TinkerTailor

Its a hammer. Are you buying it to show off or to beat on stuff? Forget about brand names, and find one that fits YOUR hand, at a comfortable weight, and a suitable face.. I use an old bluepoint autobody hammer that i polished the face on for both double cap rivets and seam hammering. It has a warped crooked handle that is just right......Its just a hunk of metal on a stick after all. Its not like it needs to hold an edge. Unless the only reason you are getting it is to say, "I use a Watt hammer", then knock yourself out.

We are not talking about retail, we are talking about setting up a wholesale account. Weaver has retail. This is how most should shop there. Anyone can buy this way. If you need a few rivets and a bottle of dye, you will pay for having smaller quantities available. If you are buying neetsfoot by the 45 gallon drum, and hides by the dozen, it is a different kind of business. In addition, business get tax breaks as manufacturers that consumers are not eligible for. Sales tax is generally applied on the end product, not every step in between.This is not an elitist thing. Wholesale entails buying bigger volumes, at cheaper prices often with less or no advice included. For the cheaper price you need to know what you want. Time is money and retail takes time. Most of the other suppliers have some kind of wholesale cheaper pricing for businesses.

Get a hardwood dowel, and a dull dremel bit. Drill a hole in the end of the dowel and epoxy in old dremel bit (or drill bit if using a drill). Chuck it up in the dremel/drill and hold a chainsaw file against the wood to make the grooves, Move it side to side for wider grooves. Use a needle file for the small grooves. 400 grit wrapped around the file sands the grooves smooth. Done. Now, if you do not have a chainsaw file, or know where to get one, you are not a real canuck...turn in your maple syrup rations.

How do they think they built with stone before power tools...........by hand. Now that i think of it, after millennia with little change, stone building dropped off drastically in the 1800s as power tool use rose in the industrial revolution set in. Structural steel was the way now that we had machines big enough to produce it.

The front side is kinda nice and the cut edge looks nice and dense. Assuming that is a pic of the back on your imgr, it may be fixable with a little slicking, and looks the worst in the belly areas anyways. The dye appears even, the leather probably is usable. I would talk to the seller and see what they can do. You may both be better off with you keeping it and getting a serious discount on a second one to eliminate the back shipping and hassle. Look at it this way, If you send it back, you/the seller end up paying shipping 3 times for 1 hide. If you keep it, it is 2 shipping charges for 2 hides. This keeps more money in your and the sellers pockets in the long run. Why make the shipping company rich if you can avoid it.

This is cut and pasted directly off of weavers website. It pays to read clearly, they even underlined it and put it in bold for you..... Thank you for your interest in opening a Weaver Leather Supply account! We have a policy of selling our supplies through qualified wholesale customers only. To establish a Weaver Leather Supply Account a company must have one of the following requirements to establish proof of business. A Federal Tax ID # (Required for AZ, CA, FL, IL, IN, IA, KY, MI, MN, MO, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, TX, WA, WV, WI) A Vendors License # A business card A copy of their letterhead A phone book advertisement Send them a business card.........And get a tax ID if you are in one of the listed states. As Art said, 20 bux and 15 mins.

At tandy the 3d celtic stamps are 5-7 bux You can get them for less that a double-non-fat-cinnamon-twistcaramelfrappachino if you have a membership...........With leather tools you get what you pay for. If 5-10 bucks for a tool is too much, this hobby is going to be disappointing. They need to handle alot of force and make a detailed impression in hard leather. Most people who do this regular will get better quality stamps made custom for them so their pieces are more original. Expect $75 dollars and up for bigger custom designs.

For what its worth, I have a change purse i made out of chromexcel and to experiment, I put on 2 coats of 50/50 resolene on the grain side, flesh is untreated. It still has pull up, and changes colour when it is full of quarters, then goes back when empty, but here is the kicker: I have accidentally run it through the washer and dryer several times and it appears just fine. No change at all, except for some rust on the snap spring.

