TinkerTailor

Hey Eric, Tip for you, most screwdrivers have a bevel grind causing them to grip the top of the slot and also cam out due to the wedging action. Quality gunsmith slot screwdrivers are hollow ground to be a little wider at the tip so the grip the bottom of the slot and do not cam out or mar the exterior of the screw. They are not cheap but for a guy like you they would be a great investment. I find they are a little more tolerant to angled use.. They also come in a better size selection for the weird screws in sewing machines. Guns and sewing machines, not to far apart really, I mean Singer adopted the arsenal system......

The Movie PCU has a great scene where the "protest of the week" in the university quad is against eating meat. Thus is the result: If this post breaks the rules, so be it. It is post 666 for me...........

Thanks for that info Bruce, it will definitely help when looking at tools. I have this ability to find leather tools in the screwdriver bin at pawn shops, usually beat up and dirty/rusty but the steel is good. Nowhere near nice enough to sell, but for a dollar or three and a half hour with a dremel i usually have a nice quality usable tool. Got 3 of my edgers that way, at different times and different pawn shops. Just found a rusty but perfect, and straight Starrett 92 scratch compass for 5 bux that will take the osborne scratch tips from the 34. It looks like a better made, and sturdier 9" version of the 34. I bet starrett may have even made that compass for cso, or licensed the leg design at some time. My 92 is from the teens or earlier. Quick buff and 2 drops of oil on the hinge, good to go. Points look never sharpened.

You forgot band-aids.

photo 11 and 12 are as well.

If you want to stay out of hot water with trademarks and copyright laws, you may want to rethink the background image in that cover photo..........

It is interesting to note how Bruce Johnson lists the sizes of his vintage tools. This one is a scant #2, while that one is a heavy one. Apparently the old tools varied greatly between brands as far as sizing and number, but also within the same model.. I notice it more in the edge creasers on his site, but it does show up in the beveler listings.

No prob. You are right, while this could be a genuine inquiry, it could be a setup and is outside the scope of your business anyways. No need to provoke. I am also a sarcastic ass, I even frequently wear a shirt that says "Sarcasm is just one of the services i offer" I have learned, as have you it seems, that sarcasm can turn around and bite you real bad if used in print. You no longer have the ability to give the sly grin and careful intonation that makes it funny in person......

Get stick on tape measures for all the edges. I have seen someone use an 8' long piece of plywood 6" wide with thin plastic glued on it on a regular table. He could stand it up out of the way in a corner behind the door. I think he got the plastic at a horse stable supply place for stall walls. Hockey arena suppliers have it as well. In fact, hockey arenas may even have marked up pieces of scrap boards laying around... I think trucking and warehouse supply places sell it as well for loading docks and such

No prob, Gotta do something while having morning coffee..My other option was watching whatever morning talk show my girlfriend was watching........tv is sucha waste

Say this: "I work in the materials that are traditionally used for dog collars, leather and metal, and have been proven for centuries as the most durable option available. I do not work in synthetic materials, as their production is harmful to the environment. There are less durable vegan options available on the market in canvas and other natural materials, however I am not set up to deal with these materials at this time. Thank you for your inquiry"

Is your speed reducer on the smallest pulley or on the middle? My 5100 came setup on the middle setting, not the lowest. It would do the same thing when slowed down. The motor did not like the slowest setting. It felt like i had 3 speeds slow, slower and slowest. As soon as I sped the motor up a couple of notches I would lose my slow speed. When I got a belt to fit the speed reducer on its slowest setting, I was able to turn up the motor speed and get rid of the notchyness. I can now sew slower, and faster at the same time with much smoother speed changes, if that makes sense.

This is a good tip, however i had to read it 3 times to get the meaning. It would make it much easier to read if you used punctuation in your posts.

I think you gradually curved your way around the box, gaining a half stamp worth of space along the way. I drew a grid of red lines on the picture from a corner of the stamp to the same corner on the corresponding stamp on the opposite side and looked for deviations from the line. The red circles are stamps that jumped out as crooked. The blue lines represent 3 curves in the stamping lines on your way around that represent a gradual change in angle. The lines are where the stamps should line up, and the dots are where the actually are. I know its messy however and some of the blue dots are hard to see, i was working fast and at low resolution due to small original photo, i think those 3 curves added up to the extra half stamp at the arrow you put in the pic(or one stamp away rather) edit...The pic would help...

On the piece you are sewing. That is the part you want to have the stitches nice on right? Scratch a line/groove where your stitch goes on the piece. At every corner, mark the places on the stitch line the needle is supposed to go leading up to the corner before you start sewing so when you are sewing, you can see where the needle is supposed to hit. The thread will cover the scratch line. If you lift your foot like in Uwes video, you can see the needle tip and put it in the mark. Without lifting, with your closed toe foot it is really hard to see the mark. Only lift it a little so the machine doesn't release thread tension like it does when you remove the work. Before you cut the front off your foot, one advantage of the closed hole is you can pull the work out of the machine in any direction when done. With an open toe foot, you have to pull it out towards the back or you may break a needle. After using an open toe for a while, I am going to get a closed toe for this reason. My bad shoulder does not like pushing the work out the back of the machine, I end up reaching just too far and then my shoulder yells at me for a day or two...

