TinkerTailor

Attention all members and mods: I am or have been a member of dozens of forums over decades, and I can not think of one that is policed by both the mods and the users better than this one. Spam just does not exist here. It is caught in seconds by the users, frequently corrected by them verbally, and then properly corrected by the mods immediately if it continues. This is awesome. Even on the old software we had some battles fighting off bots, but the site is clean. No useless ad crap to wade through. In addition the quality of the information, and help posted for newbies with questions is top notch. People innocently post wrong info or make a mistake are dealt with extremely respectfully. Disrespect does not fly here. We have become known on other forums for the quality of our advice and discussion, and our willingness to help. Many people with old non-leather sewing machines get sent here with their problems from other forums because there is no other place that has the info and is willing to help. The tone has been set in stone. "We invited you to our coffee table for a cup of Joe, not to sell us stuff partner." Thanks to all the users who care and the Mods who back us up. It is appreciated greatly. We all should be proud of ourselves. Now pour yourself a cup of the good stuff and enjoy. I know I am.

If you fold up a paper towel and put it under the foot when not sewing, then give the feet and needle a quick wipe before you start, your oil problem will be solved. Its better to do it this way than risk under oiling to avoid drips. I sometimes have issues with aligning smaller needles cause my eyes are old and i hate wearing my glasses. One trick is whittle down a toothpick or something so it fits in the needle hole and then use that as a guide for needle alignment. They sell cheap plastic tools for this. The other trick is to use small smooth jaw needle nose and gently grab the needle right at the eye on the flat sides while inserting it. This will give you a reference to align the needle by. As far as oiling, the heads of machines usually have a hole for oil access from the outside for all of the oil points. Factories DO NOT want the user to take the machine apart for oiling. Sometimes you will have to rotate the machine until the oil hole in a shaft appears through the hole in the body. In other cases inside the head, there are places that are gravity fed, and by putting oil into the holes at the top, it works its way down. In alot of cases all the slidy bits inside will be gravity fed and rotational bearings will have an oil hole. While you have it apart, try to find the hole at all the rotational points, and see if they line up with holes in the casting. They usually will and can be oiled with a long neck micro oiler. Oil well and oil often. Oils well that ends well.

I use pro oil black full strength brushed or sponged on with no rub off. Buff good as Dwight said. Never had a problem and usually the buffing rag is clean. I even get impatient and buff it sometimes minutes later and still don't get rub off. All the other colors i thin at least 50/50 because i like the tonal variations you get from multiple wash coats. I have mahogany that is thinned 4:1 and some 10:1. If you do 5-6 coats and purposely brush it uneven and blotchy like a kindergardener with parkinsons would do, is the best way to get that rich mahogany look. Oh i forgot, dont thin red. It thins to bright fuschia.....Usmc is crap because of the rub off..... It is a little less blue black (more blacker?)than the regular but that is fixable by doing a wash coat of 4:1 brown or mahogany before the black. Now don't even get me started about tandy water based stuff and rub off...grrrr. I live in a rainy city.

Standard white sewing machine oil (Lilly White)is fine. If you bought the machine from a dealer, get them to throw in a jug if you can. If not, any of the dealers that advertise on this site can sell ya some.

Leave the project for a day or two for the glue to set. I sew through standard stinky hardware store contact cement, lepage blue here in Canada, all the time and so do many others. Them Yankees use weldwood heavy duty contact cement i believe. Follow the directions on tack time as well. Seams put together too early stay gummy forever. You need to let contact cement chooch before you stick it together. Most important is to let it dry. And that tape sucks.

A needle too small=no-go. A needle too big for the thread will work, but the size of the hole limits the stitch length to longer stitches and can look like the thread is swimming in the hole. Sewing at 20 spi with a #25 needle will likely cut the leather in half for instance. For 69, I would get 16, 18, 20. Size 22 is likely to be way too big. It is matched to 138. 20 is likely too big as well.

Did you oil your machine with whiskey? Whenever I do that, it drives really crooked and wants to fight. Remember, it is from Quebec, the french region of Canada, so it probably likes wine better anyways. Originally from china, so I would choose a nice white rice wine.......... Now for serious, How soft is the material you are sewing? I have a 5100 and if the edges are soft, it squishes the leather out the side when I am sewing that close to the edge. Try to sew at least 1/2 inch in and see if it drives straight then. If it does, the material is probably not sturdy enough to stitch that close to the edge.

In my opinion, depending on width, 2-2.5 mm thick is lots for a keeper. I would skive the whole thing down.