The worst artist block you can throw up is saying that you are not an artist. Or you can't draw. You need to add the word YET everytime you say these things. You can be your own worst critic, just don't be your own roadblock. Everyone can make stuff. Watch youtube videos. Take note of things you would like to do. Nigel Armitage and Ian Atkinson along with many others have tons of videos. If you don't draw so good yet, stay away from carving for the start, and stick to learning and practicing hand stitching for example. Use templates for projects, and use a ruler to mark stitch lines. This will help with early success. You can buy templates at leather stores/online or scour this site for free ones. As for learning finishing, get a big bag of scraps similar to the leather you are using for projects and go to town with the finishes you have. Put this on top of that, try thin coats, thick coats etc. Find what works, be like a kid at a finger-paint table. The instructions on leather finish products generally suck because they are all used soooooo many ways...Have fun and find your groove. Be careful of leather/tool suppliers who sell you things you don't need. Some of them are very good about it. Do your research on here, and go in with a list. If they suggest anything that strays from the list, start to be on guard. If the list doubles before you leave the store, they saw you coming. Also, just by posting, you are a part of our community, Welcome. tt

I do it with standard smooth bottom walking feet. If clearance is low, a right side foot may help however i havent needed it.

Machine stitching is no problem. Much easier if you wet form the angles in the gusset piece and then glue it well before stitching. If you do it on a flatbed, the front stitch is the bottom side, so it is not as nice looking. Cylinder arms, at least with this bag design, only helps you keep the nice side on the front.

Does the presser bar stick when sewing? If you are lifting it higher than it was in its service life, the shaft may be on a spot that wasnt used much, thus is worn lots less and may have more buildup on it, just a thought.

The answer to your question, is yes. There are used machines out there that will work for decent money. Yes switching out a clutch for a servo is pretty straightforward, that is how they are designed, as a direct replacement.. Buying just the head saves on shipping, but the table has all the pedals and motor mounts already there. Modifying an old table for a cylinder arm isnt that hard if you already have one. As to which machine, what are you going to sew? Talk to dealers in your area and see what they have. Phone toledo sewing in, you guessed it, Toledo. Its not that far away (and yes, i know its 2 states away, we learn all 50 states in our schools in Canada, did you learn our provinces?... ). They are known to be very good to deal with.

If I have to ask someone at a business for advice, provided I am not already a customer, I try my hardest to find something to buy as at least a small token of respect and thanks. It goes a long way the next time. If you go there in person, phone first, ask if they are too busy to see you, and ask if they want a coffee, or anything. Small tokens get big prizes sometimes, which you will never see if you don't throw out a token now and again.

If you look at home machines from the 50's until now, the number of exposed screws has declined, they gradually all get covered by housings or replaced entirely by snap together plastic enclosures. User servicable items are a nightmare for the warranty and service department, non-user servicable forces them to bring it in and get it serviced, then told to buy that new machine right there.... I know, there is a whole other issue here, and a comment about non-serviceable disposable society being non-functional, but i try to keep my politics outta this site....for the most part

The other thing is, alot of people are afraid of using big hammers. With a bigger hammer, you can you can use less force on the tool, because the weight is doing the work. This means not needing to lift the hammer as high or swing it as fast, increasing control and accuracy. If you have a little 12 oz hammer you have to swing it from so high and with so much speed, good luck hitting the tool straight. Control and accuracy are lost as force increases when using too small of a hammer. Obviously there is a limit and a 25lb hammer is NOT easier to control than a 25 oz one, the upper limit of control is really a user strength issue. As i stated as well, technique is everything. I can swing a 8-10lb sledge/splitting maul accurately one handed, with either hand, over either shoulder due to technique. I used to have to swing alot of hammers when i worked in the oilpatch training roughnecks on oil rigs.They would struggle, and I would come over and show them this, and say what are you talking about, its not that hard and then walk away. ....... I am under 200lbs, and under 5'10", not a big guy by any stretch. Plenty of bigger stronger guys have lost beer bets when i pull this trick out for a splitting wood challenge at a camp fire. It is kinda like being a pool shark..

Use a cheap diamond file or dremel bit from harbour freight. Or get an old masonary circular saw blade and do it by hand. Not the stone type, the metal ones with diamond particles bonded to it. Just rub it up and down the corner like sandpaper.

Wear safety goggles. Its hard to stitch straight with one eye.....Needle breakage should be expected with an experiment like this. Pieces can fly far and fast. And the handwheel swap will probably improve the machine, however remember that the machine was designed to work as built. If you Tim Taylor one system, another is likely to break. The old weakest link in the chain adage.

Uwe, That is why home machines have snap in feet and accessories, there is nothing scarier to a sewing machine company/mechanic than a seamstress/ster with a screwdriver........If i can turn this screw, i must be able to turn that one. While tailor works, shouldn't the masculine of seamstress a seamster? Sounds very hoffa......We should start seamsters union. I nominate Wiz for prez, cause the slogan is great. And Gregg, "Winners find a way to win, and losers the converse" I have given up on changing this, and use it as a mental mantra to keep the blood temp down.

