bikermutt07

I watched a YouTube video last week that was new. He mentioned new videos are on the way for the Vimeo Channel.

I don't think you will see any problems with it getting wet. I can't help but think it is some concoction of Elmer's glue. I'm sorry, I haven't had any experience with the colored variety. Have you thought about adding some dye to the clear and doing some test pieces? I just now thought of that.

Great job

I have been mostly buying more stuff. I have a 12" and 24" bevelled straight edges like his and also a 8x12" engineer's square. I also bought some wallpaper liner to do templates with. The 3 measuring tools I found at Taytools on eBay. They have some really reasonable prices on perfectly good seconds.

Check out the tooling videos from Don Gonzales on YouTube. I don't tool, so that's as much help as I can be. Don makes some great videos.

Looks good, keep at it.

Some of your sanding can be avoided if you overcut a few of your pieces. By making nice cuts at the end thru a few layers you wind up with a lot nicer edge to start with before sanding. Don Gonzales shows this technique on a few of his videos. I'm not sure I am sounding very clear. If this doesn't make sense let me know.

Some of your sanding can be avoided if you overcut a few of your pieces. By making nice cuts at the end thru a few layers you wind up with a lot nicer edge to start with before sanding. Don Gonzales shows this technique on a few of his videos. I'm not sure I am sounding very clear. If this doesn't make sense let me know.

Very good job.

Welcome aboard, Alex. So, are you making covers for entire vehicles? Pattern making for that sounds daunting.

What area is that? I didn't know artisan was currently producing machines. That shows how much I know about machines. Please keep us posted with your experience involving that machine and dealer. It may help someone here in the future.

@Ken Nelson, I will second that. I have been here long enough to see Cobra Steve, Cowboy Bob, Alexander from Solar, and that other guy back east (I think at Ken's Sewing) all be super helpful to non customers here. They all have a great friendly reputation and I have even seen them answer queries on each other's machines. My cowboy is used and I wouldn't hesitate to ask if I needed help on it from one of these guys. @kbarker, there is a member here named @Uwe that makes a very nice flat bed attachment for the 3200 and 4500. As far as clones go.... If you are buying one from these banner dealers, those machines are built to their specs. They are fine machines built at a more reasonable price point than the machines they are clones of. These are all inspected, tuned, and tested by these guys before they are shipped. Give them a call if you want. They will answer your questions, give you sound advice, and they have even been known to refer people to a different brand they don't carry. They will help you find the right machine.

Earlier in your post I was leaning my opinion towards the cb341. Small cylinder, large bobbin, and a 3/8" lift capable of using 207 thread on top and bottom. Later in your post I would tend to lean towards the cowboy 3200 for more capacity. I am nothing near an expert or even a good machine user. I do own the 3200, but I was leaning hard towards the 341 when the 3200 fell in my lap. It seems your needs are falling right in between the two sweet spots of these machines. The 341 is going to excel in the lower end of your requirements and the 3200 will be in it's sweet spot at the upper end of your needs. That being said, I would probably work with the 3200. You may have to live with larger thread and needles on your smaller goods, but the machine can run lighter stuff. It just won't be able to do it with the same amount of grace as the 341. To everyone in the know, feel free to correct any thing I have advised if I am in the wrong. Good luck.

Great job.

That is Super Sweet. What are the little rectangular tabs behind the half round tabs for? Can we see more pics?

Just love learning new stuff and gathering tools.

@Sheilajeanne here you go.... I guess the rest of them are mostly on making different woodworking projects for art markets. But if you watched them as well, I'm sure you would pick up even more tips. Sean is very thorough and drops tips all over the place. Not to mention, he's pretty entertaining.

Is that in Florida? You could clean up in the world of Shopsmiths. They have lots available down there. All them old guys have one, and they usually have all the accessories. https://www.shopsmith.com/

Haven't heard about this technique?

The prison guy was from Craigslist, the Vegas deal was found here, and the consew was found thru a friend who deals a lot with the service guy at a local sewing shop. Just keep an eye out. It might not pop up for 6 months, but eventually a deal will show up. Here is just an observation I've made...... In the general market there isn't a ton of interest in leather tools. So, family members of deceased leather workers usually have no idea what something could be worth. And then, when they look on line they want near retail pricing. The problem with that is they want to sell it all at once. They don't realize that someone interested in all that stuff already has most of it already and isn't really interested in an entire collection. So, resale value is low on large lots owned by uninterested parties. I see it all the time here. This creates a buyer's market. I have heard that the best finds on industrial machines are when grandpa passed away and someone wants to sell his "old sewing machine". When the buyer shows up he finds some amazing deal on an old workhorse for next to nothing. I haven't experienced that one, but I've heard a few similar stories to it. End of non requested babbling.....

Just save a bit and be ready when one shows up. I had two fantastic deals fall in my lap in one month. It does happen. In six weeks you might run across an ad about how someone is getting out of leather, etc etc. That's when you clean up in this hobby. I have more stuff than I know what to do with, or where to put it..... Thanks to two guys getting out of leather, mostly. And those two investments where totaled at 1350.00. I wound up with probably $7-8,000.00 worth of materials, supplies, patterns, and machines. The big items were a cowboy 3200, a heritage 8" splitter, saddlers' tools, hundreds of stamps, letter sets, hand tools, pattern books, craft aids, you name it. The first deal was a guy getting out of prison. He needed cash, so that investment was $350.00. The second was a widower who was moving from Vegas to Oklahoma and did not want to mess with packing everything. I had to make a 57 hour round trip from Shreveport to Vegas, but the price was right. It better the cowboy 3200 and everything else the guy had for $1000.00. That trip cost $500.00 to make. I'm not saying make a crazy road trip like I did, I'm just saying be ready when a deal pops up. You will save thousands in this hobby by just having a small savings on hand. Edit: the two deals that I described didn't happen together. The two deals that happened in one month were the consew for $400.00 and the Vegas deal. Both in September of 2018. The prison deal was probably in 2015 or 2016.

You may want to revisit some of those domestic stores. My consew came from a domestic store that does repairs. It had been fixed and never picked up. The owner just really wanted his service fee back out of it. A friend was going to purchase it, but the repair guy wound up having an Adler my friend liked better. It may have been a unique opportunity, but that doesn't mean it can't work for you too.

Thanks CS.

Really nice, Jeff.

Oops sorry I wasn't more specific.