TinkerTailor

electric. http://www.techsew.com/supplies/motors/techsew-smartservo-industrial-sewing-machine-motor.html

Overtight belts can cause this however, try to push the pedal just a little bit and then turn the handwheel, some motors have a brake that releases a little before the motor actually kicks. You may be able to adjust the pedal linkages to change when this brake engages. My motor has a brake and it works on the heel action of the pedal when adjusted correctly. I never use it, however if i run the machine fast and then let off the pedal all of a sudden the brake comes on and the whole machine bucks a bit as it stops.

When you are practicing as bob says, make sure you keep the swivel knife vertical. You leaned a bunch in some of those curves. If you lean the wrong way the blade is pushing down the leather you intend to raise. There are times where experienced artists lean the knife for effect, however this is quite intentional and not a result of leaning in the curves. I have occasionally seen people use lazy susans for swivel knife work so you can turn the work and the knife at the same time to achieve smoother curves in detail work. Turning the work is very common in engraving metal. As to design, if the bottom petals of the flower were 40% longer, they would cover that stem and both balance the flower, making it more circular but also add some depth.

Apparently not available in Canada. Didn't get it and it is not on their site.

HF even has circle hole punches sets for cheap

You get to feed the iron addiction. Isn't this enough? What more do you need for pitys sake?

I hit my stitching pretty hard with a hammer. It takes more force than just a spoon to push those thread flat. I hit about as hard as putting in a finishing nail with a 16oz hammer all up and down my seams. It can take a surprising beating. Hit lighter at the corners and ends. This is where the leather likes to blow out if you hit too hard. Sew up a few inches on a scrap, whack it and see.

Looked for them at wallyworld here in canuckistan and i think they dont sell them. I like the thicker black ones tattoo artists use, when I need some I get a buddy to throw a box or two on his next supply order. I can usually go on a friday afternoon with a six pack, drink one or two with them and leave with a box in hand....

Is it welted? If it is not, adding a welt in between the layers serves the purpose of protecting the stitching from the sharp edge. Its a nice looking project and the good news is you can use it till the blade cuts the stitches and then add in the welt when you re-stitch. Design is nice and simple and cut out well. I like the little notch you cut on the bottom of the front where the closer strap goes. It is a small detail but it shows more thought went in that just tracing the outline. Only thing I would do with it now is get a smooth flat faced hammer and pound down your stitch lines, this can really clean them up by flattening them and working out small tension inconsistencies. It also closes up the holes, locking the stitch. If you got one, a quick edge bevel would look nice as well.

Most are much later than the civil war but here is a site with 250+ high res scans of US cavalry equestrian gear blueprint patterns like this lo res image i downsized for the pathetic upload limit on here.: http://www.lrgaf.org/articles/blueprints.htm

Harness needles go so deep too. If you are pressing hard enough to put that blunt needle through your hide, there is nothing gonna stop it but bone. I hit my knuckle bone the other day with an awl. Went right in, no hesitation....Fortunately for me awl injuries are usually a clean and narrow hole that heals fast.....I find the most pain but not a lot of blood comes from pulling the thread into my baby fingers when stitching. If you pull hard enough to pop that waxed thread through your skin.......wow does that sting....I have leather finger sleeves I made from scraps for my baby fingers just to prevent this.

They see you coming at the leatherwork store......Tandy sells disposable nitrile blue rubber glove in a package of 6 gloves for $8.39 regular/$5.04 elite. That works out to $1.40-0.85 per glove. I can buy them in a box of 100 for $20 dollars at the drug store, This works out to 0.20 per glove. Tandy has put drug store gloves into ziplock bags and then multiplied the price by 7, because leatherwork...... All of the above are current Canadian pricing btw I am all for businesses buying wholesale and selling retail to make a profit. This is how it works. Doubling or even tripling the wholesale is common and i have no problem with this. In the bike world they call it keystone when you double it, and this is standard. Things that are triples are threestone. These would be the kinda things the shop had to direct import from italy or japan and do all the customs stuff themselves, so the profit needed to reflect the input. Selling commonly available stuff at a markup of 600+% "for leatherwork" is way out of line. Once you eventually notice these things, you feel taken advantage of. I'm sure this loses tandy customers

I like to lay down a bedsheet to shake it over, the screws don't bounce and you can pick up the corners to get anything that fell on the sheet into the middle in a little pile. I also stick a big magnet to the body of the machine near where I am working and stick the screws to that to store until i put them back in. Fun story, I have 3-4 little magnets stuck inside the metal shade of my bench lamp and this is where i keep my hand sewing needles, separated by type/size on the different magnets. They are always right there above the work and easy to find. I also keep binder clips all around the rim of the light. One of these days i am going to do my own studio tour thread. The better half is a costumer for the film industry. Our whole 2 bedroom townhouse is basically a studio. We have 6 regularly used sewing machines, including my 5100 and white rotary treadle cabinet, and another 6-8 more display antiques We also have a 4' knitting machine and a few weaving looms. The 6 foot wide loom is disassembled..... I have magnets under my baseboards I think and any small screw that hits my laminates floor goes under there right away. Also happens to the last snap cap or one side of the last rivet. The problem is all the baseboards are too high cause they didn't move them down when the previous owners switched to laminate from carpet before i got here. I even masking taped the baseboards behind my machines to prevent the flashlight and butter knife crawl on the floor. Anyone know who sells magnetic butter knives? Never did find the attachment screw for my outer presser on my techsew 5100, fortunately I had an old junk Kenmore home machine that had the exact thread and length screw, and it is a thumbscrew which is a bonus. I like thumbscrews. They don't have slots to strip and you can get just as much if not more torque on them without tools. With a pair of pliers you can get one way over tight if you want. Anywhere that i have to adjust frequently or change stuff, i prefer to swap out the slot screws for in thumbscrews if i can find the right size . If I cant fit a thumbscrew, I will swap the slot screw to an allen bolt. I hate slot screws.

