DrmCa

I am in the same boat as Bob - never used organic acids on suede. Just pointing out that vinegar will dry up all by itself, leaving no traces. One concern though, is that grocery store vinegar may contain other unwelcome substances, like sugar for instance. You never know what they spice things with to inflate sales! If I were to use vinegar on suede, I would buy glacial acetic acid from the drug store or chemical supply instead.

Citric acid is a solid, lemon juice will need to be washed off. White vinegar is acetic acid which is volatile, it will evaporate. Choose one you are more comfortable with.

You brush it. I used to have a brush with 3 rows of hair bristles and 2 rows of brass bristles between the first 3 rows.

As long as the customer is happy, the result is good.

It may be the amount of crawling through narrow spaces

Sorry to sound critical off the bat, but he'll lose the tape sooner or later. I would have preferred a pocket for it. I know because I myself keep carrying the tape on my belt and losing it.

Looks like a textile machine for setting sleeves into shirts. I hazard a guess it is not a walking foot machine. It may be good for very lightweight leather, but even then I would prefer a walking foot machine as this one might mark either side of leather.

That I am not sure of, but in general knowing that sunlight has a potential to bleach many organic pigments, I would try drying hulls in a dark place.

Of course you need to dehydrate hulls as much as you can, every extra water works against you.

Was your brew concentration high enough? Tying whole hulls in cheese clothe sounds strange to me, I would crush them in a coffee grinder and pour just enough water to barely cover the granules. And perhaps repeated adding more crushed hulls to the brew several times. Sounds like your brew was too dilute.

I too made a burnishing cylinder on a lathe, but I drilled and glued the wood onto the steel shaft first, then turned the wood dowel on the shaft, so it's perfectly concentric.

Organ should be fine. I found no difference in performance among Organ, Schmetz and GB. You might be just stretching your luck putting too heavy material through this machine. I own 553 and it does not like heavy stuff. It will stitch 4 layers of denim no problem, but give it leather and it will skip and shred nylon, poly or polycore thread which works fine otherwise. 55x series is a textile machine after all. It did stitch marine vinyl no problem though.

Hoping this helps someone! If you are looking for a motor with very high RPMs, you can find one in a vacuum cleaner. Many of them usually run 10,000 RPMs. But they are low power, keep that in mind. And if you are looking for a variable RPM motor, then you might find a combination of a variac with a lawnmower PMDC motor might be a good choice. The variac will provide variable voltage, the bridge rectifier will rectify it, and the PMDC will respond well to variable DC. Going between 20V and 150V on the variac gives a full range of PMDC motor RPMs and slightly above. Do not use a variac with a powerful AC motor, as at low RPMs they will overheat: both the variac and motor. The variac will overheat as it uses same diameter wire along the entire range of coil, and the motor will overheat, as its impeller will not provide enough air flow at low RPMs, where current increases.

Seeing how in Slovenia there is a shortage of used industrial machines, you might be better off sewing sheaths by hand for the time being. Those household machines in your pictures will do you no good, they will break thread, break needles, even break take up levers pulling thread through heavy leather if you tried. If you are handy with a grinding wheel, you can make awls and pricking irons from old chisels and files to get you going.

Thank you for correcting me Wiz, I could not recall the correct belt type for the life of me!

Now all you need is good thread and needles, a bunch ob bobbins and a few sets of feet, a jar of oil and inspiration.

Hear, hear. This is what happens when people allow the government bureaucracy to perpetuate absurd with impunity. Sad travesty, same as with "endangered woods" which leads to US customs destroying travelling musician's guitars. [Waving smilie]. On topic: pig skin is awesome! I had made in Italy dress shoes made entirely of pig leather, and they were the best pair I ever owned. Inexpensive as well. Pig leather can be superb quality if tanned properly. NOTING like a football!

The belt looks like type A 3/8", but I am not sure of the exact specs. You can get the correct V belt from any sewing machine supplier.

How slow do you want it to go? If you are fine with 3-5 stitches per second being the slowest, a Family brand servo should be fine. They can be found on the eBay. If you need slower, either a mod to the Family servo motor might help, or a reducer. When I bought mine, I replaced its 3" pulley with a spare 2" pulley and that helped to slow it down further.

One of my former bosses back in 1999 was from Cape Town, he said it's a hell hole. How are you guys holding up?

Isn't this exactly the same as pig leather? Pardon my ignorance.

+1 for replacing the needle and checking throat plate, but also check the foot and all guides for burrs. As we have no idea about the condition of your machine, this can be anything.

Looks like this die has a spring loaded fibreboard insert which should automatically push the piece out of the die once pressure is relieved. This productivity piece should cost a fortune.

Here's a simple chart published by American and Efird http://www.amefird.com/technical-tools/thread-size/fabric-weight/ and there are many more in the first page of google. I tend to use A&E threads and mostly go with their chart.

German Ebay is full of them in 10 packs. If you have anyone who can write German, some sellers may agree to ship to the US. It does not hurt to ask. Some might even read English. US Ebay has 1 listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Schmetz-Rundkolbennadel-System-332LL-LG-160-/201465097000?epid=1942962908&hash=item2ee8416b28:g:GZUAAOSw-jhUBsSB