mikesc

The only "absolute proof" would be chromatogram ( chromatography* ) analysis ( or similar ) , of the "sample" compared against a "known reference sample"..Laboratory supply house dealing in Pharmaceutical Grade would be a "reference sample", some analysis units may even have the reference figure already in their database for comparison.With respect, your product is not a "reference sample" and unless you are an analytical organic chemist, your "conclusions" would be of no more import than those of any one else reading or posting in the thread. You may have recently discovered traditional Russian leather techniques, but many of us ( especially the Russian leather workers who frequent this site, and there are some highly skilled ones ) were already aware of them for very many years previously, including their history, usages, procedures, and the leather and leather treatment products that they made...and still make. They have proven reputations as makers of traditional products for many years and in some cases many generations to preserve..You have just begun. Good luck with your sales..I might suggest that if you want people to be able to assess / review the quality of what you are making, ( and subsequently recommend the product to others ) that you offer some free samples, rather than offer discounts off what are apparently much more expensive products, than what is currently on the market . A seller's recommendation that their product is "high quality", based upon what they have recently learned ( but which very many people were already aware of and have been producing for hundreds of years ) is not really unbiased.. I'm certainly not looking for samples for myself, if I want Birch tar, I can get it already..and even if, as you posit , the Birch tar oil from Russia was 20% oil, reduction of the oil content would still leave a 500ml bottle ( minus 20% oil ) down to 400ml Bottle costing only $25.00 plus shipping ( and a little for the energy required to "slow cook" it in a "bain marie"..As YinTx pointed out further up, 500ml from you, would cost $350.00 .. but you assure us that yours is better, and as JLS would say, "you have a video" ..Yours is ( per ml ) around 60% of the retail price of Chanel number 5.. ( Chanel is just over $500.00 for 500ml, at the current exchange rate of USD to Euros ).. Good luck.. Ps..If you are selling this, you may require an MSDS sheet or Similar ( and an analysis by an independent laboratory so as to be able to ship it with the post office or any carriers ), that may vary with your jurisdiction and that of your customers..IIRC Canada and the USA have legislation which might apply..Europe certainly does, and do not forget product and public liability insurance etc..anyone swallows the stuff, sticks it in their eyes, whatever, you do not want to get sued..If you were merely selling someone else's product it is very much less of a risk ( but a risk nevertheless ) when you are manufacturing and selling your own, it can be a regulatory paperwork nightmare, even if nothing goes wrong.. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatography Pps..Your per ml price is also a lot more expensive than any of the Whiskey or Whisky that I have here, and I have some very good single malts..One of them even comes with a deed to a sq foot of a Scottish Island ( where the distillery is ) with every bottle. 'Nother 10 years and I'll own enough sq feet, to build a small cottage on, if they'd give planning permission, and if not ( highly likely, it would ruin the view ) certainly enough to have my own pic-nic spot. :)

Was watching a "re-run" of a 2011 French documentary last night on French PSB channel 5 ( while reading this thread, and Ferg's thread ), about Crocodiles , "Le crocodile du Nil après l'eden" about Nile Crocodiles ( and they covered various other Crocodilia too )..Very interesting, lot of people there and elsewhere have them as pets in ponds in their gardens or houses..Some even in what looked like bath tubs : ) Recorded it in case I miss it when it comes around again..Caught a few screen shots of a group of schoolchildren being introduced to one of "the more tame ones" ( apparently she has only ever bitten other crocs ..One little girl ( who has probably grown up since 2011 to become the Croc Skin Buyer For Hérmes ) was perfectly happy to walk over and sit on on the "tame" female Croc..She looks like she is picking out the best part for a handbag when she grows up. Then this morning I read your "bathroom experience" Brian ..Thought you might appreciate this image ..

Birch Tar Oil..Brand is Farmaks..ships from Russia..available all over the web..especially on Ebay. $9.90 for 100ml or 3.4 fl oz..also available in 500ml bottles $25.00..or cases..shipping is cheap. Lots of uses..old remedy..works very well.. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Birch-tar-oil-100-ml-3-4-fl-oz-natural-antiseptic-diseases-Betula-Russia-/142666004310 Full product description In English and Russian is on that Ebay page..it is "the real deal", not an essential oil , ( they are made from steaming / distilling* the leaves and or blossoms / flowers / roots / rhizomes / bark / other parts of plants ). In the UK and Ireland you used to be able to get ( maybe still can ) a product made from coal tar..from chemist shops and farm supply outlets..to do the same kind of things...There was ( is ? ) a soap that used smaller amounts of the coal tar.."Wright's Coal tar Soap"..antiseptic soap,..for when you were bathing in the tin bath, and for washing hair.. You may even be able to get it ( the coal tar oil or the birch tar oil ) in the USA from old style farm supply businesses..in areas with livestock, probably someone was making it in the USA or Canada under other brand names ..It is as old as the hills..Very little is "new", things just get forgotten by the many..and then they "come around" again..like using baking soda and vinegar for cleaning in the house.. HTH * that isn't quite how you make "essential oils" but it is a simplified description of how they are made..I have friends here in France who make various types of essential oils.

