UKRay

Paul, I've just purchased a stonking great Western Digital Passport Drive to use with my aging laptop and can thoroughly endorse them. Great design. Really robust and nice to work with. I'm going to buy another very soon as a back-up drive. Ray

I once carved a bag to match a lady's favorite tat. One of the most 'interesting' jobs I have ever done... <grin!> Ray

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. I plan to drink your health later this evening but right now I'm feeling a tad 'tired' from judging the Ludlow Food Festival ale trail yesterday afternoon... enough said! It has been a great year and I'm delighted to be able to start another one... Luke, I can't thank you enough for your friendship. Happy birthday to you too - its really nice to share a celebration with family - cheers cousin! Johanna, thanks for your kind words and for working so hard to make the forum happen for us. Steve, I'm planning to grow old disgracefully... <grin!> Josh, it doesn't happen often, but this time words fail me... LOL Cheers all, Ray

I think you can get fly presses almost everywhere, Kate. They are a fairly universal industrial press that can exert huge pressure. They are often used in the jewellery business to cut out silver 'shapes' from plate material. I have had a number of them over the years and never miss a chance to pick up a cheap one as they are so useful. Here is an example of some tooling for a fly press that simultaneously cuts the point on a strap and punches a row of holes - for making a belt blank from a simple straight strap. You can really make a lot of belt blanks using this tool. The Fly press in the pictures is actually fitted with the tooling for the other end - it cuts a crew punch slot for the buckle. Different widths of belt are handled by moving the guides in and out. The spigot is the cylindrical bit of metal fixed to the tool that is inserted into the machine. The spigot goes up inside the machine's moving/movable 'shaft' and is held in place with a hex head bolt - see note on picture. Operating a fly press is simple. Just swing the handle to drop the shaft downwards. whatever is in the middle gets squashed. When you let go of the handle it swings back again. Easy! Hope this helps to make things clearer. IMHO, mechanical fly presses are much faster to use than most other hand operated presses especially the hydraulic sort that need to be pumped up and down. They are relatively cheap and are virtually indestructible. Tooling can be expensive if you are paying for it but it is so easy to make your own or get a friend to bodge it that they are cost effective too. They do come in different sizes. I would suggest that a Number 3 (3 ton pressure) is the optimum size for most small workshops as it is relatively lightweight and quick to use. Anything less may not have the 'squashing power' you need - although I'm currently looking for a number 5 as it would give me a bit more oooomph when cutting out purse parts and guitar straps! Ray

Nah - its definitely for pricking little holes in the skin of damsons and sloes before you drop them in gin... LOL

Thanks, Steve. I'm currently awaiting a call from a Highlead dealer in Liverpool (3 days now) with a price that includes a servo motor and a 'slow-um-down' wheel... I can't tell you guys in the US how durn lucky you are to have sewing machine dealers who actually do what they say they are going to do. The sewing machine industry over here, IMHO, is shot to blazes and getting worse. The bigger the company the worse the service. Madness. How do they afford to stay in business? Ray

An alternative would be a small fly press. I suggest this because there would be no need to fix the plate at top and bottom of the press. Just make up a suitably sized flat platten (with a spigot to fit into the machine) that will drop down onto your work. If you make a flat base plate then all you need to do is put your work on the base plate and swing the fly press arm to drop the top platten. You can exert plenty of pressure with a small fly press. Cost is minimal - I just paid £50 for this one including tooling to cut belt ends and punch crew holes. Local availability may be an issue...

I truly sympathise with you, Josh. Doing things by halves just doesn't feel natural! Glad things are looking up for you. Ray

Great design and a lot of hard work. I think you are right about the antiquing to bring out the tooling. I'd like to see that set with antiqued tri-weave tooling all over. Now that would be awesome! Ray

Now this is all very interesting stuff for someone who has never even seen a coon dog and has no idea what they look like, what they do or how they do it - I understand it all happens after dark. Is this correct? Those leopard catahoulas look pretty robust little fellas, Bob. Cow dogs eh? Where do they originate from? I understand the Australians have a few specialist cow dogs they like to shout about... We get plenty of GWPs over here, Hilly, and Springer Spaniels are everywhere in the UK. Spence, you might like to check out a customer of mine: www.a1k9.co.uk They train personal defence dogs and get a lot of their dogs from Eastern Europe - those are a whole lot different from the average German Shepherd. Not to be messed with! I was interested to hear that English hounds have found a home in the US. I have spent a lot of time in various hunt kennels in the UK and have always been fascinated by the incredible pedigrees some of these animals have - going back more than 100 years in some cases. I have never heard of a Plot hound - what do they look like? Ray