My guess would be a bent needle. Before you go and change the adjustments, try it with a brand new needle, exact same size, and see if the hook clearance changes. I have bend more than one needle on webbing

Thread looks like standard bonded nylon or poly machine thread in white and around 207-277 size. It also look like it was machine sewn. You can hand sew with this size if you wax it. As to the stretchy shock cord, look for it in tactical and outdoors stores.

And the European Bends "hecho en mexico" that are 3 dollars more a foot than the real deal from Tuscany.

Pick something you want to make and make it. Bang some dents in some leather and post pics. Have a look through the tandy library. Kits and step by step instructions will help you progress faster in the beginning.

For long term durability neetsfoot oil is the way to go. Get pure neetsfoot. The neetsfoot compound is not the same. The reason you use neetsfoot is it never oxidizes or goes rancid whereas olive oil will oxidize and go rancid over time. This why most leather treatments with organic oils like olive will include antibacterial agents such as certain essential oils in the recipe as well. There is other chemistry involved but this is as basic as i can get. If you want to use organic oil, almond and flax oil have both been used in the past, and rose oil is the creme of the crop. Not exactly cheap though. Spermaceti wax, made from sperm whale skulls was also known to be very effective in leather treatments......

Lipstick on a pig?

Call it a mousepad and call it done. Sometimes its less work to start again.

Some leathers shrink more than others when they dry, but all veg tan tends to somewhat. This is why some leathers are listed as being suited for forming. Crappy leather and tandy leather can be very inconsistent. In addition, leather from some areas of the hide act different. Sometimes squares shrink into parallelagrams. Can't always be fixed, however just like wetforming, you can stretch it when wet, however it will distort the image and cause you to lose carving definition. Stake it with tacks to a board to keep it from shrinking while drying. Heat also causes leather to shrink. Allowing it to take as long as possible to dry without growing mould is the key. I cut pieces too big and use tacks to stake it while drying all the time. Really the only time i don't is when i am forming a pre stitched item by sticking a mold into the inside. Usually here i want it to shrink tight anyways.

Watch a video or two by the youtube user Ichibanmoto.....you will get ideas for spoofs. Here are a few short selections. Trust me, you will like this guy i think:

What kind of products are you referring too? Clothing? Belts? Holsters? Bags? Footwear? All are different specialties and require different equipment and skills. There are multiple people on here that between them can do most anything you need, some are set up to make in large quantity as well. Some more details on the type of work and potential volume would help with your search I suspect. Most here can make 5 belts the way they are setup, 500 is a different story.

Uwe: Best part is at 6:45.....nsfw Pyrofx: in the picture above, you have your machine threaded through an extra guide right after the takeup spring. Watch the video at 10:20 or so, It should go straight to the take up lever through the single guide. This may be affecting the thread takeup which can effect knot formation. Also, quickly try flipping the bobbin over so it turns the other way. On some machines the thread comes off the bobbin easier in one direction or the other. If the machine tensions were setup with the bobbin turning one way and you flip it, it can change the bottom tension either lighter or heavier depending which way the bobbin was installed when the tension was set originally and stitch quality will suffer. Sometimes the solution in these cases is to back off the tension on both the bottom and top all the way and start again. Then use a sharpie to mark an arrow on the bed to remind you which way the bobbin needs to go in.

The time you save machine stitching will more than pay for the wasted material from trimming after sewing. If you leave yourself a road to drive on on the outside, your problems go away. I am also of the opinion that the only way to get a perfect edge without a bunch of sanding and/or perfect piece cutout and placement during glueing is to cut it after. If you trim, bevel then burnish/paint the edge it is much faster. When you cut it, if you are steady, the edge ends up dead flat and smooth, quick bevel and buff and you are done.. Plus there are less glue boogers to deal with. In addition i sometimes have bad glue adhesion right at the edge due to uneven application, cutting it back gets to leather that is bonded well helping to make and keep a nice edge. It does not mater if you burnish perfect, if the edges separate it looks like crap. As far as the keeper, you are not going to be able to stitch the keeper in with a machine. You will need to staple/stitch the keeper into a loop and leave it free to slide around between the foldover at the end of the strap and the start of the stitching if that makes sense. If you come back here next and ask us how to get a foot under the keeper to sew it in with a machine........