Their videos are protected / streamed in a player by the Brightcove system, they can be downloaded ( not easily , but after seeing someone mention it further up the thread my curiosity was peaked )..so I downloaded what I think is the first one ( about 10 minutes long , a bi-fold wallet with ID window )..took a bit of experimentation to get the stream isolated. Basically the Brightcove system "scinds" the original video and incorporated audio file into much smaller shards than it is originally, in doing so it creates m3u8 files ( one per shard ) , and the player downloads the corresponding video file for each shard ( each in sequence ), These are played seamlessly, in sequence in the player..But if you download them outside of the player, you would have to join them all together yourself sequentially ( so I got I think just under a 100 ts files and the same number of m3u8 files for that 1st video* ) that can be done, but manually it would take a long time to rebuild the ten minutes of video, and a linear video editor ( linux has some free ones, the windows and mac ones that can work with ts files are I think all "pay for it" software ) , or you could write code to put them into sequence automatically..in doing so you'd be basically writing a player..As an exercise it might be "fun" ( except I have more important things to do ) but also, why re-invent the wheel ? Just to keep them on a hard drive somewhere..? I'm not interested by them, so I didn't bother keeping the files that make up that wallet video ( deleted it / them ) after working out how it was being done , and how it could be re-built. A far simpler way is to record the stream ( video / audio system output before it gets to the screen and speakers ) which is what screen recorders are actually doing ( more or less* ) even the ones that can include the mouse movements like some of the software used to make instructional videos etc..or those which are included in other software But why bother? if you want to see the videos , they are giving the access to watch them free. Seems somewhat churlish ( not saying anyone here would, nor was ) to me to take advantage of that. Kind of like recording a movie from someone's TV after they invited you round to watch it. Or recording one of Nigel's "subscription" videos ( which I think are on Vimeo ) ..or making a copy of the keys when someone loans you their car..or cam-cording the screen in a movie theatre. Posting them elsewhere would not be right, so they protect themselves as much as they can against that, you can't "share" what isn't your own creation or IP..and even if technically it is possible, it would be wrong. Watch the ones that interest you while the access is free, if they make them "pay to watch" again, you could , I presume, pay to watch specific ones again..How much was it to watch a video there before they made them free ? I've never bought from Tandy, ( not so much as a needle ) so I don't know. * This and other things mentioned are more complex than "more or less", but this isn't a programmers site, nor a video / audio software site..this is one of the best known. https://forum.doom9.org/ for anyone interested :) and some background to it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom9

"First responder's" real job is a designer , artist, sculptor..I went waaaaaay past "there" in wood and other materials many decades ago :) When I get around to making my "foot shaped" shoes / boots, they'll have to have toe and sole protection, my "store bought" ones have that protection in steel, but my neighbour has the same protection ( very expensive engineers type boots ) in Kevlar, lighter on the feet, and Kevlar is easy to mold. I buy some leather ( some exotics ) from a friend who is a shoe and bootmaker ( bespoke, very expensive, luxury footwear )..so I'll have some "guidance" and use of his tools and workshop..But there is more than one way to skin a .... so .like when Brian posts "how tos" I follow along with interest, the watching / hearing / reading the problem solving process of other people's minds, is often at least as interesting as the finished results..Be it woodworking, sculpture, painting, drawing, leatherwork, building, restoring, whatever. :) I agree with what you have written to the left of your profile "interests" wholeheartedly Ferg :)

Well, I was going to turn in for the night..But..Seeing those pics, I just poured a glass of leapfrog in order to raise it to you.. Very Very nice work there :)

My toes are all long, but the big one is longer than the second one..But..as the second fingers on my hands are longer than the first fingers,( they are all long ) You'd expect feet to match..Mine don't..But given the shape of shoes and lasts , maybe Morton's toes are / were predominant. Ferg..are you going to do any decoration? If you have thought that far ahead .? Some Brogue patterns could be used to add a feminine touch.

