dikman

I played around with a piece of the banding and it looks promising. It's pretty tough and springy but can be hammered into a right angle without snapping. Heating it to anneal it makes no difference, as does heating and quenching. It can be filed to give a sharp edge but obviously won't be quite as hard as the proper steel rule. I also have a hand tool that is used to punch/crimp the banding to the steel house framing (I had no idea what to do with it but for $5 at the time it just looked useful ), it punches a rectangular hole but I should be able to make a new pin and anvil to punch a small round hole. My biggest challenge though is to make a bending jig/machine to shape the stuff. It won't be difficult, just a matter of digging through all my "stores" to see what can be re-purposed.

Thanks Northmount, I tend to get sidetracked sometimes - I'm also very good at hi-jacking threads.

Even that is proving problematic, Australia is a strange market......I'll try the banding steel, it may not have enough carbon in it to get a hardened edge but should still hold an edge adequate for cutting leather. It's cheap enough ($5 a roll) to experiment with.

Haven't used it yet. I've been trying to find where to buy the steel rule to make my own dies, no success yet. All the searches point me to either the US or China (alibaba), neither of which is feasible. I've found someone selling hoop (banding) steel pretty cheap so might give that a try. It's the same size as 2pt steel rule so it's worth a try. I also have to make a device for bending/shaping the stuff. But the Vevor is a nicely made tool, built like a tank!

I have a couple of small dies for cutting out key fobs so I thought my arbor press should work - it did, but not very well. So I tried a block of wood and a hammer, it also worked, sort of. Next was a bench vise and a couple of pieces of wood, that worked ok. Use a plastic chopping board under the leather as it will be better for the cutting edge. One of those shop hydraulic presses should work well but will be a bit slow if you want to cut out a lot of stuff.

Looks good Larry. The best thing with a natural finish is to leave it in the sun for a while to speed up the darkening, it will eventually get that rich look of old leather.

Not dumb, kgg, it took me a while to figure out what IWB, OWB and such terms meant and why the holsters have funny shapes. This forum was my first exposure to them. While the holsters wouldn't be illegal here the small handguns are, so there is literally no market for such holsters, which is why I knew nothing about them. They look like interesting things to make.

The bobbin case isn't fitted properly, that tab sticking out is supposed to fit in a notch under the needle plate to stop the case from turning.

Did the problem start straight after you damaged the cable? It's a bit of a coincidence if that's not the cause. IF that's the cause then the chances of getting a warranty claim is unlikely. As far as the manufacturers are concerned these things come under the category of "disposable/non-repairable", I've never heard of anyone carrying spare circuit boards for them. Much like the speed control boards in mini lathes, mine died pretty early and the Chinese company offered me a partial refund as they didn't carry spares. I eventually sourced a speed controller on ebay and adapted it BUT I doubt you could do that with a servo. I agree with kgg, if the board is damaged then the simplest/cheapest option is to buy a generic servo off ebay unless the dealer is willing to help out. As Al said no-one appears to have bothered doing any work on these (probably because there's zero information available about them!).

Some nice work there yuma.

I've used that method myself to get even spacing of my stitching holes. Just used an ordinary needle and then followed up with an awl for saddle-stitching (used an old Singer hand-cranked 201).

Did you see the add at the top for Ohio Clicker Dies?

Being a moderator on a forum is a selfless task, often having to deal with all sorts of numpties! If that's indicative of Redhorses's attitude then I wish him bon voyage and good luck on whatever forum he goes to. Unfortunately for him this is the forum he really needs.

Something else that might work is shellac. It's used to stiffen felt hats, dissolved in alcohol (I used methylated spirits) and sprayed on the hat. I haven't tried it on leather but it might work on floppy leather.

Always hard to tell from a mic input as sometimes they can be overly sensitive but definitely better than before!