Yes, you can change sizes within the limits of a particular machine. Some machines may not be able to use the largest/smallest needles in a needle system because of design. Needle systems can cover a wide range of machines. Changing needle size a drastic amount can mean readjusting the hook clearance. Frequently machines are tolerant to 1 or two sizes up or down without adjustment. If you are going smaller, just try it. The worst that will happen is it won't stitch. Put in a bigger one and the needle may contact hook and damage it. Handwheel first if going to a different size needle. If the machine needs a hook adjustment, they are usually pretty simple, and are in the manual for the machine. When you say 810 post, is it a techsew? Give them a call if it is, they will walk you through it. They are a site sponsor here, banner at the top. As far as sizing, needles are matched to thread size. Here is a chart i like: http://www.thethreadexchange.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=needles_thread_size_chart and another from a site sponsor that is easier to read, with a little less info: http://tolindsewmach.com/thread-chart.html

Short version: Drawing, you either got it or you fight for it. "If this is something you wanna do, and this is something you gotta do, you just do it. Fighters fight." Rocky Balboa. Long winded too much coffee version: This is a tip i picked up on here, Search the internet for colouring book images of what you want. They are usually simple blocky line art well suited to carving. Print off a couple of the flowers/leaves etc that suit yer fancy, and sit down at a piece of paper and draw something similar. Looking at a picture of a rose and carving it is very difficult. Doing 5 different pre-made rose patterns will let you refine your style, and find your limitations while learning which details are important to put into the pattern and which you can do on the fly. It also shows you what the limits of the leather are. As far as stamp planning/carving effects, if you are drawing your own design you need to design the stamping shading and dying as well. No-one can do this but you because it came from your mind. There are no hard and fast rules about what tool to use where, just generalities. A beveler? for beveling obviously. It can also be a backgrounder if you run it different. It can be used to put features on a leaf surface. All of this comes from experience. Experience is pencil shavings and sore hammer arms. The reason so many people start out with kits is they have the directions for THAT design, they are a guide to get you close. The purpose is to allow you to learn how the tools run with some direction so you know how to apply them to your original designs. It is directed practice that gets you to the stage of being able to do your own designs earlier. Eventually kits become limiting in style and you need to develop your own. That is where the scrap bin comes in (or the scrap bags at the door at tandy). Experiments. Thing is with experiments, you don't need to finish. Draw up the outline of a leaf you like, some basic veining and throw it on a piece of scrap leather. Even a portion of the design will do. Start carving, and keep going until you hit a wall. Stop and analyze what happened, go back and adjust the plan, ditch the sample back into the bin and start again with a new scrap. Just one petal of a flower will tell you if the others will work with that particular design and tooling style. I do little 2" square samples for every project that has a new combination of techniques. I will carve a section of my border, background and design, and then dye and finish it. If it works out, I do the design. Without drying time they only take 1/2 hour or so tops, and can save days and dollars. I do them while waiting for glue to dry or the kettle to boil. You can do 5 different ones of the same pattern to test finish in a very short time. Hides always have blemishes, and if you plan your pattern placement,and leave a little extra around the scars and blemishes, those areas are perfect for these tests. You can also show the finished samples to the client and let them decide. This type of service is how to justify charging more money....... I personally am not a stamper per say. I have been studying leather decoration techniques pre-tandy craftool stampy stampy. Modeling spoons, push bevelers and non swivel knives are very interesting to me, this is how leather was decorated for thousands of years. As such, the designs are going to be different because the tools are different. I needed to find my own style that works with the tools i use. After a while, you will have tested and drawn everything and tried every finish and tooling combo and will be able to jump into any project both feet blindfolded. Usually by this time, yer too old to be of any use.

I have noted a big difference in the quality of the materials between snaps myself. Most of the snaps (and other hardware) I have got from Tandy in the recent past have been hard too set due to too thin material. It is the nature of the market these days. Make it JUST strong enough to work, but as cheap as possible. I use snaps from a local guy who buys them 20-40 lbs at a time, from a wholesaler he won't give up, and repackages them. Every size and type work great. I have set his line 20s with a phillips screwdriver and a rock....I imagine he is using Ohio travel Bag or somebody similar. The current owner bought the shop from a guy who had been making handbags and selling leather/hardware for 30 years. He had some connections, let me tell you..... I would try some snaps from OTB and see if it helps you. Special bonus is they sell in a bunch of finishes sizes and thicknesses, better to match your mask with..