Ah..Thanks for that Ferg :) Yes they did look "somewhat pointy" in that photo, had me worried for a while there :) I have learned not to even so much as hint at a comment concerning the number of pairs of shoes my wife has, in return she doesn't comment on my tool purchases, and only rarely comments on the number of sewing machines and computers I have. I'll be following with interest, I can only stand wearing shoes for a few hours a day due to various damage to my feet over the years, typing this in bare feet now.

Definitely interested..Just the one question ..Why have you decided to use a slightly pointed shape ( one in which the longest part is close to the centre line ) rather than one in which the longest part is closer to the inside edge ? Feet are longer at the big toe, rather than at the second or third toe.I'm thinking like a sandal sole shape , which allows the toes to spread naturally, as opposed to a western boot sole shape, which squishes them to a point in line with the centre line of the foot..Thinking about a recent thread here from someone who is making boots that fit their feet as opposed to making boots that their feet must fit into.I mention this as if you are working from "scratch" and your wife already has bone and articulation problems in her feet, I'm surprised to see that you made allowances ( adjusted the lasts ) at the sides, but kept the artificial ( compared with the shape of human feet ) "longest point is on a centre line of the foot " aspect of the shape of the lasts ? As I understand it, shoes are made "pointed along a centre line" and narrower at the front ( despite the fact that feet are not that shape ) so as to make the shoe easier to remove from the last..Not to be comfortable on the feet. Or..did your wife say ( as mine would if I said I was going to make her some "foot shaped shoes" ) "I'm not wearing shoes that make it look like I have ducks feet when they are on"..In which case I can sympathise, I'd opt for the quiet life too I may well make myself a pair of "feet shaped shoes" one day, but I know that my wife would never wear any if I made them for her, unless inside the house only. ps..did you think of casting her feet in plaster*( two or three part molds per each foot ) and then making a "positive cast" of her foot , which you could then carve lasts from blocks to get her precise foot shape for each foot.You can use cold silicone or alginate casting which would be flexible enough to peel off her feet when set, alginates set up very fast, used for molding faces , limbs etc , and for what I think are called " baby bump" castings. Casting is very easy, especially if you do not have to allow for leaving the spaces between the toes. edit..I found the thread I was thinking of..Original poster was tozafoot Very interesting thread..well worth looking at his site too, very interesting reading in there.Especially about "give toes room" and trying to make shoes as close to "barefoot" as possible to avoid foot problems, or lessen pain from existing conditions due to "fashionable" shaped footwear, constraining and distorting feet over time. https://tozafoot.com/2019/07/02/experimenting-with-design-and-method-side-fastening-shoes/

Even the old singer domestics ( any of them, all models ) are not supposed to "bump" that pin, when the tension unit is fitted or being changed it is supposed to be inserted not too deeply into the body, ( when re-inserting it , test to make sure that the foot lift only actions it when the feet are half way up..not before* ) so that the pin is not "bumped" when the machine is stitching , and is only pushed when the feet are lifted..The fact that you may be lucky and get a stitch to form correctly when that needle gets bumped during stitching is not an indicator of it behaving correctly, just that the machines were badly d set up or tinkered with at some time in their lives. Your tensions discs should move apart when the feet are lifted ( doesn't matter if it is by a pedal, or a knee lift, or a manual lift )..without that you are never getting proper separation of the discs when you thread your machine..Sounds like your tension assembly needs taking out and cleaning thoroughly , inside and out..and you need to see if you have the little rod that is supposed to be actioning the tension release.You may have it and it may be stuck / rusted, or you may be missing it. If after stripping and cleaning your tension unit , it still doesn't work correctly , swap it for a new one..Order a new one anyway, that way if you should break anything on the old one while you are exploring how they work, you'll have a new one on the way and wont be stuck..It is the kind of thing that you always have a spare for each machine that you have. Like spare bobbin cases.. * reason to do this is so that if you need to you can plant the needle in the work, lift the feet just a touch , keeping the tension, and turn the work if you need to, like when turning a corner.. Think about what happens when a stitch is formed on a lock stitch machine which uses a descending / ascending needle and a bobbin in a hook, domestic or industrial..Why would the top thread ( the one that the needle carries ) need it's tension releasing at any point in the cycle that forms a stitch ?