Sometimes you have to try a few brands to get just the right thickness of can...... I find japanese beers and weird soft drinks at asian food stores often come with thicker cans

Force and angle. People tend to hit the tools too soft, on bouncy surfaces and without the tool being vertical. If it doesn't work they hit it 3 more times softly, with the tool a different kinda crooked each time. Using a hammer and punch seems like a pretty rudementary skill, however there is alot of technique that can be learned. Holding the tool straight, on an immovable hard surface, and hitting it dead straight with the right force, and there is no reason why a hand setter can't do the job a press can. It is metal, if you hit it hard enough it will move. If you hit it crooked, it will move crooked. Squishing a tube from the end takes alot of force. That is why building pillars are cylinders...Try and squish a toilet paper tube from the ends.....If you do not use enough force to squish the post, but enough to deform the cap, this is going to be the result. If you keep tapping away, eventually the post will fold over and the rivet will end up squished to the side. I give the setter one small tap to start and seat the cap onto the rivet, and then hold the tool down tight and BAM with a 3lb steel drilling hammer. I worked on oil rigs, I can swing a hammer. I also don't care if my setter gets mushroomed out by the hammer. There is alot of steel there to grind away when it does. If it gets too short, hold it with vise grips. This is also a good trick if you are a finger smasher........Big hammers smash fingers big time..... Stamp tools=Wood/poly/Mallet, Copper rivet=BabyBallPein, Rivet set=BFH I like to picture the setter going right through the leather and all the way through the anvil and bench when i set rivets. It never does but the bang makes the dog jump.....Since i started using this technique I have never had a rivet fail and only had to drill one for a deformation.

Worst case scenario, take out the thread, handwheel it to punch holes and then hand stitch. If the holes are pre-punched you can put a harness needle in an awl handle point first, and sew with the eye. This way, you can do machine style lockstitches by hand, kinda like a speedy stitch or a home made jerk needle, with a second thread as a bottom. Faster than saddle stitch. The eye is weaker so you can't use alot of force to push it however I may have a harness needle or two epoxied into short dowels just to do this. This tool, along with a needle threader, is the easiest way to finish that last backstitch when the thread is too short.

Yes, However if the person didn't buy the thing from you, they better recognize that you have no obligation to them. At my day job, I will preface these conversations with "Normally i would charge for this but i'm going to help you out anyways cause i like you", or something. This sets the tone early without being confrontational. After, If the person is rude or confrontational or dis-respectfull in any way, and didn't pay me to put up with it then they can kick rocks.,......If they bought the thing or even other things from you, be more flexible. A disappointed past customer is more important to accomodate than a future sale, or a no-sale. Your past sales are what brings in the new ones. At the end of the interaction, frequently the person will ask if they owe me anything, because they now appreciate the help i gave them. I always tell them all they owe me is a visit back to purchase something, or get their bike fixed, while also not so subtly indicating where the tip jar is (if it is in person) This is a great technique to pull in a new customer. Getting honest advice and a little service for free is unheard-of today. Humour goes a long way as well. Being charming and funny can make saying no so much easier, However, the trick is it is never advantageous to you to give a freebee or a discount if the person does not realize you have. People come in to bike shops daily to borrow tools. We clearly have 4 signs between the door and the mechanics stand that say "We Do Not Lend Our Tools". People just walk in and grab a wrench and use it. They also ask to take them outside to fix their own bike. I inform them that no, i don't lend my shop tools, however i sell home mechanics tools just for this purpose. If they kick up a fuss which quite a few do....."i only need it for a minute" "I just need to tighten my seat" "can i just use your xyz for a second" yaddayadddayadda...... I tell them to go get a pound of ground beef and some buns, go to burger king, walk in the back and say, "I brought my own beef and bun, can I use your grill? Got any cheese?" Or say: "Where do you live, I need to do my laundry and I don't want to buy a machine"

Hard to see in this photo, is the hole in the pulley 1/2 inch exactly? If so, a farm supply store, or mcmaster-carr will have a pulley for you. 1/2 inch is really common outside sewing machines. In the bicycle world, the is technical term for this process is a beer can shim. Been keeping seatposts up since '78....

Fill all the space between the granite and the ground with concrete. That'll make it solid...