I needed to know. He looked at me and said, " Dude...." I'd had a catastrophic physical crash- effectively the read head pulled a Delta and there was little curls of hard drive surface wrapped up around it....I guess that explained the "horrible screeching noise" the geek squad was talking about. I had every little bit of software's original install disk, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I had 3 summer vactions, and two Christmas holiday's worth of pics on it- with no back up. Since then, all my keepable pics are double backed up- external hd, and cd. Wife is still ticked off about the lost photos.

You should probably consider a servo motor for it. The motor in it is designed more for speedy work instead of high torque work. Running with a variable speed control might burn it out. Servo motors are designed to provide the torque even at low speed, and would be better suited for slow sewing. The other option is a reducing gear, by which you keep the motor speed, but use a larger flywheel- reducing the actual sewing speed- to slow things down. For that route, I think belt drives are common to allow for slippage if the needle hangs up. Give it a little while longer and some of the sewing machine experts should chime it.

I just mentioned this to the moderating team, and received word that there is some ongoing dispute/conversation about some of Verlane's intellectual property and intentions for it. The MOD team is looking into it, so until then, I'll ask everyone to wait for that decision, and not shamelessly copy the content of that website.

Here's what Ragnar at Ragweedforge.com has to say about using melted wax on leather: http://ragweedforge.com/sheath.html Of course the link leads to his section on making a sheath, but the cuir bouilli is mentioned.

Ruehl, once dried, there's no alchohol left in the leather. What you may be seeing is that spirit dyes tend to dry out the leather, making it somewhat stiffer than undyed samples from the same hide. That would change the 'hardening point' in the water, because a significant % of the tannins are already missing.

In the sense of "boiled leather", this isn't talking about actually placing leather in boiling water. Doing so destroys the leather ( go ahead and get some scraps and a pot of water, 'cause I know you're gonna try it). There was a discussion about that here, maybe pre-crash, wherein it was determined that the term Cuir Bouilli probably describes the effects of soaking leather- like you would for wet forming. Total submersion, and as the water penetrates, air escapes as little bubbles. Hence the term "boiled" leather. Bouilli in French literally means "cooked", and may have developed from soaking in hot water to further strip the tannins back out of the leather- making it mostly tanned rawhide, and rawhide can be very hard. Impregating with waxes is perhaps the best way to waterproof leather while keeping its shape, unlike oil which softens the leather.

Thanks, Bree. Lots of good info there. I'm gonna bump this up to the boss and see we can link to it on the main page.

For 'art' pieces, usually just a resolene coating because the item won't be anywhere but a wall. For belts and (very limited) tack/ strap, I apply carnuba cream to the leather to get it soft, and once it's all absorbed a good rubbing of Fiebing's Aussie. For holsters it depends on the purchaser- the one I sold today was tan-coted on the tooled body, with a flap finished with Aussie. Why two? I doubt the holster will see much wet weather (knowing the customer), but summer time is likely to see some sweat dropping on it. Aussie blocks moisture better (IMO), but the tan-cote looks better on the basket weave (again, IMO).

Ah. In that case, after sharpening the tip of the awl, don't strop the edges. The sawtooth edge will certainly cut the leather, and help to keep the hole open.

Lay one of the faces (flat sides) against your stone, and push/pull the blade back and forth. It's kinda like repeatedly stabbing something- that kind of movement. The edges of the awl might get a little sawtoothed and that's okay, you'll take care of that when you strop. Repeat with all four faces. The place you want the awl to be sharpest is the tip. It's what's penetrating the leather. The edges do little more than push the leather out of the way (but if sharp enough it will slice the leather). Once you've stoned the awl, move to your strop, and pull the blade across it. That should put a "oh look, it will go half way through a finger before I feel it" kind of sharpness on it.

umm....wow. I can't imagine the handsewing speed it takes to tear a muscle....slow down a little, maybe?

Tasha, do yourself a quick and painless favor- run your antivirus and spyware programs. Not that I have any reason per se, but you never know with foreign based ISPs. Legitimate sounding emails are the quickest way to sneek in a trojan. Mike

make sure you have that info in your sales/order contract, and something about non-refundable deposits, then notify of your intent to sell.

I'll be sending this to a couple of my friends who work with horses.

So....basically it's 'legalized extortion' to get money from you (and probably access to your account info) to keep someone from opening a site with the same name except for the suffix?

Another thing to consider when choosing the blueguns: If you're going to be making holsters that utilize a very snug fit for retention, K-man has some valid points- even a little play can turn into slop, and tight molding is critical. I argued the point with him some while ago and made a complete arse of myself. After making some more holsters, and learning more than a little in the process, I realized that he knows a lot more than I do about holster making. If you wanted my 2 cents worth, I still owe ya some change. Incidentally, for all tightly molded holsters I make, I use the actual pistol or revolover that will be in the holster- not a blue gun- and everything he said about tight fit (sometimes seeming too tight) has been absolutely on the mark.

Link to it?

Actual 'cost of material' plus reasonable mark up, plus the labor rate you expect to get. Check your invoice for the price of the leather (e.g. 3.99/ft) and calculate how much you used. If you used 3.5 sq. ft. then your price is $3.99 x 3.5 for the LEATHER. Now add hardware (cost plus markup) and sewing materials. Take how long you worked on it (t) x (l) expected labor rate. Now you have all the info you need. Labor/time and Materials. --as you said, Rule of Thumb-- The reality check comes when you can't get what you expect for it- and since time and material are documentable costs, the only other variable is labor rate. Sometimes the customers are telling you " Your work isn't worth $25/hr". Other times, the speed at which they produce the funds tells you "Charge more."

tres bonne! Seriously nice work there!

If you're hoping or expecting to get a lot of traffic, it's better to lease the space from a hosting company. There's little perks like redundant backups, and guaranteed "up-time". It's probably cheaper once you consider T&M to build the machine, buy the bandwidth, and set aside $$ for back-ups and maintanance materials. Plus, if you ever need to upgrade your bandwidth, it's easier.

I'm starting to see visions of clicker dies.....

No, sodapop, it's more ... ... ... ... ... . But that's just my opinion.