bikermutt07

It was a total boondoggle. Your wife is right, as always. I was on that site to help rebuild them. So, let's go off topic for a minute..... Those turbines we're manufactured by a company out of India. Originally, they were producing 1.6mw turbines. Then they decided to up the ante and produce 2.1mw turbines. The problem was it was the same turbine with a faster turning gearbox. They didn't beef up anything else. They just slinked it on in there. They also added 4 crappy little space heaters and called the turbine a cold weather rated turbine. When I first started working on them the communication between the parts and the controller were too fast. So any little hiccup or ghost signal as we called it, would cause a fail and shut the thing down. It was terrible. We couldn't make them run steady to save our lives. Then they fixed the communications. It was great. For about 6 months. Then their undersized turbines started having real problems. The 1.6mw generator started to burn up. The gear boxes started to have problems too. It was just one giant hot mess. They cost more money to run than a natural gas plant. Which is required to shut down units when the wind is blowing. Then spend 10s of thousands of dollars to fire those same gas turbine units back up when the wind turbines break down or the wind stops blowing 3 hours later. The whole dang thing was just one scam after another. And for what it's worth, I saw one of those new evil coal burning plants in New Mexico. The only thing coming out of those stacks was steam. Sorry, just wanted to share.

Suede nubuck? Maybe? Even if it's not, at least you have a snazzy looking awl.

Awesome. That braid thing confuses me. I worked on the wind turbine site just west of Cheyenne. Left that gig from that location in early 2010.

Please keep in mind, this art form almost completely died out from the early 80's until recently. There are more and more of us each day. But, we are a far cry from being the number of people compared to likes of shotgunning.

For the big stuff, I lay it flat on the table and hang the edge off the front. Then lay a smaller quartz slab on it to keep it still. Stitching sideways is pretty fun.

I believe it's because it is braided. Not twisted. But that's just a guess. No more than one needs, it's not too expensive. A few places have 25 and 75m spools they sell. It cost more per meter, but you can get more colors to try out. Rocky Mountain Leather Supply has the 25m on a buy 5 get one free basis (6 or 7 bucks, I think). That is where I bought my small spools. I think Make Supply has the 75m spools.

I'm pretty sure mine has "Heritage" cast into the base. Not sure it says Weaver on it anywhere. And mine doesn't have the numbers next to the depth markings. Of course, I'm not at the house today.

For the record, you'd have to be one high class hobo to carry that bag.

Maverick and Springfield Leather carry a healthy assortment of exotic scraps.

That is a pretty elaborate first project. Tackling binding on your first go is pretty ballsy. Of course you know your stitching will improve with time. All the rest of it looks evenly spaced and consistent. Great job. Capacity is really the only pro or con between the three horses. The clam and pony are obviously more portable than the horse.

That's what I was going to say.... It looks almost exactly like my heritage splitter from Weaver. But older. I'm not sure who Weaver borrowed the design from? It cleaned up real nice.

You keep it up and you're gonna be a sought after boot maker. Those look perfect.

Black River Laser will do that for you. That bag is awesome. How did you do that braid on the strap?

I have never used one. But, I reckon it would be invaluable for turned edges and bindings. Good luck, I'm sure someone with experience with them will chime in.

That is an excellent effort. You are off to a stellar start.

I thought about a giant poncho.

AhhhHaaaa!!! You the man, @Mattsbagger.

Well YouTube will not let me share the video here. Search Ian Atkinson "quick tip improving your saddle stitch".

What dye are you using?

It also looks like you have the thread size, awl size, and stitch length all figured out for this thread. That I found was a lot of the battle. It still looks like you could give them a little tapping with a hammer to help them lay down.

Yeah, not too long ago I realized I was essentially sewing backwards. I was trying to cast a loop to help the back, but I was doing it wrong. I was basically doing the exact opposite of what I was supposed to be doing. Since then, I said, screw the back. The back is the back.

I would like to say Tandy had a kit for those??? Sorry, I've never done one.

Nice and simple. Looks like your stitching is getting better.

Howdy, welcome aboard.

I believe the 6 month remark was a sales pitch thing. I haven't found any leather there that I needed that was worth what they wanted. Sometimes they have a decent leather for a somewhat decent price, but it is never anything I'm in great need of. Example, last month the had nice upolstrey whole hides for 99.00. I thought they were really nice, but I didn't have a need for them.