MADMAX22

Hummm which came first the saddle or the book My original statement I was trying to say it originally probably came from that process. Guess I could have worded it a little better.

I like to slick before tooling but thats just me, many opinions on the subject. Try both and see what you like. Slicking IMHO provides a nice smooth finish to start with before the mangling begins.

Ferg I dont think anyone was pointing to you as messing up or anything, just giving pointers for people dealing with various resellers. Heck most all of us have to get a few customers to take a plunge and order the first few. Just so happens in this case ya got the bad side of 50/50/90.

Look up any book binding as thats probably where the above got there info from.

Sometimes part of selling a trade is educating the customer on what they dont know which in leather working can be alot. They probably saw something that referred to oil tan or other items which are fine being made with oil tan leather and wanted that look for there personal items although maybe they dont realize you use vegtan for things like holsters and belts because it can be rather stiff and hold its shape for a long time. I would ask the customer for some pics or a better description of what they actually are looking for then you can figure out if and how to accommodate them. That being said you can line many types of leather with vegtan and it will thus hold its shape however you are depended on the thickness of the vegtan so say you line a 5oz oil tan (chrome tan) with 5oz vegtan its only going to hold its shape as well as the 5oz vegtan will. Wickett and craig makes a latigo pull up type leather (due to all the waxes and oils) but I havent bought any as of yet however I doubt it molds very well.

I didnt notice it in the chinese version either. Doubt you will find any mention of this "normal adjustment" and since it doesnt seem to pop up here much I doubt I would consider it normal. It may be normal for the suppliers when they get them from china but didnt see it in any of there videos either. Glad it was posted though so atleast now there is something searchable if someone runs into the same issue.

Actually looks like there are several suppliers of various ceramic guides of all sorts. I am gonna look into it some and find the right size for when this one wears out.

Yeah that's a great idea. Thanks

Yep totally agree, all of my older machines the thread tension assemblies the stainless steel disk all have thread grooves cut in them. Usually go thru and flip them around before buying more. My 441 I didn't feel like ordering a new thread guide attachment so will see how long this last, with my output lately probably quiet a while. That porcelain sounds cool, gives me some ideas I am going to look into. I tried that initially but on mine there wasn't enough material to form a rounded lip if you will, it basically just kept sharpening it in a way. My CB4500 is from around 2009 I think so Im sure (would hope) they have made several improvements over that time period.

I think most are fine, I only have one machine. The problem was the hole that was drilled on mine was pretty close to the edge from the start so it had a pretty sharp edge around the top of the hole toward the edge that the thread guides over. The part doesn't wear thru per say very easily, on mine the portion that had the hole drilled in it wasn't hardened and there was no appreciable wear on it. The thread guide itself is hardened (probably case hardened) but the part that sticks out with the hole in it was easily cut with a file which tells me it wasn't hardened or had a very poor hardening in that specific area. I think it would have been fine had it had some more meat on it so I could of rounded that edge over however on mine that was not the case. The Brass (maybe bronze) that I used for this is pretty hard, I got it in a unmarked rod and it behaves like brass just a little harder then what your typical brass rod would be. Not saying it will last forever or anything but Ill keep an eye on it to see how long it holds up. If it starts to wear thru I may look at making one out of stainless next time.

The original thread guide didn't have enough material on the outside of the hole so I couldn't round it over to smooth it out. Ground the original down flush then silver soldered on a shaped piece of hard brass. Drilled original size hole and opened up the top some and smoothed it all out. Seems to be working pretty nice now with less thread wearing.

Regardless I would still leave it alone till you talked to someone at Cobra. Looks like they have a limited lifetime warranty but dont know the details so who knows what voids it.

Recently started using the weldwood gel stuff, seems to work as well or better then the regular weldwood but for me is easier to lay down. It doesnt have the stringyness to it. Worth a try for any of you weldwood users.

From looking at his site there is no mention where most of the leather comes from, a couple say America which is a very vague statement. In most/all of my dealings with leather suppliers if they pay the wholesale price for Hermann oak (for example) they are going to say where it comes from, same goes for say Sedgwick leathers or any other good/decent tannery. Its a selling point. When they dont mention then you either have to assume they dont know (bad) or they are from a source most wouldnt intentionally buy from usually (no name tannery in mexico for example). Also looking at his site he has a "story page" but no story, the front photo looks photoshopped (I would bet he doesnt have a big sign hanging in front of his old timey looking shack). Things like that throw me off. Hey having a old style website not an issue, having a minimalist but thought out website sure, having one with fake looking photos of what I assume are suppose to be his store front ehhh Ill look elsewhere. All just IMHO.

I think it would soak in a little to well on the edges. I think I tried that when I first started and if it had worked well I would still be doing it but I am not so assume it was a failure. As far as using it on finished leather thats a no go, it needs to soak into the leather. Even plain vegtan if not clean can cause issues with a good vinegaroon job ecspecially if opting to paint brush it on (dipping works best IMHO).

Could be the foam when that thick combined with everything else is a little harder to feed which doesnt help the stitch length (depending if you have smooth or toothed feed dog and feet) combined with the effect pointed out above.

Ya dont need 6k rpm. Heck you can burnish by hand if necessary.

EPA probably.

if its vegtan it could be tooled, I personally have never gotten pure vegtan bison only chrome tan. Here is a good search for this subject to give ya some reading. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=vegetable+tanned+bison+leather+site:leatherworker.net&*

Ya can clean it if you want with whatever, I usually just spray it with a mix of distilled water and saddle soap, slick it,wait till its good to tool and go to town. Neatsfoot oil after it has dried and dyed (if dying it). About a 100 different ways to do it, this is just how I "usually" do it.

Wicket and Craig, goliger,hide house, maverick for one's and twos, hermann oak directly if you can float the minimum.

Yeah I agree, my late mother use to raise german shepherds for the local authorities and subsequently started the training early on so by the time they took custody of the buggers they were already 50% of the way there. Early on we raised Queensland heelers also but training those guys is a whole other story lol. Unfortunately my somewhat bigger dog we got for my wife while I was deploying and still in the Navy so training was left up to her for the first couple of years and when I met her she was still a liberal for the most part so yeah the touchy feely training was used. Didnt work too well since he is a rhodesian ridgeback lab mix, energetic and very hard headed (but a great dog).

Also remember that the HO from some re-sellers are sold with the re-sellers interpretation of the grading system, as in they order a bunch of TR grade leather and scale it according to what they think it is vs how the tannery grades the leather. Basically dont hold it against hermann oak if you order B grade leather and get something that should be a D-.

For bags you would be better off with something that stitches thinner thread and material, for belts I would think it would be a great machine but I dont have one so... I would say go for it if you have the money, just remember regardless of what machine you get that in the future you will almost certainly get another machine since no one machine is perfect for everything. Get the manuals for it and be prepared to learn the machine in and out. Ask questions before tearing into it. Also take along some of the material you want to use for the belts and stitch it out before you buy it and see for yourself. Alot of people dont recommend the old machines yet they all have a bunch of them and dont plan on selling any of them for a say 441 or similar. I know I missed out on a few very good deals because I got directed to buying a 441 when I didnt know any better. Getting a new machine is "easier" for sure since it comes setup and usually a warranty and what not. If you dont plan on or know nothing of mechanics that may be a good route, if you can learn and dont have the funds for a new one then you have more options.

Nicely done. Atleast with old steel you can just add some elbow grease and get looking functional old again. I gotta figure out my knee lift linkage on my 111, where that L bend at the top goes thru the machine mounted linkage it scrapes at the original paint and I find it highly annoying. May have to find a rubber spacer or something to keep it out just a smidgen and off the paint.