TinkerTailor

If you search around on archive.org there are pdf's of books from the 1800's and early 1900's with recipes............for every kind of leather treatment imaginable.....

3M super 77 is kinda removable, while Super 90 is kinda permanent. Both are the cats meow for large glueing.

I had no problems with the actual shipment this time, just the back office. If I could, I would edit my post to read "canadian freightways customer service" because you are right, shipping wise, they are ok really, and some of the drivers I see are pretty good guys. Customer service, not so much. I only got transfered to thin air and disconnected once this time though.... I have dealt with them at work alot. Also not saying any of the others are any better, as a whole I find customer service to be lacking in shipping.

Straight cut gears make noise. Period. If it is more noise than normal it is usually either an axial shift of one of the gears or a change in gear mesh tolerance. If you are dealing with equal sized sprockets, the one tooth trick may work. If they are different sizes, due to the gear ratio, they will not hit the same spots on every turn unless the ratio it 1:2 or 1:4 or something. Likely the noise is the thrust on the gears, as in have their positions on their shafts changed in any way? If the gears were a little offset when they were installed originally, they would have worn a step on all the teeth where the teeth did not touch. If you reinstall the gears with a different offset, that step will be in the meshing path, and be noisy. Loosen the setscrew so it is just snug, and using a soft faced hammer, lightly tap the gear one way or the other on its shaft and then re tighten setscrew, listen to machine. Move very small amounts (fractions of a millimeter) one way and the other and observe the effect. Rinse and repeat. Metals lathes, which have changable gears for different thread pitches have a gear mesh adjuster and those guys make it zero clearance with a piece of paper between the gear teeth. This leaves the right clearance when the paper is gone. Also, lithium grease tends to quiet down internal gear bicycle hubs but it does not last nearly as long.

I should mention that I got exactly the shipping services i asked and paid for. No complaints to Techsew. The machine was a day early, undamaged. Only 1 screw came loose, however ANY time a machine is shipped this far, via multiple stops, a complete bolt check is a good idea. While learning the lube points, and bolt checking a new machine, also go through the adjustments manual and go through ALL the steps but do not change anything. The goal is to get a mental picture of what things look like when the do work, so you are less in the dark when they don't work.... One of the reasons i chose business delivery is when it is a business, they know it is open, so they will just fire it on the next local truck. With a residential delivery window they have to plan. It is just funny that they did the shipping part perfectly, the tracking? Not so much. It would have been way better business to say when i called "Yes mr tailor, we did our best and the good news is it will be early. We can delay it until the expected delivery date if you choose, or just get it out on the next truck. " THIS is how you win customers. They missed an opportunity to toot their horn when they were ahead of the game and by not tracking it properly. This achieved the opposite effect, they look bad....

I know if i wanted to make mine longer one way I may do it is to epoxy a finishing nail alongside of the too short pin, sticking out more....

Some(most) shipping companies are a bunch of idiots who could care less about their cargo, and end customers as long as the trucks get filled. The shipping company was behind on tracking for my machine the whole way. It was already on the way to vancouver from edmonton when they had it listed as not arrived in edmonton yet. Later, It was listed as landed in my city but still on the rail car on a wed morning. I called wed afternoon for an update, to see if it was going to be early. They told me phone back later, it was still on the rail car. I called again on thurs morning at 11 and they said they had no word, it was still on the railcar and they expected it would be on time on friday, but perhaps monday. The machine was delivered and the truck gone by 1pm thurs......Only 2 hours after i was told it was going to be delivered on friday or monday and was still not unloaded. I know how far the local depot is from the final address and how long it takes to drive. That machine was already on the local delivery truck when the dispatcher told me it was still on the train. It takes an hour or so to drive, 20 minutes to load and at least 20 mins to unload and get papers signed. Likely was sitting there ready on the dock for local delivery the night before, with the drivers morning route planned out. I tracked it at 8am on friday just to see, and according to the online tracking it was still listed as being on the railcar, 19 hours after delivery....I was already sewing on it. At around 10am friday the website tracking updated to delivered.......showing the time and date from the day before. Things to take from this: 1: Never trust the tracking. 2: With business delivery i got it a day early brcause they do not need a delivery window. 3: Ron (techsew)phoned the shipping company and got more info than i could get. They sign the check so they can get the answers. 4: Canadian freightways are a bunch of idiots. This is based on years of experiences with them in my dayjob life......Kingsway, their eastern affiliate whom techsew uses, i know little about but they seemed on it when i phoned the one time for what thats worth.

