dikman

Impressive workmanship and very creative!

Normally it would be tooled first but if you tried it and it worked then there's no reason not to do it that way BUT you may find a few small areas where the dye didn't penetrate deep enough. You might be able to touch them up with a fine paintbrush but there is the chance it will show up.

I find it quite believable, after all that's why any company has things made in China - cheaper manufacturing costs. Made in China doesn't automatically mean it's going to be cheap and nasty. The real issue is if the companies are claiming to have made the product locally by "skilled artisans" but haven't (and on face value that seems to be the case).

Never seen anything like it before but it's an impressive bit of gear!

The razor wire is a bit ominous......

Very neat job on the tabletop. The wooden triangle looks well-made, did you make it?

Tigweldor, that is a common practice these days and can certainly mislead people which is no doubt the intention. As soon as a I see a label saying "designed in Australia" I figure the item is made somewhere else (if it was made here there would be no need for such a label!). And to the OP, welcome aboard, I don't know what you're using for translation but it's excellent.

Very nice work and yeah, the buckle is a bit over-the-top!

Yep, you might be a good leatherworker but a lousy photographer.

Looks great, I don't see anything wrong. The "visual" you're talking about is likely a trick of the eye due to a relatively complex pattern, which is straight, next to the outer curved edge, causing some confusion between the eye and the brain. (It sounds good to me ).

Like Chuck I use headband magnifiers, I use them a lot and keep a pair in my garage, computer room, with my lathes and reloading/leather stuff. I find them invaluable.

I don't make loops on gunbelts (no need to here in Oz 'cos we can only use handguns at the range) but we use carrier strips (10 per side) and I use Dwight's method, it's simpler, faster and there's no stitching to break. I thought I'd be clever and used kangaroo for the one I use as kangaroo is thin, very strong and doesn't stretch much. Nice theory but it's a pain as it's too flexible and when pushing the cartridges in/out it moves too much! I need to make a new one with thicker leather.

Pretty fancy work for a machete. Has a sort of Steam Punk look about it.

Thinking about it I reckon you're lucky the head made it to you intact! Glad it worked out how you wanted.

Replacing the clutch motor also reduces the weight loading on the tabletop significantly.

For $120 I reckon someone got a bargain!

Any machine with 335 in its name is likely a clone of the Pfaff 335, it's unlikely this will be suitable for what you want to do. While they can handle #138 thread they're generally happier with #69 and clearance under the feet is around 10mm, might go up to 12mm but not 15mm. Keep looking.

Lowering the AC voltage input to an electronic servo motor won't slow it down, if that's what you're thinking, as many of them are designed to run from 110v to 230v. If you want really low speed then a speed reducer is the only way to go, the trade-off is that it will reduce your top speed but for most of us that is an acceptable loss.

Do you need the belt guard fitted? Most of us don't bother with them (my CB4500 has never been fitted). If my machines came with one I removed it as I consider them a nuisance. It looks like that's not all that was damaged, the tabletop looks a bit "bent" and the speed reducer appears to have ripped off. It's never a good idea to ship a heavy head unit mounted to the table without a lot of extra bracing underneath.

There are plenty of posts on here about fitting a speed reducer and there's no reason why it shouldn't work using your existing motor. If you're uncertain then as Gerry said the easiest way is to contact one of the dealers who advertise on here.

Hand stitching isn't difficult, once you master the basics, and is superior to machine stitching - the downside is the time it takes. The trickiest part is getting the stitch line neat and straight. As for your machine, it's what Chuck said, 0.8mm is big even for an industrial machine so there's no way a domestic machine could handle it. When I first started making holsters I used my domestic machine without thread to punch the holes (single layer only), this gave me even straight lines and then when I glued the layers together I used the awl to enlarge the holes and hand stitch.

Lots of videos on youtube if you want to see it done.

That's what I would do. Remove everything from the base and use some paper or card to mark the existing holes then transfer them to the new top. It would be pretty easy as you don't need to cut any slots, just drill a few holes. It sounds like you have a reciprocating saw, if so while it will cut the wood the edges wouldn't be neat as they tend to cut rough!

If you simply rectify 12v ac to dc you will end up with something like 16v dc, just be sure your LED can run off more than 12v dc.

He only just fitted the reducer so I don't think it will be going anywhere anytime soon! Other than that you're pretty well on the money. - fine blade, cut from the bottom etc. Cutting the slot for the plastic edging is a pain, if you don't get it centred it shows up! But to answer his question, no, there won't be any metal inserts in the wood, it should just be a thick piece of particle board. Another option would be to find a piece of wood roughly the size you want and relocate everything to a new base. Because it's not set up as a normal table the wood doesn't have to support a lot of weight so your wood wouldn't have to be as thick. A nice piece of solid wood wouldn't need the plastic edging either.