dikman

I thought the same thing. Had me puzzled and I wondered what had changed.

Been slow at my end for the last couple of days, just figured it was ongoing issues so didn't want to complain unduly.

That's always an issue when you're used to the thickness of hand stitching. To try and replicate the look (thickness) you're getting into harness stitching machine territory.

I have an old casting 335 and after much tinkering and adjusting I got it to sew #138 - but it wasn't happy about it. It was much better with #69.

Full marks for innovative thinking! Your use of a wood clamp for the tightening mechanism is different, very clever. Is that an SMD unit on the bench? I have a hot-air soldering device that is very handy for heating things - heatshrink tubing, softening glues, bending plastics - in fact I use it for everything BUT soldering!

Sheilajeanne, you must have a very different type of walnut than my tree as mine are pretty easy to crack, unlike my macadamia nuts, the only way I can crack them is in a vice! In fact there is only one bird that can crack them and that is the Black Cockatoo (must have one hell of a strong beak!!!). The White Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, on the other hand, do a great job of stripping my walnut tree. And yes, the ripened husks stain hands wonderfully! As DaleksInc said I suspect most leather goods way back then were just left to age darken naturally.

If you're talking about handstitching then make the thread a lot longer than is needed, as you pull the thread through the first foot or so will rub the dye out of the hole.

That is a domestic machine and they generally are not suitable for sewing leather. Sorry. Don't waste your money.

Simple fact is for that work you need an upholstery-class machine, they typically have walking feet, 3/8" clearance under the feet and handle #69 thread (and sometimes #138). Singer 111/211, Consew, Seiko, Juki are all good solid machines in that category. All you can really do is keep looking, something is likely to turn up eventually. If you come across something and aren't sure or need advice post info/photos on here. Good luck with your hunting.

Very impressive work!

What Chuck said, you don't have to apply contact cement to both surfaces to use it. You could just coat one piece and put them together while wet but you would have to be careful not to move the piece until it is dry.

All is not lost, go over it with an antique paste, that should bring out the stamping and give it a nice used look.

Main thing is you figured out what was wrong.

Nice work, that belt looks pretty solid!

Photos of the machine and any bits that you're not sure of always help.

You might be struggling to find screws to fit as Singer used their own proprietary thread sizes. It might be easier to re-tap the holes to more standard threads.

If you're spraying acrylics there's a huge range of ready-to-spray paints available from model-making stores, also used by fishing lure makers.

A servo will have more than enough torque to run your 206RB. If you're concerned about it get a 750w version and if you need even more torque fit a speed reducer too. I spent a lot of time messing around with a clutch motor, pulleys and speed reducers until I finally saw the light and swapped to a servo. Don't waste your time trying to tame a clutch motor, trust me, a servo is the only way to go if you want to sew leather.

Chuck, non of the native species have antlers or tusks (not even drop bears!) they come from introduced (and now considered pest) species. This tine came off a youngish fallow deer, unfortunately they tend to have thinnish antlers with large palms and lots of smallish tines, so it's difficult to get a lot of material that's useable as knife handles. The palms look really nice but so far I haven't figured out a use for them (too thin). There are several species of deer across Australia, I just take what I'm offered. I did have some off a Rusa or Sambar that was nice and thick but I used it up making grips for my revolvers. And yes, I've got to work on the blade a bit, this was in way of an experiment so I'll play around with it a bit - when it gets cooler, it's supposed to be 42*C today!!!!!

I've got these antler tines that I don't know what to do with, so......it can be held like a pen and the tine curves over the back of the hand, or it can be held like a pocket knife. Now I just have to work on the edge, I just can't seem to get them sharp enough lately, they'll cut but......

GP, that kit should be fine. The black airbrush is what's termed an external mix, the paint is sucked up by venturi action, they do not do as fine a spray or have the control of a double action gravity feed (the other two) but are great for covering larger areas. They are also much easier to clean! If you bought that kit as Beehive mentioned it might be worth considering adding quick-release air fittings, they're not necessary but do make it easier to swap between airbrushes.

As Beehive said colour mixing/matching is trial-and-error. As for compressors I have several (different sizes) two of which are the generic airbrush types, they are identical except one has a tank. While the tank-less one works ok my advice is to get one with a tank if possible. These are often sold as a "kit" with a double-action airbrush, try and get a gravity feed airbrush and one with a reasonable capacity cup (some of them come with different size cups, which can be useful).

I decided to make a smaller (1/4 round?) knife from the saw blade and while drawing it out I thought there's enough steel to make a 4" wide round knife with an off-set handle. So I cut them out and thought the bigger one was going to make a very nice knife. Unfortunately the Knife Gods thought otherwise! I heated the bigger blade and quenched it in water and it promptly took on several interesting curves!! Me being smart reheated it, quenched it and quickly shoved it between two steel plates to flatten it. As I tightened the vise holding the plates there was a lovely "ting" sound and I knew what had happened. I overlooked the fact that the steel being so thin cooled too quickly. It's pretty good steel though, goes really hard when quenched! Anyhow, I looked at what was left and figured I might as well make something out of it but didn't want to waste time doing a fancy handle so I found some very old oak (from a wine barrel) in the scrapheap and used that. It's surprisingly hard wood to cut. Gave it a coat of BLO and called it good. The other little one has a laminated handle made from the oak and some redgum, I heated the handle and put on some paraffin/beeswax mix, which looked nice, until I put it on a buffer and the nice white wood went dirty! The final problem I had was sharpening them, I used the paper wheel setup and could get a beautifully polished edge but could NOT get that really sharp edge you need for cutting leather. In the end I used a 1000 grit diamond stone to shape the edge then the strop, that seems to work. I think I might make a short straight blade next, as it shouldn't warp when quenching, and maybe use up some of the antler that is too small/too much pith for a bigger blade.

Regarding masking tape you could look at modelling shops (plastic kits etc) they will have suitable masking tapes. I have several airbrushes of various types (don't keep them in dark places, I think they breed!) some are "cheapies" from ebay/aliexpress and they all work fine. One thing that can help is to carefully polish the needle tips. I also have one like fred showed, I thought it might suffer from pulsing but it works surprisingly well. You might be able to find used airbrushes/compressors cheap on ebay/google marketplace, could be an inexpensive way to start.

That's excellent service. It's becoming something of a rarity in these days of internet shopping.