Ah yes..we have many Elmers in France ( about 7 million with licences, and as many again without )..Weekend Rambos..( Cammo wearing, Pastis swigging, French ciggies smoking, loud, drunk, and they have totally disobedient dogs that have bells on and get shouted at incessantly, all of which shouted commands the dogs ignore ) If they only shot themselves when they were pissed ( they manage to shoot each other many times , all standing around the same tiny copse , or clump of bushes, and pointing their shotguns into the middle, ignoring the fact that their mates are in line of fire at the other side of it might be a reason ) it would be OK, but they also manage to get a few mushroom gatherers and ramblers every year. If I'm going to hunt for food, ( partial to a bit of wild boar ( sanglier ) we are* ) I'll do it on my own, or with mates from the military or gendarmerie who can shoot, and who stay sober ) not with a group of drunks, who meet in the bar at 6 or 7 am before going out for a days shooting, who think that the prey can't hear or smell them, ( the idea of "downwind" is too complicated when one can barely see through the alcohol haze to drive the 4x4s to where the "bétes" are thought to be ) but they wear cammo so that the prey can't seen them ( nothing to do with playing Rambo , honest ) and who can't see accurately at 25 yards in open country let alone shoot accurately at that distance.. *Some have been known to say it is caused by bearing more than a passing resemblance to Obelix..but not fat / gros.

"Active" (as in "one that works" ) yes..but throwaway..or unique to that request for an email address..loads of places ( websites ) that will let you create an email address that you can throw away / "kill" / delete as soon as you get a link to "click to confirm / activate your account" .. Or you can pick a domain name..get hosting with unlimited email addresses, and make an email address for each time that you are asked to give one. Or be "creative" with gmail ..I think ( I was one of the first 100 invited there back when it was invite only, but I only made gmail addresses to block anyone from using mycompanynames@gmail.com, I only log in to clear the spam, and to keep the addresses active for some android phones, so gmail may have changed what you can do with their addresses ) that gmail allows you to use a dot delimiter in their email addresses..like say this-site.me@gmail.com or use + signs, like this-site+me@gmail.com..That allows you to see who sold or leaked any email address made that way. But using a domain or domains with unlimited email addresses that you can create and destroy or block is far more versatile..stops you having to wade through the spam when some one sells your address on, or when they get hacked..The first "spam" email from anyone, the address that was created for them, gets nuked..and a report filed to whoever is the authority for data protection in their country / state and mine. ps..any website that sends you your password in "plain text" via email ( which is very rarely encrypted ) is not taking security seriously, ( and is in breach of many laws ) any one between the website ( even a website that is itself HTTPS ) and you ( that means anyone in the route , including all at your ISP ) can read it..

For want of a nail...

Given the breach that they had a few months ago, where a very large number of emails etc were taken, and GDPR, making everything free in order to harvest email addresses and details would seem to me to be a very very dumb idea..There will already be major fine hanging over them from the USA authorities ( I know that they were breached, they said so, publicly and privately ) for the first breach , requiring email addresses etc for "free" downloads , when the items could just be linked to without requiring any "details" ( email or otherwise ) is a certain way to get a GDPR slap..Then again GDPR my be a reason why they shut down in Europe, so as to remove a "nexus" from Europe. Unfortunately, if that was the reason, GDPR doesn't work like that. Nor do the similar laws enacted since GDPR by some other countries and also by certain USA states , or others being put into law, by other countries and other USA states..If they use any of those emails, they will be up to their ears in trouble, no matter what their TOS may, or may not say.The days of companies being able to harvest email addresses and other details for "free" items , "free downloadable" items, or "win a whatever" are over since two years ago..Allowing access to "free" does not a "business relationship" make..anyone who did not already have an existing business relationship with them..cannot be contacted by them via any details that they may have given ( including email addresses ) in order to gain access to "free".. Ps..does any one give real email addresses, I mean the ones that your ISP gives you ( gmail, hotmail etc don't count ) to anyone / any website ? I run my own mail server, ( unlimited email addresses ) so everyone I contact gets a unique email address to send to, that way you know who sold it or gave it away or leaked it, and it can be set to "bounce" or "black hole" ..Domain hosting with unlimited email addresses is cheap..Hosting is cheap, VPS are cheap, even servers are cheap compared to what they used to cost. Even with unlimited bandwidth.