Look like an old expanding foam type core to me. Or the filling in some candy bars. I wouldn't even attempt to repair that tree for riding, only wall hanging. If it is polyurethane foam or something of the sort it gets more brittle over time and is likely to crack in other places. Now i am not a saddle builder, but i look at trees like the frame of a car. You don't just patch up a frame that broke, you rebuild if the rest is salvagable, and replace if there is any question. On the topic tree/frame replacement, Just like a car, you need the exact same make and model. Can't put a ford frame under a chev truck cause nothing lines up. Everything Is fitted to the frame. The labour to replace it correctly probably will outweigh the savings of just shopping around for another saddle, even ones for skinny whither nags.

Inside out. That bootie is pretty soft, you could reach in there and get it i would guess. Not many cylinder arms are gonna fit inside a baby/toddler shoe.. Have you ever had one of those child things? When they are brand new their whole foot is the size of my thumb........and they are not allowed to drink beer yet I have been told.

That Gregg musta seen you coming.....

Interestingly that book recommends neetsfoot oil for lube because it doesn't go rancid like olive oil.

I was not saying that olive oil is a mineral oil, only that ANY oil of the right viscosity will lubricate the machine properly, organic or inorganic, olive oil included. What i was pointing out is that the reason people use Lilly white sewing mineral oil is less to do with lubrication properties and more to do with clean up and longevity of the lube compared to the other lubricating options. True, any vegetable based oil will go rancid and is full of contaminants. It will lubricate a machine though. It will end up building up inside and gumming up the works as well as staining what it drips on, but it will work as a lube for now. Automatic transmission fluid will also work great as a lube, so long as you only work with red leather..... Now how to get pure refined mineral oil when in an area without a sewing machine dealer, and not pay 20 bux for 8 ounces in the crafters size bottle at Michaels.

Since you are from the UK, I should also note that I think there is an issue with some of the cheaper motors and using british power, not because of the 110/220 volts but because the frequency of the power is at 50hz and not 60hz like in the North America. I think this is why the motor Harry Rogers on youtube has squeels/beeps constantly. It is a circuit running on a frequency it was not designed for and is causing audible interference.

All you are looking for is highly refined mineral oil. Any oil of the right viscosity will work, even olive oil. The Lilly White is called that because it has been highly refined and filtered to remove contaminants. The reason for this is clean-up, as Eric pointed out, the contaminents/additiives in other oils will stain and are very hard to get out. Thus specially filtered and purified oils, white as a lilly, were produced for sewing because they needed a non staining oil. Pure refined clear mineral oil is also used by veterinarian and farmers for various purposes in cattle and horses. It is used as a hand/instrument lubricant for instances when you gotta go into where the sun don't shine. It is also put in cattle oilers too help keep off the flies. Check with vets and farm supply places, you may find it in farmer sized jugs and farmer pricing.......

I am pretty sure it is the same machine at different angles and my guess would be a 31k17 or a 31k18 because they are the roller foot leather classed 31k machines. The 31k18 is a roller fed machine and the 17 is a drop feed. Can't see the feed dogs in the pic.The only info in the captions is it is a 31k.

What he said ^^^^^

No prob. Try using conditioner on the hair before working on it. Some humans use Mane and Tail horse shampoo to control their own hair.....

First, this is really well done and I like it alot. Now, the constructive criticism you asked for. No punches pulled: I think part of the issue is the underset jawline, lack of a chin and the prominent nose causes the goatee to look like nose hair at first glance. Then once you notice it is not, it kinda looks tagged on. It is also a little thin. In my opinion, the mask is awesome enough without the goatee, however an articulated lower jaw would male the goatee awesome. As to future goatees, more hair. You could also hide a core of something else inside the strands the braided portions to thicken it up. Also, a more prominent chin top make the goatee make sense. On this mask, a few straggly strands here and there on the cheeks and chin would help with the effect. Just small awl holes with a strand or 3 stuck in em. Now, here is a smoke machine that is battery powered, remote controlled and is smaller than an iphone4....https://www.bloodystuff.co.uk/products/micro-profogger/ Now I'm sure you can figure out what to do with one of these........

Welcome back, I'm sure things have changed a bit....Coffee is still on though..

Back in the day, If mineral oil was not available or too expensive, bone oil was the lube of choice, with almond and olive being second and third. Here is an except from "Manufacture of Lubricants, Shoe Polishes and Leather Dressings" a 1906 english translation of the 6th edition of an older german book: Sewing Machine Oils Manufacture1906.pdf

An 8 piece band for you.....