mikesc

Oakwood leather dressing..or Oakwood Leather Conditioner ? If the latter, then Extract of the MDS "Contains a blend of ingredients not classified as hazardous to criteria of Worksafe Australia and NOHSC: Natural Ingredients including, Beeswax, Lanolin, Eucalyptus Oil, and Tea Tree Oil." note "Eucalyptus Oil, and Tea Tree Oil." Both oils..Both thin oils..I think they are what is causing the blurring / spreading of the carbon in the design ) ( the laser burning creates very fine carbon particles when it chars the leather..if you looked at a burned line under a strong microscope , I think it would not show "fused" but would be burned edges of fibres, some fused collagen, some loose carbon loaded fine particles..a thin oil will pick them up and , a bit like chromatography, will carry them outwards from where it found them..that would "blur" the lines in your design ) ..They'll be sitting on the surface of the leather, so..( might work if you are careful ) ..you could try sanding the surface of the design area with very fine nylon pad ( like a scouring pad ) Places that do car body repairs and repaints or boat hull repairs on polyester type hulls have them..or maybe a good DIY place ?..3M make the ones that I buy here ......if you can get the red or the white colour, you want the fine "grit"..They are colour coded as to various "grits" like sand paper..You may be able to sand the "blurring" away ,whilst leaving the design ( because it will be a little further into the leather surface ).. Put the leather flat as you can get it on a glass slab..double sided tape to the flesh side will help..then wrap the nylon pad around a wood block, and sand the design area ( and the rest of the piece lightly, stopping frequently to blow away, not wipe, the dust.. Better again would be to wrap the nylon pad stuff around a flat piece of glass ( "slicker" ? ) , that way it will be less likely to try to go down into the design lines..or if you can get some white coloured "abrasive paper, fine grade about 800 would be OK, upwards ( finer ) would be better..Whatever "abrasive" pad you get ( paper or nylon , wrapped around a flat block ) the finer the better ..Less likely to damage the surface of the leather.. Works for removing marks on delicate leather without disturbing the surface before finishing..and works on suede type finishes.. If you want to "fix" ( as in stop them from smudging ) any designs in the future , don't use anything with such "light oils" in..and you can try spraying the finished design with artists fixatif ( not a typo :) )..or a neutral type hairspray like Elnet..Works for "fixing" artists pastel ( pastel chalk like crayon ) artworks..on artwork ( but not on leather because it is not absorbent enough ( unlike paper made specially for pastels or charcoal ) you can also use sprayed whole milk.. The casein in the milk sets to form a sort of glue which fixes the pastel or charcoal works to the paper.. Ideally pastel works are not "fixed" as they lose some of the colour vibrancy that the pure pigments in them have when encapsulated by any fixatif. Charcoal works fixed with casein stay "fixed" , but the casein yellows a little eventually with age*..on leather it would "bead" and run or pool, so artists fixatif or hairspray would be better.. HTH :) * If you are ever thinking of making convincing aged charcoal artwork , bear in mind that the milk , paper, and charcoal etc that are available to us now..are not authentic to previous periods, they can be "dated"..especially anything post "nuclear" is easy to spot as it is contaminated with isotopes that it could not have if it pre-dated the first nuclear explosions..Making fake "anything" that passes detailed scientific analysis is hard if not impossible..people are much easier to fool..Usually they fool themselves.. pps..You'll have a compressor around somewhere set it to about 2 bars and use an airbrush or a dust blowing nozzle ( can't think of the English word here..Arrrgh ..French is "soufflette" ) to blow dust off work anyway rather than brushing it..brushing can leave streaks..Make sure that your compressor is drained regularly, and that your airlines are dry..if you have water / moisture trap filters, put them at the "gun " end of the airlines, not ( as most do ) at the compressor end..or better still use one at each end of the line.. Hold the work down firmly with a cotton gloved finger ( to avoid leaving skin oil prints ) when you are blowing air at it, or it will fly away..and Australia is a big place to go chasing it.. Edit ..I remembered soufflette = blowgun..like this https://www.amazon.fr/KS-TOOLS-515-1902-Soufflette-avec/dp/B001NYV0KQ Fine abrasive pads.. https://m.color-box.eu/art-20-coupes-scotch-brite-rouges-tres-fin-1002.htm Sanding paper , you'd want the kind that would be used for "scary sharp" , but white or beige , not grey or black..