My dad used to tell me my mouth would get me in trouble. Later I learned how to talk my way out of it.

I am a farm boy who worked on oil rigs, and also worked swamping moving trucks, both as a younger man. I surprise people all the time. Don't tell me I cain't do it....

I had a techsew 5100 machine and table delivered to a local business that i bribed with beer. No delivery window and liftgate required. Plus delivery to a commercial address was cheaper. It came strapped to a pallet with the table and stuff. The business called me one afternoon to tell me it arrived, and I was there loading it up in 3 hours. I was not wasting a whole day at home to find out the truck can't get close enough or is going to be a day late..... After i drove the machine to my house, I moved the machine and table myself a half a block downhill and up 4 stairs. It came as a head in a box, and an assembled table and motor. The table was the heaviest, but i was able to pic it up to do the stairs and get it out of the van onto a dolly. I also could pick up the head myself. While i picked them up and i am very strong, I probably should not have......With a dolly and 2 people it should be not hard at all. Barley bucks go a long way in these situations. I think uhaul will rent you just a dolly btw. THE BOLTS STICK OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE TABLE BASE AND WILL GOUGE UP YOUR FLOOR IF YOU SLIDE IT WITHOUT THE WHEELS ON IT!!!!!!! Ask me how i know...............

Or perhaps an off the arm machine for doing boot tops or the like. If it sat to the left of the machine and the operator was at the end of the arm the bobbin winder would be facing the sewer and right under the thread tree.

If more pastors were like you I might be tempted to go to church.........

I've been keeping it secret, I may have also solved this problem. Variable speed and 11 seconds per bobbin. More to come...But i will blow my horn in my own thread. For now, 1 crappy iphone3 photo is all you get. Fully aware it will not work set up as it is in the photo.

Not only is this exactly what i want as well, but they are canadian and RIGHT ACROSS THE RIVER FROM ME!!!!!! I have looked far and wide for some of the stuff they got........and it was right there all along. Many Many thanx.

Contact techsew? Ron is pretty good with questions. He is also a member here.

There are also punches on ebay from china that are all different shapes, squares, hearts, diamonds, crescent moons, etc. These would work great for filigree. Not sure the manufacturing quality, but assuming those punches are good steel, sharp and last(i know, big assumption) or came from a reputable toolmaker, they could be quite useful.

The bigger the hammertone, the better it covers casting flaws and rough grinding......Its amazing what you will find under the paint on old machinery, especially in un-stressed areas. Good machinery has more bondo. You wouldn't pay top dollar for a shoddy finish..It is not the castings that make a good machine, it is fit and finish, machining, polishing, adjustment and paint....All things that require skilled labour and cost money. I think they were built like tanks to ensure the inevitable casting flaws were more than compensated for. Nice work Uwe, I think you hammered it out good.....

Btw, Those 2 prong buckles from tandy suck. They are way too short to fit a decent weight of leather through and they start rusting in about 6 months use. Try buckleguy.com. They have alot of buckles. Also try Abbey England. Need to be a business or know the secret handshake and code word for them i thunk.

If i have to mix and match I pick 2 and be selective so it looks like you mean it. It is all about balance. For instance, I have found buckles with brass frames and stainless tongues. This let me use brass d rings and nickel rivets and it looked great. I have also swapped the copper burrs with stainless washer on copper rivets to do the same thing (washer holes were not quite right, harder to set for sure). Don't be afraid of multi tone metals. Look at some of those old beautiful sewing machines with brass and nickel everywhere, a little gold paint here, a pinstripe everywhere, and black. You get the picture. If you look up copper plating on youtube, there are some methods that are relatively safe and do-able at home. Jewelery and electronics guys both do it. I get raw brass all the time, never antique. I just clean all the hardware i want antique, making sure to strip the lacquer, And throw them in the "nasty jar" of salt and malt vinegar. You want enough in there that you can wet down the parts by shaking it but they are not submerged when sitting. The corrosion happens when the wet parts are exposed to oxygen. Cap it, shake it and then throw it on a heat register for a while with the cap just loosened (don't want pressure build-up). Shake it up and open it 3 times a day until you get good patina. Rinse and laquer. Also, no one says that you have to use the backs that came with the fronts. I have used rivet backs on snaps so that it looks consistent on the inside, I mix and match material and size for fronts and backs, if the post is the same diameter you are good to go.