Ah..Yes..;) I see now..having watched "the video"..I missed the thread that you linked to.. Yep..I think he just put the tension unit too far in when he fitted it and convinced himself that if the rod was actioning the tension discs during each stitch cycle that there must be a good reason ( what he imagined it was, we'll never know ) for it as opposed to "I put the thing in too far" As was said in the comments on that thread, it is a shame that Harry didn't take the video down , that would have saved all those who watched it from making the same mistake as the wrong information has now become what Matt referred to as "fuddlore" ( I like that one, I may steal it, a perfectly cromulent word there )..Reminds me of the "the thread goes around the little pin at the tension discs" on the Altas video..Aaargh !! That is a real piece of misinformation, shows up here regularly. Apparently on those "all in one" tension and take up spring assemblies, the little rod is sold with them. so when I wrote "this metal rod is not sold as part of the tension assembly" earlier, I was wrong ?..I've never bought one of those "all in ones"..I'm used to the machines that have the tension discs assembly and the take up spring assembly as separate units, or..someone has been leaving the rods out when I've bought tension disc assemblies. Took a while to find your comment on the youtube thread. I hate the youtube comments system with the "click to see replies" to each comment..Why can't they use "nested" comments and replies, so that you see all the comments and all the replies to each, instead of their "hunt the needle"..Wouldn't hurt Google to "auto translate" comments in other languages either, if Alibaba / Aliexpress can do it in their reviews, why not Google, who own a translation engine, not that it translates well between the languages that I know, but it would be better than my trying to read languages that I don't know <= there are a lot of them.

https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/category/79/ebooks Apparently it is all free, books, patterns, doodles etc, even access to the videos, at the moment. How long that will last ?

Harry ?

If they don't separate, it isn't usually the tension assembly that is at fault, but usually it is the tiny metal rod inside the machine behind the tension assembly , that is actioned ( pushed towards the tension discs ) when you lift the foot, when it works properly, it pushes against the outer tension disc, thus separating it from the inner tension disc.The amount of this movement is tiny ( a few mm ) but if the rod is broken, or worn, or missing.. then the tension discs will not be pushed part when the feet are lifted..This metal rod is not sold as part of the tension assembly..no point in replacing a tension assembly if the problem is with the rod or elsewhere. re .BUSM/Pearson No6..Interesting Matt , I've never seen one in action / IRL , although I think one was for sale ( about €800.00 ) last year about 50 kms from me.I'd have no use for one so didn't "go see". Likewise there was a very cheap large powered clicker for sale last week about 100 km away ( may still be ) , but I'd have no use for it.

I missed #2 at imgur..

Yep, I let that one "go by me" CD.. :) None of my ( nor any I ever saw* ) domestics, or Industrials ever released the upper tension during the stitch. Unless they had a problem / were broken/ missing a part / or more than one part. *I haven't seen them all ( sewing machines ) by any means, very far from it, so am always willing to hear of one that does..deliberately.

Upper tension should release when you lift the feet "lift lever" ( either by hand or by knee control ) ..tension discs ( the ones with the spiral spring on them ) should move apart.

You took them on an iphone..( the original image data size was 1.9 megs, ) to make them smaller, email them to yourself. HTH

The day will come when imgur will close down or begin charging to host images..tinypix is closing their service in September 2019..Many other image hosting services are gone, which is why many threads here are missing images, always post images here..Tom posted while I was typing :) Here is the image that was posted to imgur.

The only person who I can think of here who has done a lot of work on Pfaff ( besides Eric "gottaknow", who has not been around here for a long while now* ) is Uwe. *I hope Eric is OK Is that "oiling pipe" "slotted" at the end away from the shaft ?..I can't tell from the diagram. If it was, one would think that it would be removable ( and thus might be acting as a secondary "grub screw" albeit not intentionally, as being brass ( presuming it is brass, as most are ) it would be too prone to damage.

Is it possible that the bushing cannot be moved along the shaft to the right ? The screw may be merely to stop rotation of the bushing around the shaft ? There is a better diagram than the one you posted available here https://www.universalsewing.com/tek9.asp?pg=parts_pfaff Scroll down to get to 145 and subclass. In the pdf at page 21 ( diagram 11.80 ) the shaft sis shown with a "step" at the extreme left end..it may be that this "step" buts up against a corresponding "lip" inside the bushing? If so that would prevent any movement to the right..If that is the case ? you'd have to remove the bushing in a leftward direction, and then "machine" the shaft , so that the "step" was further to the right.The bushing itself may well have been heat set onto the shaft despite the presence of the "grubscrew / set screw" below and whatever that is ( oiling point ? ) above the shaft in the diagram 11.8. Then again I could be entirely wrong, but if not it might explain why you cannot move it ( the bushing ) to the right ( along the shaft ) . Note..that pdf file also shows the 545, and the bushing is the same as the 145, but the shaft that it sits on is not the same at the left hand end, maybe the 541 shaft is also different ?