That's the one :) ..and your spelling is the correct one..I think I've got used to the French spelling..which may have been a typo anyway by the TV guide people here years ago that stuck here..Kind of like Harley Davidson is always pronounced Arly Davinson here*.. :) *Not by me

The "embellishments" ( especially on the last image ) are "reminiscent" of Zena's costumes..always did like Zena. ~:) Yep..Link works now.. :)

The intertwining with the "floral" on the letters is nicely thought out. :)

@cseeger..Some of the site links moved when the site went to https..you'll need to upload that pdf ( the one in the first post ..again ) it "404s" in the first post.. Looks very nice in the picture :)

What is in "leather dressing" ?

That is a tiny bobbin model..29K4...I have one ( it has short arm, tiny bobbin ) many of us have them.. "These itsy bitsy bobbins are best threaded with no more than T70 bonded, or 3 ply cotton thread." to quote ( and to agree with ) Wiz.. Personally, I've never heard of such a thing as a "conversion"..there is not enough space inside the end of the arm to begin with..

That looks like veg tan..old veg tan..not chrome tan.."chap leather" isn't a "thing"..( no such animal as a "chap"* ; ) ) but it might be a "weight".. Except as a "slang" English word ( rather old fashioned nowadays ) used to mean man..as in.. "I say old chap"..

If there are any posts with holes in that you can wind the thread around before the tension discs, wind it through more holes than you did for the #92..and check that the tension discs are working properly that he spring is not broken, and that the little bar ( it lives inside the machine.is like a thick needle but shorter and with no point..it pushes through the disc which is nearest to the machine onto the discs which is acted upon by the tension spring, thus it pushes them apart to release the tension when the foot is lifted..it can break, bend, stick , drop out, get kidnapped by aliens, ) that pushes them apart to release them when the foot is lifted has not stuck or broken..Looks and sounds from your description and image, like your tension discs are not closing up correctly..

I think that on your machine there are two buttons on the bed of the machine, between the needle plate and the upright where the arm joins the base.. Press on the right hand side button..keep it pressed..now rotate the machine pulley towards you..you'll feel the button "drop" just a little..keep it pressed ..now you can adjust the stitch length by turning the pulley towards you..or away from you, until the number that you want aligns with the small white dot mark on the machine casting ..when it does..release the button ( just rest your finger lightly on it so that you can feel what it is doing )..and turn the pulley towards you..You'll feel the button move back up ( you may even hear a slight "click" ) when it does it means that the machine is ready to sew at the stitch length that you set..test by hand wheeling the pulley towards you..You'll see that the stitch length has changed.. It is actually the feed dog "feed" that changes..Your machine is a lot like my Singer 211..we noticed in another thread..But you are fortunate ..yours has numbers..

@LatigoAmigo..I only just noticed..my :) up there picked up a p ..no idea where that came from..( ah ..on my French keyboard p is just below ) ) must have hit both keys at once.. ( was in a hurry, didn't wait around to see the comment upload ) too late now to edit and remove it..my apologies..it was entirely inadvertent..

That one 404s... try to re-upload it..( never mind..your "edit" corrected the link ).. :)p

Turn your knee lift assembly ( the one in the bottom photo b) over..so that the flanges with the mounting holes are facing the upwards.. then you'll see.. In the top photo...the part which is "beak shaped" ( with the little return spring on it ) on the bottom of your sewing machine... rests on, and rides along the angle bar that is locked to the large bar between the two flanged brackets on your knee lift assembly ( bottom photo )..as you push on the knee lift the whole bar ( between the two flanges ) pivots and the angles bar pushes against the "beak"..the more you push against the knee lift the further along the beak is pushed towards the end of that small bar, that lifts the foot..when the foot is down the beak is nearer to the forged part that the angles bar passes through..The locking bolt that secures that angled bar, is so that you can adjust the point at which the beak contacts that bar..that way you can adjust the amount of lift.. Hope that makes sense. I have drip trays on all of my machines '( except the patcher ) so I'd have to remove one to photograph how it fits..perhaps someone else has a knee lifter with no drip tray..once you have seen how it fits..it will be a "doh" moment..We all have them :)

Indeed that is true where we are in Europe..I deal with French tanneries directly ( mainly for lambskin, sheepskin, goatskin etc ) ..I use less calfskin and cow, buffalo etc..but will be reading with interest your prices * :) ..The French tanneries do not normally give prices on their sites, one has to email them for a price list, ( and usually one has to provide a business registration number to receive a price list ) as TanneryLEJA says.. This prevents the "general public" ( our customers ), knowing the "raw materials" prices, many "customers" forget that they are paying for materials and expertise, especially expertise..( I know the prices that some tanneries pay for the skins that they tan, when we buy from them, we are also paying for their expertise )..and also giving prices out only in email to businesses, means that the tanneries do not waste their time with people wanting just one or two square feet. For small amounts, most if not all European tanneries refer people ( public or business, artisans ) to their "resellers".. *The minimum quantities for dyeing are interesting :) edit..having read the price list..worth mentioning for non metric nations.. 1 (sq meter) / (sq foot) = 10.7639104 sq feet Ounces to mm or vice versa..Google / Bing / DDG it.. or Tandy has a conversion chart https://www.tandyleather.com/en/leather-buying-guide.html