I know it is a good un 'cos I put it there myself! eBay link

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys. I did the music shop patrol many years ago and measured all the guitar straps on display in upwards of a dozen musical instrument stores so I'm happy that the guitar straps I make are saleable. In fact, I currently make guitar straps by the dozen but only the occasional mandolin strap so I'd like to expand this side of my business. I can see a fair bit of potential for good quality leatherwork here. I usually make a tapered mandolin strap that is around 1 1/4" at the widest point tapering down to 3/4 at the ends. This seems to make most players happy. I don't tend to have a standard length as, like everyone else, I mostly make to order - which is where the problem lies as I haven't kept any records of the straps I have made - Yes, I know I should have done this but it didn't seem important at the time. No need to labour the point! Given the financial constraints we are all facing now, I can't believe that any music stores will stock as wide a range of straps as they would need to service all their client's wishes but there must be some kind of 'mid way' point which meets most people's requirements. So what is a sensible standard length for a mandolin strap/ banjo strap/ sax strap etc? Anyone got ideas on this? Ray

I've just had an enquiry about making a range of musical instrument straps but apparently have no idea how long to make them. I sent one of my mandolin straps along as a sample and they said it was too short... Odd, 'cos I have sold dozens of these! I'd just like to hear from a our 'tame musicians' about how long their instrument straps are so I can get a 'ballpark figure' on the material required to fill this order. I think it would be interesting to have this information on LW anyway as we all get asked for stuff like this occasionally. I'll kick off by saying my standard guitar straps are made to extend to 60" long and, currently, the most popular width is 3" How does that fit with other folk's experiences? How about your banjo, saxaphone and mandolin straps? Are there any other instrument I haven't thought of that need straps and you have some measurements? I'd be much obliged if you can help. Ray

I've had working dogs, on and off, all my life. My dad and I were both keen shooters (before the law changed and it became virtually impossible to own a gun in the UK) so the place always had one or two Labrador retrievers stinkin' the place up. I moved on to keep running dogs (lurchers) for many years and finally provided a home to a pack of working Border terriers. The pack has now dwindled to one very old lady who now contents herself with hunting mice in the garden so it is time to cast an eye around for the next generation. I've heard of all kinds of hunting dogs but so many are local to a small area so I have no idea what they look like or how they work. It would be interesting to hear from some of the hunting dog owners around the world and perhaps see a few pictures of their dogs at work. I'm very keen to hear about coon dogs and Australian heelers but there are just so many I haven't heard of. Hope to see a few good pictures and hear some fine hunting stories. Ray

What a great job. I like the way you have got the leather to stretch over the former without any obvious wrinkles. Mine always seem to get a crease somewhere. The artificial sinew is chunky old stuff but it seems to work here although I might have liked to stitch it with some hand rolled linen thread if I were making a little bag for a lass. I guess that was a possibles bag legacy... Question: why did you make the strap in three pieces. The bit with the press studs on seems to be about right but IMHO the wider shoulder piece could be a tad too wide for the size of the bag. Nice job though! Ray

That sounds like a great idea for stitching heavy leather - in fact I have a 'bolt-on' table just like that for my ancient Singer 29k15 - but I'm looking to stitch much thinner stuff including garment and upholstery leather that doesn't run too well through my big Highlead. I need to make a really neat job and a purpose made machine will simply work better for me. It sounds like I may need to be looking for a Highlead GC0618-1SC; which I'm reliably informed is pretty much the same as the 618 & 18 machines available from Artisan and Cobra. Anyone got any more information on those machines? Anyone got one? Ray

