bikermutt07

My pleasure.

Isn't it nice to burnish good leather? Your stitching is coming along nicely. Really even lines on the stitch allowance. Very nice.

Thank you, Sir. It's not my idea though. French cleats really do assist in my ongoing quest for indecision.

Here are the rest of the pictures. I hope you all enjoyed this....

I am always preaching small scale batchwork for beginners. Why do I push this topic so much? Because, I spent 2 years off and on stumbling along wasting time and materials. I would want to make this or that. I would start it, mess up, forget a crucial step, or just do an all around unsatisfactory job. I would get frustrated and put it to the side. Then I wouldn't do anything for weeks or months. It was discouraging. Then I would start another one off project and the same thing would happen. It was like a broken record. Then one day @NVLeatherWorx saved my hobby. In one of the threads he mentioned make one thing. Over and over and over, until it's perfect. Then make something else, over and over, until it is also perfect. Thank God he said that. I'm not sure if he actually said the term batchwork at that time, but I had seen it here before. I started out with a single crappy Tandy shoulder and cut it all up into bracelet straps. Taking several of them thru all the steps together. I didn't complete all of them, but as I messed up one little strap, I put it to the side for testing the next step, and kept going forward with the others. You gain a lot of experience with batchwork. Instead of burnishing one thing for 10 minutes, you have hours and hours to develop your technique. The same is true of every step in the process. If you did one bracelet you would have one snap, maybe 5 decorative rivets or six inches of stamping, etc. ect. etc. But if you do a twelve pack of bracelets you just cranked up your hobby experience by a factor of 12. This gives you enough time to tweak on your technique. And it gives you more time with each step in the process. Driving the experience home in muscle memory and literal memory. So, as many here know my hobby room has been turned upside down for months. And I am finally getting ready to get back into my hobby at a new level. I started with a plan for a better use for my space. Over the months that grew into more tooling to make room for and, well it has been a minute since I have made much of anything. Well my brother wanted a new money clip, or rather a "notefold". Billfold has been taken for awhile. I, nor he came up with this concept. He found one and asked if I could make it. It is simple and can be made from scraps. I made a pattern. A proof, and then a prototype that proved to be a little thick. Then I made a batch of four to get his one. The batch is 1–2oz horween horsefront from Maverick. I really like the look of this stuff. Here is the proof out of 3 oz Tandy, the 5 oz cxl horsebutt prototype that was too thick, and the beginning of the batchwork. I love to have a Knipshield knife in the frame when I can. Doing for at a time I made each cut on each sequential piece. This helped with the muscle memory and sped up the process not unlike an assembly line. (More in the next post).

Perfection is paralysis, my friend. Keep in mind I have been brooding over this for months upon months. I still don't have a place for all the additions that have popped up since September. I think my spray booth contraption will have to be built on the front porch due to the "champagne problems" presented by the cowboy and it's accompanists.

And a few close ups.... I still have to build bases for these and a few other hand machines. Due to limited space I will have to set up a tool base bracket so I can interchange tools in the same space. Here is a shot of my organizers. These came from Home Depot at 20 bucks a pop. They are mounted on french cleats. I still have to make tool holders for all my hand tools in the french cleats fashion.

Update!! I can finally do a little work in here.....

Check out some of the blogs at DG Saddlery. He has some free PDFs on there to help with costing out shop time. His blogs are also chocked full of tips.

Pretty cool.

How was Wuta's leather. I haven't had any. I always just buy tools.

That looks great. Should last forever.

I totally agree with your thinking, however, that turned out pretty awesome.

My goodness, Roland. That is Superb. You, my boy, are well on your way to becoming a sought after high paid crafter. That is beautiful. I am so blown away.

We are all gay for leather. Lol Check out a company called Wuta. They have some quality stuff at reasonable prices and they ship worldwide. It does take a minute to receive your orders, but they are great to work with. They are on Amazon and eBay. Keep having fun.

I'm not sure. The tops of the dies are threaded (which is more than Tandy has to offer). And the bottoms are smooth and maybe 10mm. They have tons of stuff to offer. And at their prices it wouldn't take a big investment over time to have a press for the main dies you use. This press came with a lot purchase. It worked fine with the line 20 snaps it came with. It did not work with the line 20 off brand snaps I had. I didn't try the few Tandy brand snaps I have. I guess I need more line 20 snaps. I can't testify to the durability of their hardware as I just got this press. The buckle guy's prices may be comparable and I did hear his snaps are solid brass. YMMV.

Check out Goldstar. https://goldstartool.com/heavy-duty-press-for-grommets-snaps-buttons-rivets-die-set.html I just tried mine out this weekend. Works great, inexpensive, plenty of dies (also inexpensive), and supplies availability.

I hope it can sell in the EU so it can all stay original.

You sir, have an addiction. Beautiful job. Good luck on the sale.

I remember seeing this somewhere awhile back. And please don't take this the wrong way. Anyone who has the money and need for this quantity has access to less expensive options. And anyone else won't have that kind of cash to drop on a whim for their hobby. Just the way it is. Of course I have been wrong before. Good luck.

That is going to fall into the 2 machine category. The Cowboy 3200 tops out a 1/2", so you would need a 3500 to do 5/8". Most folks get by using the 3200 on holsters though. I did learn from a friend that the height of the machine drops a 1/4" when you install the holster needle plate. There are comparable machines from Cobra and techsew available like the ones mentioned above. Also, the industry standard is thread size 277 or thicker for holsters. Sewing machines are designed to run in a range. They have a sweet spot. Can the 3200 make a wallet? Short answer, yes. Long answer, not easily. You will probably find it hard to get a needle small enough to make a decent wallet. Also, the tension on the presser foot is high. This will cause marks and problems on thinner materials. I believe a lighter spring is available but you would have to change it back and forth. Then you have thread and bobbin tension adjustments to fiddle with. People have done all this to see if it will work. And it has. But, no one that I know of wants to do it as a part of their daily routine. Most folks, (myself included) want to set it and forget it. These machines are costly and to to me, intimidating. I don't want to be fiddling with them. I want to use them. The best I can tell a machine mentioned above paired with a consew 206rb is a great combination. Or even a cowboy 227r or cb341 if you need the cylinder capability on the small machine. I recently acquired a 3200 and a 206rb-1. But, my studio has been involved in a long ongoing transitional phase to make room for them, and new work areas. So, I haven't really gotten to learn how to use them yet. All that I have passed along is from researching these machines here and elsewhere over the last few years. There are plenty of experts here and I'm sure they will correct me if I am wrong on any of this. And don't leave out other manufacturers, I only referenced cowboy and consew because they are the brands I studied up on. Cobra, techsew, artisan, Adler, and juki are supposedly all great machines if cared for. Cobra and cowboy get a lot of high reviews here for their machines and more importantly, their service. Good luck.

Got my 3200 for 1000.00 , and a bunch of stuff. I had to drive across the country to get it though.

Price, and location?

@Mjolnir nice, and thanks. P.s. it looks better now. I have stuff a little more organized.

That is some very high quality work. The card holder looks like a Lamborghini doing 140mph.