Just a thought from a non saddle maker..epoxy has very good "wont pull apart" strength..But no so good "shear strength"..one bolt wont counteract shearing..two other bolts ( can be smaller diametre than the main one ) placed forward and either side ( like at 10 to 2 position and epoxied along their length ) would give it that anti-shear strength..stop any possibility of "twist" or "pivoting" around the main bolt..Two quarter inch bolts epoxied into holes drilled in at an angle that follows ( approximately ) the front of the horn and down into the base should do the job..

http://www.techsew.com/techsew-3650hd-heavy-leather-industrial-sewing-machine.html That page indicates that it was delivered "sewn off"..could it be that your "fiddling around" with it, has resulted in it not sewing correctly and in parts falling off / out ? That page also says that you can call them free at any time for tech support and advice..for a machine that is only 4 months old, that is what I'd do ( if I had no experience ( which is what it sounds like to be your case ) with industrial machines )..Battleax's suggestion is a good one , paying a mechanic for a couple of hours of their time to sit with you will be worth your while, you'll then know what to ask / say if you need to phone techsew again at any time in the future..I'd hate to try to diagnose what someone had done if they told me over the phone that they had "fiddled around with the tension"..That kind of description is a tech support nightmare to deal with over the phone or even face to face, be it sewing machines or computers or anything else.. Unless you've irredeemably broken something horribly expensive while "fiddling" there's no reason why the machine would now be a "boat anchor"..so no reason for you to have to buy another..it is still under the one year guarantee from techsew..but any parts that you may have broken , obviously will not be covered by that..

Search the following strings in Google..there are loads ( like maybe hundreds ) of threads here already about making one's son tools from hand tools to mauls, ponys, tables, stamps..everything site:leatherworker.net make hand tools mauls pony -saddle site:leatherworker.net make hand tools mauls -saddle site:leatherworker.net make hand tools mauls -saddle site:leatherworker.net make hand tools -saddle Going back and reading all ( yes all ) the old threads would be very helpful and insightful.. I read for 3 weeks before making my first post..most of what people ask about ( unless it relates to a specific sewing machine ..and even then ) has already been asked, and answered, in the past..There is gold in the old threads here..if you search for it.. Whatever you want to look for..smply put the following search string into Google , or Bing or DDG site:leatherworker.net ********************************** -$$$$$$$$$$$$ But..put what you are interested in into the part where I put ***********..if more than one thing..use spaces between them, not commas..and where I put the -$$$$$$$ put whatever you don't want including..the - means "do not include" the "operator" site: restricts your search to the named site so site: leatherworker.net restricts your search to leatherworker.net Plus, reading old threads will give you a much better insight into what is possible, than hoping someone has the "magic inspirational bullet"..

Maybe that depends on if the person threading is right handed or left handed..some of us can use either hand, or both, some due to accident / injury / illness are more restricted. I saw a video a while ago on the BBC about a girl who was born with no arms, who operates her sewing machine ( including threading etc ) with her feet.

Juki 441 is what the big ones are clones of / based on..they are a lot more expensive than their clones..Want to avoid noise when sewing with a machine..you'll need a servo motor or a treadle..there'll still be a little noise.

MDR :)

Beware of Google translate :) It is usually not accurate enough to correctly translate the "nuance".. If I may rephrase Fredk's post, to explain what I mean . ****************** Méfiez-vous de Google traduire :) Il n'est généralement pas assez précis pour traduire correctement la "nuance"... Si je peux reformuler le message de Fredk, pour expliquer ce que je veux dire ****************************** Don't worry about finding the precise words or the correct tone. This forum has members from all over the world and most of us here today take into account the fact that not everyone has "English" as their mother tongue. I also know that sometimes what someone writes on the forum does not always convey exactly the nuance they would have liked. ****************************** Ne vous inquiétez pas de trouver les mots précis ou le ton correct. Ce forum a des membres du monde entier et la plupart d'entre nous ici aujourd'hui tiennent compte du fait que tout le monde n'a pas l'"anglais" comme langue maternelle. Je sais aussi que parfois ce que quelqu'un écrit sur le forum ne transmet pas toujours exactement la nuance qu'il aurait aimé. ****************************** Your reply was Votre réponse a été ****************************** Everything is true, you talk like a book.. Tout est vrai, tu parles comme un livre... ****************************** Made me smile. :) M'a fait sourire. :) ****************************** Don't worry.. Ne t'inquiète pas. ***************************** None of that was translated by Google. Rien de tout cela n'a été traduit par Google ***************************** Excusez mes fautes d'ortho Sometimes, it scratches your eyes!* Parfois, ça écorche les yeux ! ********************************** In English that phrase is strange..in French it works En anglais, cette expression est étrange... en français, ça marche... ********************************* We use English here , so that everyone understands, even if English is not their first language. Nous utilisons l'anglais ici, pour que tout le monde comprenne, même si l'anglais n'est pas sa langue maternelle. ********************************* French is not my first language. Le français n'est pas ma langue maternelle.