Great advice, Bruce. Many thanks. I have been looking around but it would seem that Pfaff are pretty thin on the ground round here. One company imports and sells a good looking Chinese made 1245 clone that is within budget and I am seriously considering that - especially as they are less than an an hour away from me. I just wish I understood a bit more about the whole clone marketplace. Art posted some good info about the various makes a while back but it vanished into LW history somewhere and I've never been able to find it again... Just what I needed, Barra - you are most kind! Steve, thanks so much for your input. Given my level of technical ability... (say no more) I'm probably looking for a newer machine rather than an older one. I looked long and hard at Singer 211s but came to the conclusion that I wouldn't know a good 'un if I tripped over it and if anything went wrong it was completely beyond me to fix it. Hence the desire for something a bit more modern with some kind of a service contract. I'm most grateful for your suggestion but is there anything else that might work? Have you any experience of the clone machines? Which ones are best? I guess the bottom line is that I'm still looking guys... Ray

You know how some problems are so far removed from your sphere of knowledge that you don't even know what questions to ask to try to find a solution? I feel like that about flat bed sewing machines. I don't do much that would require a flatbed machine - just the odd bag & briefcase and some costume work that I can't do easily on my extra-heavy-duty cylinder arm Highlead. I don't mind paying a good price for a machine, but I'm very concerned that I don't spend a fortune and get something that won't do the job. I had some helpful advice a good while back (thanks Art, Steve Brambley and others!) that led me to chase after a Highlead post bed machine. I hit lucky fairly quickly and tracked one down in Ireland. Despite several eMails and a couple of phone calls, 4 months later I still haven't managed to do a deal with the guy. In fact, I'm still waiting for some photographs of the machine... Time to move on methinks. I'm also led to believe that the machine in question was a bit lightweight for my purposes and wouldn't handle the thread size I require. I need to use up to a 20s thread - now this is a UK reference number and I'm not sure how that relates to US/Worldwide thread sizes - it would be very helpful to see some kind of comparison chart if anyone has one handy. Good condition Highlead machines (I really like Highlead stuff) don't come up on eBay very often so I plan to widen my net to include other machines but I'd appreciate some advice on makes and models that are common this side of the pond. Is it worth going for a brand new 'clone' machine such as those sold by Wimsew and Alansew or would I be best to stick with a used machine from a well known maker? Any and all advice welcome here. My budget is UK£600 to UK£800 maybe a little more at a push... The cost of shipping means I can't look outside the UK. Hope someone can help, Ray

My guess is that if the 'goodness' got out, the Lexol can get in... LOL Ray

I have worked on all kinds of hard surface including thick steel plate, so don't get hung up on the whole granite thing. One of the nicest rocks is a nice slab of surplus marble from a stonemason. Think funeral supply here. A good friend of mine worked on a concrete paving slab for a couple of years before spending his money on a granite slab. IMHO, you need to try lots of stuff and see what works best for you. Ray

The easy way: If it were mine - and because it is a tiny thing, I'd fill a container with Lexol and let it soak for a couple of weeks. Just check it now and again to see how it is getting on... Apparently Lexol replaces lost oils and fats so I guess it would work pretty well in this situation. When the leather has recovered sufficiently, just give it a couple of coats of Skidmore's beeswax Leather Restoration Cream to seal it up. Ray

Most of them look like shoe repairer's tools - perhaps CelticLeather can help here?

See what I mean? That Tashabear is definitely scary! Suze: All this talk of well turned legs is making me think of Chippendale... LOL

Whilst I agree wholeheartedly that beautifully carved letters always look better than stamped, my customers simply won't pay the price - sorry Bobby, but it is a fact of life... This leaves us with very few options: Whack the first letter into place and shuffle the next letter 'till it looks about right and then whack again. Switch to letterpress - great idea Bob, but a tad expensive to set-up and a bit long-winded for everyday rush-rush production. Measure and grind 'till the durn things line up properly - probably the most effective. I do like the idea of a strip of masking tape to get the letters in a straight line - nice tip. Thanks. Sadly it falls down when you need to run the letters down a guitar strap (rather than round a belt). Who orders these alphabet sets for Tandy? Isn't it about time they were redesigned so they work properly?

I haven't really got a clue, Terry - but these guys might: http://www.robert-sorby.co.uk According to their blurb: Robert Sorby is the world's premier manufacturer of specialist wood working tools with a heritage dating back over two hundred years. Looks like it could be for wood carving... maybe...