LLWork

I wasn't too concerned that sealing it up would cause any reactions, like you said if it's going to happen it is going to happen. I was more worried that if sweat is making contact to the raw side of the leather that it might end up effecting the shape of the piece. My masks are made primarily for motorcycle riders, so it will be common to be out in the heat and sun. But I will look into those products, thanks for the tip!

So I've been making half-masks for a little while now, and for the most part they've all ended up with a moisture resistant foam lining. I just prototyped a new mask out that I'm planning on using only enough to cradle the nose. This means that a lot of the raw leather will likely be in contact with the wearers face, and likely some resulting sweat. Should I seal the raw side of the leather if this is going to be the case? If so, what should I use to seal it? Thanks in advance for any consideration. You guys rock.

Haha, I was just thinking of something along these lines myself. Only instead of camping, I was just going to stuff a few things into a backpack, hike out into the wilderness somewhere, and just do some wallet sewing in a meadow or something. It sounds so relaxing. Sewing's about all I was planning on doing though. Be pretty difficult to do much else.

A little while ago, I "temporarily" moved into a friends house. I was only supposed to be there for about 8-10 weeks while my cousin figured out a divorce, and wanted a little help paying the mortgage after everything was finalized. His kids are grown and moved out, so he had plenty of space to offer. I figured it would be best to wait it out in the basement of my friends house. So I packed my ENTIRE life into a room hardly bigger than my bed. I stacked cinder blocks four high and placed my bed on top of it. Sure, I needed a step ladder to get into bed, but you wouldn't believe how much I was able to store under it. What I couldn't fit under my bed was stacked in the closet, ceiling high. Then I had to fit my workbench into the room as well. Luckily I had a little corner in the room left, so that's where it went. The only problem was the door to my bedroom opened right into it, but there are worse problems in life, right? Here's what it ended up looking like. You can tell my bed is substantially higher than my workbench, and you can even make out my nighstand stuck well underneath. After getting the surface stocked up with my tools, I had a whopping 11"x18" work surface to create everything on. "It's only a few weeks. I can handle this!" I thought to myself. Turns out there are a ridiculous amount of hoops to jump through after a divorce, especially when trying to refinance a house. Things kept getting pushed back. "I should be getting word on the house in the next few days," were words I ended up hearing a lot. Eight weeks came and went quickly. Before I knew it, ten months had passed. I stopped working altogether. I'd spend eight hours to do four hours of work, and sliced right through my beds comforter as it was the only viable cutting surface in my room. When it came time to go to bed, everything from the bed had to be moved to the floor to clear up space. Depressing times. Not good for the head. FINALLY, I get the word that everything is done. It's go time. I get everything packed up and ready to go to get it moved the very first moment it is possible to do so. Here is everything that I had in my room, with the exception of my bed, work desk, and computer chair. I was pretty impressed with myself after seeing this pile. And another angle. And now, what has made everything worth it. I put the finishing touches on my new shop today. Managed to even get a start on some new products, and I couldn't be happier about it. So happy in fact, I just had to share with all of you. May I present to you, my new shop!!! :D Great lighting! North facing window!(no UV damage to the leather!) A tooling bench! A cutting table! Storage! Shelves! Ahhh I'm so excited!

I calmed down a bit over the past couple days haha. The more I thought about it, the more I decided this was the route to go. Fortunately, and this is the only aspect of my situation that is "good", but I've been in a temporary spot for a while now with no shop space. It crippled my production, but gave me plenty of time to prototype. I've got seven competing products to reveal the moment I move into my new shop, and a social media following that's way way better than his.

Well I would assume most of the people here wouldn't get one either? I did a quick search online and for the most part it was saying it wasn't worth it, so I just came in to see if anyone else had done anything about it another way.

Obviously I'm not talking about key fobs, or any of those products you fold twice and add a clip. I'm talking about those bigger things you design. Admittedly, my version of the product in question was inspired by existing things, but at the same time is still unique. Twice now I've discovered someone making near identical versions of it. The first guy built it for personal reasons, so I was fine with that. This new person, however, is planning on selling them. Via social media, I left a short and sweet message on the photo. "You stole my design. That is pretty lame." haha. But what can I really even do, right? I'm certainly not going to be contacting a lawyer or anything. Maybe a home made Cease and desist? haha.

I hate when I do that.

I think a lot of us would benefit from a "cellphone photography" lesson or two.

Here's a not so great picture of how I line mine, in case you wanted a visual. I don't line the entire inside, just the parts that will touch the nose and cheeks, and then leave the mouth open for airflow. I'd also like to point out that I never tried any type of cotton lining, I just had a 1" thick piece of this stuff leftover from making a motorcycle seat, so I sliced it thinner and liked how it felt. I don't know if anyone else uses this type of lining, I was just kind of making things up as I went along.

Joann should have something, it's basically just a one inch wide polyester ribbon. I use closed-cell neoprene foam rubber for my lining. Sometimes I use 1/4" thick, sometimes 1/8". Dap contact cement is also neoprene based, so a decent coat on both the foam and the leather locks it in really well. It's kind of expensive, and took me a long time to locate a local source, but it works and feels great. It is water resistant, so sweat shouldn't be able to penetrate it.

I would recommend using polyester straps for the crown. Instead of pulling the mask up into the eyes, the non-elastic polyester simply prevents it from moving down. I'd also put a little thought into sweat penetrating cotton foam, and the inevitable stink that might result after time.

I think you are over-complicating it. It sounds to me like you are trying to fill the entire cutting area of the laser at one time, meaning you would need a piece of leather with those exact dimensions, but you can get those same dimensions out of an odd shaped piece of leather and still end up with the same amount(or even more) final products. Not that cutting 85 at one time is less efficient, it's obviously more efficient, it's just a little less practical because there are usually some portions of the leather that are subjectively less desirable than others(brands, insect bites, scars...etc) If I were you, I'd buy a normal piece of leather, and cut them into 11" x 11" sections and just do 10 at a time(assuming you are making roughly a 1"x10" collar.) With your current thought process, you will end up paying more for a smaller portion of leather (because someone will charge you for the work) when you could just buy an odd shaped piece, and then maybe even get more collars out of the parts you would have paid to have removed.

I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm confused because you mention dog collars, but then you give the dimensions that are way too big for it. Are you wanting to put designs on a piece of leather that large so that you can cut it up into smaller pieces when it is done? If you're just asking how to get a square piece of leather with those dimensions, I would buy a piece of leather, get a cutting mat and a rotary blade, and cut it myself.

I use a laser quite a bit, and I use it to cut the leather as well as engrave. With something as thick as 6-8 oz, you'd have to make several passes to get through it, but it should be able to do the job. If you have a supplier cutting your pieces to size you're going to end up paying for the time to do so, so it's just going to make your materials more expensive.