When i train bike mechanics, I try to train them about this, though it is one of the hardest skills to teach. Machines talk and your ears are huge part of diagnosis. When building bike wheels, It is not about having tight spokes, its about balance. They all have to be the same tension, and then they balance the load and result in a straight wheel. There are 2 ways to do it, The modern way with a tensiometer guage and a dial indicator wheel truing stand, or the old way where you pluck the spokes one at a time and listen, then tension them so they sound the same. If they sound the same, they will have the same tension. Truing wheels, your thumb is an amazing pressure sensor, if you place your thumb lightly against the sidewall while holding the frame and spinning the wheel, you will feel the wobble quite readily. Guys who work the old way can fix a wheel anywhere anytime with a slot screwdriver or a spoke wrench, I carry a 3way spoke wrench as a keychain. Guys who do it the modern gauge way are screwed outside of the shop. To diagnose, I can spin a wheel and put a pencil into the spokes, and listen. I know instantly the condition of the wheel. I also hear broken spokes as the customer is rolling the bike in the door. I also put one end of a wrench on the axle nut, and cup my hand around the other against my ear to use it like a stethoscope and listen to the bearings while they are spinning. This method works really good to pinpoint a problem in a complex machine. Screwdrivers without modern rubbery handles work too. I use the guitar tuning analogy: You can tune the guitar by ear, matching one string to the next or you can use an electric tuner to do it. Both will put the guitar in tune. However, with one method, 2 problems arise. How do you tune with no batteries? Can you hear it go out of tune while playing?

Perhaps training wheels was a bad analogy. and is causing confusion. You use training wheels on a bike until you get good at running the pedals. Stitch marking wheels are used by machine sewers, until you get good at running the pedals. You mark where the stitches are supposed to go before hand and then try to hit the dots. This can also be done with a pricking iron, or a set of dividers. The important part is the tool used matches the stitch length of the machine exactly. I just use a compass, and set it to 3 stitches long. I make a single mark 3 stitches before the corner so i can see how far off i am before i get there and correct a little at a time. If the needle hits the mark 3 stitches back, it will hit the corner correct. I also do this at the beginning and end of a line of stitch to get my backtacks right. Mark the third or fourth hole from the start, sink your needle there, reverse stitch to start of seam and then go forward. 1- measure the actual stitch length your machine is at now (or set the machine to exactly the spi of the marking wheel). 2- use a divider or a compass to scratch a light line, or make a groove, on the edge of the leather where the stitches are going to go. This will give you the offset from the edge, 3- grab a stitch marking wheel that is the same as the stitch length your machine makes or set your compass/divider to that stitch length. 4: From the corner backward, mark where the stitches are supposed to go to make a neat corner. Start at the corner hole and measure backward. 5: When stitching, adjust the stitch length a little every stitch to make it hit the marks, By the time you get to the corner, it should put the needle right in the right place. Just before the needle goes into the leather, you can lift the foot just a little and move the leather forward or back a smidge to get the needle into the mark. -Its a different sewing technique, but watch Uwe position his stitches in his french seam video (it should start at 4 mins, if not skip to there) https://youtu.be/hrCUWG6b5kk?t=4m The problem with the technique in the Al Bane video, is he waits to the last stitch to correct, meaning he may be off by a half stitch right at the corner, which will be visible. If you mark the proper stitch spacing back from the corner 3-5 stitches, you can hide the half stitch a little at a time. This is the cleanest way.

Mock it up in paper, start with the shape of the sides. After you assemble it, you can adjust the length of the back/front/flap piece to fit. It is easier to cut this shorter than adjust the side piece curve to match a pre-determined size on the main piece.

The video is a different technique to do it without a marking wheel. The drill he does in the video helped my accuracy. The meat and potatoes is at the time i posted.

In the video he knows the tip of his foot is 1/8 inch past the needle, and the distance to the edge is 1/4 so he can infer that if the foot stops 1/8 inch from the edge at the corner,, and he turns, the needle will be 1/4 inch away. As far as training whees, he is referring to using a hand stitching marking wheel or a set of dividers to lay out the last couple of stitches in the row before the machine gets there so you have marks to hit at the right spacing to make the corner.

If using round punches, sharp punches and a firm surface plus a quarter turn and another wack at the end make alot of difference to how clean the hole is. If using the shaped type, put another piece of leather behind and punch right through. Wet the leather before punching. Not sopping, cased as if for carving. If the leather is pre finished, or water marks from casing need to be avoided: Punch the hole too small, then stick a wet cue-tip in the hole, wait 10-20 mins, or until you see moisture spreading just past final hole size, and then punch to final size. Press onto the stud while still wet. Pull it off to dry. Then condition.

Get on the one-out one-in program. If you plan on shopping, make it a point to let her see you get rid of some crap before.... I have enough tools that she would never even notice another one......but she likes shoes. Its all about balance. She doesn't look in my toolbox, and i don't look in her shoe closet. Happy wife, Happy life.

Watch @ 2:45: If you know how far you are going to be off before you get there, you can cheat the stitch length of the last 3 stitches to hide the change better.

Buy a whole set for each size (6?)you need on sale, and put one size in each handle. Thread lock them in. This gives you 6 replacement tips for each size as well... I have found the same sets for 7.99 before. I have nicer bigger drive punches, but only have the small sizes in mini-punch sets, and have never seen a reason to change. If i get through all my spare tips in a particular size due to breakage, or dullness, I will buy a better punch in that size only. Unless i find an awesome deal at a thrift store/garage sale.....which has been known to happen. As a matter of fact i found a hand forged antique cobblers hammer with a flat face 2" wide and oddly a 1" domed head instead of the standard "horn" on most cobblers hammers for $2.50 two days ago...New handle cost me 5 bux. $7.50 is my kinda hammer price.

Deusy is from deusenburg btw.... Uwe is right. Wiz ain't the only one with music in his head....... How bout this one? Freight Train by Elizabeth Cotten. Piedmont finger-picken blues. Note Elizabeth Cotten plays a right guitar lefty........She was a goddess of blues. There is a vid of her playing in her 90's Covered by a couple old hippies: On "Not for Kids Only" One of my fav bluegrass albums. David Grisman and Jerry Garcia. Sorry for the highjack....Had to.