dikman

All my holsters were made glued flat and then folded, it's inevitable that wrinkling will occur although sometimes it's possible to minimise them. The last holster I made was a SlimJim style and I wanted to carve it so used thicker leather for the outside but this time I tried pre-curving it while glueing to the inner (as Dwight suggested). It did make a neater finish although it was a bit more messing around getting it right.

I've only made a few Western-style holsters so I have limited experience but I would have to question that article, it seems to me he is making a blanket statement that he considers fact when in reality there are lots of variables when dealing with leather. My first couple of holsters were made using fairly light leather (I can't remember the weight) with two layers glued back-to-back. By the time I'd finished they were rigid, and still are. I progressed to using the same weight for the liner but a slightly heavier weight for the outside, only because I thought it looked better. I noticed he mentioned using a suede liner, that is going to be softer than a "normal" hide so won't add much to the overall stiffness. Also, leather that is wet-formed tends to gain stiffness. The best thing you can do is try different combinations to work out what style you like and whether lined or unlined works best for you, but at the end of the day the customer will determine which style you make.

I use Xylene, a bit like Toluene. Nasty stuff but it works (the fumes are......exhilarating).

Soak your little pieces in water (hot water?) to soften them - might need a few days - then try a blender. Hopefully it will turn them into mush and then dry it out? No idea if it will work.

Best way is to fit a speed reducer pulley as well.

Dwight, you're not alone, I occasionally find jigs that I made and can't remember what for.

A finer grit and go slow, not too much pressure as it's easy to burn the leather. I think chrometan is going to be problematic as it's generally a softer leather. And yeah, it can make a lot of dust!

I haven't got any tin although I saw a chap mix 10% aluminium with it, made it tough enough to hold a bit of an edge!

It's funny stuff, my first cuts were using a carbide bit and it actually caused the bit to chip! I reverted to a sharp high-speed steel bit and that went fine until it galled, left a surface with little raised bits on it. I then took very light cuts to smooth it out , used a fine file and sandpaper and finished off on a buffer. Brass is much better to work with on the lathe, I don't think I'll be doing much more with copper. It was an interesting experiment, however, and at least copper doesn't give off those nasty zinc fumes when it's melting. Having said that, kgg got me thinking - a hammer-head profile like a cobbler's hammer might be nice, copper has the weight for it.

I made this primarily to use with my lathe but it may be useful for working on sewing machines etc. Copper face one end, nylon the other, copper was melted from motor windings. I found that copper is a pain to turn in the lathe as it galls and creates a rough finish!

Very impressive, first time I've seen the pattern extended right to the end with the buckle tongue holes through it.

Nice job on the buckle fred. I used the silicone for casting lead jig heads for fishing, works well (you need platinum-cure silicone for this). Interestingly, I have some silicone molds I made for casting resin parts for Battlemechs and out of curiosity I tried pouring lead in them and it worked, even though the packaging said nothing about lead use.

Just checked and the melting point of tin is considerably lower than lead so a silicone mold would be ideal for repeat castings. Won't work with silver though, temp is too high. I believe jewellers use plaster to make their molds but they would likely only be good for a couple of castings at most.

Good idea fred. kgg, yep, some use 3D printing to make their part and then use the "lost 3D" method to cast it.

I follow your you-tube channel so watched it the other day and I was impressed at the fine detail you got, not easy with sand-casting. For tin-casting you might be able to get away with making the mold from silicon, it would allow for repeat casting and give very fine detail. As an aside after watching your episode about the Vevor press I just had to buy one - I don't really need it (yet) but it's a solid bit of engineering!! Keep the vids coming, they're always good to watch.

Yep - much to my wife's dismay. Whenever she goes through her clean-up phase she says "is all that necessary?". I'm currently melting aluminium to make it useable in a lathe (casting cylindrical shapes and some square bar stock), next is brass and copper scrap. The foundry/furnace was built from scrounged material, as was the burner, the only thing I bought was the hi-temp lining. And not a 3D part to be seen! (Sorry kgg).

Very neat setup. Lots of 3D printing (as usual with any project you do ) which gives you an advantage over the rest of us mere mortals when making custom fittings. The clear box is a good idea, I might pinch the idea for when I'm powdercoating small items - my cardboard box booth has fallen apart.

Very impressive work.

Very nice work on the sheath. That's a complex bit of pattern-welding on the knife.

Given it's age, and the fact that the link doesn't work, I reckon this thread should be removed completely as it doesn't serve any purpose?

I'm guessing that "high car" refers to high carbon steel? As for 8B - .

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/461567/Adler-30.html https://www.supsew.com/wpfb-file/adler-30-instruction-manual-pdf/ Might be the same thing, I haven't looked to see.

Some videos I found show that it's a clone of the later model Pfaff 335. The feet etc would be Pfaff parts, which are different to Singer, which will not fit your machine. Search for Pfaff 335 parts.

Fascinating. The foundry work, mold-making and casting was particularly interesting, thanks Constabulary.

I agree with fred, burnishing by definition is polishing usually involving hard rubbing.