Animals will work at buckles to get them undone. The first thing they do is catch the loop between the buckle and keeper on something, and pull. This just leaves the buckle tongue holding which will let go with some more play. Seen both horses and dogs do this.Unlike heel bar, Center bar buckles (3 bars total) have a built in keeper, much harder to for the animal to get open. Double center bar, which have 4 bars in total, have a front, back, buckle and a strap bar. These are made to get the security of a center bar as well as add strength. Btw, If you use a center bar buckle with the strap mounted at the heel it puts the strap end behind the strap instead of in front. Harder to adjust but can be neater in appearance depending on application

--looks to me to be table top mounted for an overhead/ wall mounted line shaft arraignment. If it was under table mounted, The bobbin would be in a really hard to get spot, and the logo on it would be facing the floor. Looks like it would be on the table with the bobbin winder on the right. That would put the text the right way up as well. It is really cool. Way nicer than the reducer setup i use to run my antique treadle scrollsaw with an electric motor. love that machine, I have to make my own blades from longer ones to fit though......antique machines grrrr..

Next question, Does anyone cut their belts on a curve? After a while belts all curve down in the back, and i can't remember where but i have heard of guys cutting a slight upward curve around the back to counteract this. Any input? Also, does it matter if the top edge of the belt comes from the top edge of the hide? Would an "upside down" belt sit the same on the wearer? An old logger told me to put a cue tip covered in varnish in every hole of a new belt to keep them from stretching. Makes sense, it would prevent water influx, and harden the leather, both preventing stretch. Resolene would probably work too. He also waterproofed his boots with chainsaw chain oil, so there is that....Made all his socks red. He said he would rather have red socks than wet feet....

I always look for rulers with the number lines etched in and not printed on. It allows you to put the point of the dividers right into the notches to get more accurate measurements and easier repeatability. The longest cheapest straight edges you can get are aluminum angle extrusions. They can be had in 8+ foot lengths. I have an 8' piece of heavier gauge 1.5" aluminum angle that i got for 20 bux or so at the metal supply store. I prefer to use it angle up, edges down. It stays straighter and gives me great knife clearance. I frequently use shorter pieces to place on glue seams while they dry. I place them with a flat side down on the seam and I can then stack up random weights on the aluminum angle, and the angle distributes the weight evenly over the seam while the glue dries. Used tool shops, flea markets and garage sales frequently have perfectly good hammers and mallets for a couple bux. Likely made better than the Chinese made one at lowes. I have also found really good leaher tools at these places for cheap, a little sharpening is all they needed. Do not buy little squares of granite/marble for tooling from leather places. Do a search on craigslist for used granite countertop. I also just search for the term "slab". Someone has ripped out a kitchen or bathroom nearby recently and usually granite is custom so it wont fit into another room, making it valueless and easy to aquire. I once found a 36" by 48" slab of granite polished on one side and a full 4" thick for free, just come get it. It was a little large (1000lb) for me but would be perfect for a bigger shop. It would cost hundreds if not thousands to buy this new. Saving money is about keeping your eyes open. The more money you save on consumables, the more that is left over in the budget for materials. This is where you should be spending money. Even the best tools can't make crap shine......But with nice materials, simple construction and techniques accentuate the materials. Your local dollar store is your friend. It is the best place for glue applicator sticks, squeeze bottles, cheap paint brushes, sponges and lots of other things. Get blue nitrile gloves at the drug store. They are usually under 10 bux for 100. I have bought plastic school binders 3 for a buck, discounted cause they wont hold paper and suck for their intended use. The covers make great sources for plastic patterning material however. Or you can buy 5 dollar sponges and 6packs of gloves for 6 bux at tandy.

I seem to have the ability to take my foot off the pedal of any machine right before the loop thread lets go in the bobbin area most times. I always need to wheel it just a little to release the thread. I am in the habit of slowly turning the handwheel 1/4 turn as i pull out the work with my right hand every time now.

Doesn't help that vinegroon is an invented word some saddle maker made up back in the dusty old days to sound more professional. "Gently immersed in a vinegroon bath" sounded so much better than "Dipped in rusty acid"