Expanded foam ( EPS ) the kind used in packaging and insulation..Yes Drill hole..no.. Just thread a hand sewing needle and push it into and straight through the block of polystyrene..out of the other side..then un-thread the nylon from the needle, and leave the polystyrene stuck on the thread, take the end of the thread that you just pushed through and un-threaded and continue threading your machine with it, as if the polystyrene block was not there ..When the machine begins pulling on the thread to sew, the polystyrened block will get pulled along towards the first thread guide, it will bang up against it, it will stop there, ( if it doesn't , use some duct tape to secure it to the machine, the important thing is that the thread gets pulled through it as close as possible to the last thread guide before tension discs ) the thread will continue being pulled through it by the machine..This is how one removes the twists and kinks in metallic thread..Even on industrial machines like the old singers with ZIG-ZAG and variable bight, or the singer lighter weight industrials like my Singer 33U that are used for "free-form" embroidery.. Even a polystyrene packaging "peanut" will work if used with thin thread.

I just realised looking at this "thread" ( s'cuse the unavoidable pun ) again..I forgot to say..I know that the threads being referred to here are nylon and polyester, my comment about metallics is "in case it helps anyone to try that method" with nylon or polyester..I have a 201 ( treadle ) amongst my "stable" of machines, but it is behind a load of things that I'm not scheduled to move until next week, so cant test the possibility myself to see if it helps any..Just throwing the idea out there.. Agree totally, all threads are not created equal..some ( even in the same colour batch , from the same manufacturer ) are not quite the same as others, sometimes you just give up and give them to the cat to play with, or use them to prevent the birds eating the seeds..Things to do with totally uncooperative thread .

One of the reely great tape machines..before all the "logic touch" ( "will it, won't it, work on a rainy day" ) ones took over..Some Akai models even had wooden ( veneered ) cabinets to match me speakers :)

LL would work, but is probably already taken..and would cost a fortune to buy as any usable TLD ( "top level domain" suffix ) , because it is two letters.. ADIL is already taken..( four letters ) , But the longer version I posted is available in many TLDs..as long as no-one other than ADIL "snaps it up" after reading this thread. Always have to think when "branding" a business..is the dot com and the local TLD available..if it isn't..the "brand" will be useless, or you'll have to pay a fortune to someone to buy it from them, and they may not want to sell anyway.. You only need the dotcom and your local country TLD..and maybe the dotcodotuk and the dotco ..other TLDs either are not applicable (associated with services like dotnet, charities, like dotorg, tech like dotio etc ) , or will have country of residence or business registration restrictions..like dotus or dotcn, or dotuk or dotde, or doteu etc. I have a lot of domain names ( over 100 )..which seems like a lot for an individual business, it is not..I know a guy with over 25000 ..and some "domainers" and "domainer" businesses have millions..It is bad enough having over a 100 set to "auto-renew" ( they cost yearly , or , multiples of years, or decennially..you can renew "further out" than 10 years, but before the ten years is up, you can renew for another 10 ) ..if you don't have them set to "auto-renew", and keep the credit card provisioned, you can lose them..Can be very expensive to buy them back, unless you have them trademarked. Another reason for ADILeather over LIDA Leather. A, or any name beginning with A comes first in the phone book ( they still exist..even in paper versions in some countries..definitely in online versions..and everyone, especially customers, have an address book, in which they list in alphabetical order ) any name beginning with L, is at lest 12 pages further into the phone book / address book. You even have to "scroll" further to reach it on your phone's address book, or your customers will have to scroll further to reach it on their phones. Don't make the customer have to work to find you.. This is why it is better to be at the 1st position on page one, in search engine results, than 1st position on page two. Applies to "voice search" too ( on "smart" devices ) like Alexa , Siri, and Google.