dikman

It depends how you define "thick". I found this by searching here -

Gary, I reckon making them for trap, skeet etc would be much easier! It's finicky trying to get just the right amount of tension to stop them falling out and yet still make them easy to remove. The pocket method looks neater but is more work than just sewing a strip underneath. Riem, you could also use slightly elasticated webbing instead of leather, then you wouldn't need the strip underneath?

Low end torque on a clutch motor is only useful if you can learn to control the motor - I couldn't. The usual answer in this case is a servo, small motor pulley and speed reducer (works for me). I do agree, though, that if it's a very old motor you have to be careful as there could also be damage to the coil windings due to age. Only worth spending the time on if you're determined to try and keep everything original.

Yep, dowel or a couple of dummy shotgun rounds (I have dummy rounds made up for all my calibres). I made a paper pattern first (lot of trial-and-error) then use that to cut the pocket leather. The pocket is then stitched to the belt or slide. I then dye it, which makes it fairly supple, insert the dowels/shells and form it over them. To form the "valley" between the shells I lay a piece of dowel on the leather between the shells and lightly clamp it in place. When it's all dried the pockets keep their shape.

For cowboy action shooting you want them a bit loose in the loops, otherwise they don't like being pulled out in a hurry. The bottom strip is useful in that case. My last one I made using 2-shell pockets, that way you don't need the strip - but they're a bit more work to make.

I got my 335 to work with #138 - just. It's much happier with #69. I reckon it would be a struggle to use #207 myself.

4 mm is thick enough by itself for the belt unless you want it stiffer, in which case a thinner lining would do that. As for the aesthetics, some like a smooth lined finish, some like the rough finish, it all depends what the buyer wants. Are you going to dye it, as that will stiffen it a bit? It's going to be a fair bit of work keeping the stitch lines nice and straight if you're doing a lot of loops.

Can you post photos of the motor and where the wires are hanging out?

Are you talking about making a full belt or a slide?

It's not just the parts, if the screws are missing, well, I think we all know how difficult it is to find screws for sewing machines!!

Now that looks nice. I've never bothered with anything fancy on a cartridge holder simply because it's a purely utilitarian thing. I suppose, though, it could be good practice at stamping.

Lovely stuff. I've said it before, for some reason I'm not a fan of basketweave on leather, but I have to say that your rendition on that holster is very well executed!

Yep. On the one hand I would like to have a heavy duty machine (441-type) but the high cost, for what is purely a hobby, stops me from buying one (here in Oz the chances of picking up a used one is next to zero), on the other hand hand stitching is far superior to machine stitching so I'm happy to do that for holsters. Belts, of course, are a real pain to stitch by hand if doing decorative stitching. Time, by the way, is not an issue for me, being happily unemployed . If you don't have a machine then if that Juki works you may find it very useful for bags, straps, wallets etc. I often use a machine, without thread, to punch out the holes for hand stitching as it gives nice uniform spacing, then follow up with the awl.

There are a couple of posts on Leatherworker about this machine, it can handle up to #207 thread and 3/8" under the foot. If it's working then I would think $300 is a pretty good deal.You need to try it first, if it's not working unless you know something about these machines there's no way of knowing what you could be up for repair-wise. A couple of points, I'm assuming it has a clutch motor and if you've never used one you may find the machine difficult to control ( a servo motor is highly recommended for leatherwork) and holsters - what type of holster? How thick? I make single-action holsters, and when I fold them I have four layers and there's no way my machines can handle that (mine have 3/8" clearance). Also, handstitching allows you to use thicker thread and you need a heavy-duty machine to even come close to that..

Probably a good idea . There have been times when I've been determined to remove/fix something that I should have left alone and I end up creating more work for myself! There are two basic styles of reducers available (have a look at the sponsors' sites here) - the box type, where the box frame mounts in place of the motor, which then mounts to the bottom of the box, and the reducer shaft and pulleys are mounted in the box, or the single-mounting type which has a heavy duty casting that screws to the bottom of the table and the pulley stack "hangs" off the side. Go for the one with the biggest pulley.

That's why I do loop-through style, much easier!

Always nice when it turns out to be an easy fix.

Well, there's no keyway, but I'm not sure why it has what appears to be a sleeve between the shaft and the pulley, that's usually only done when the pulley is too big for the shaft. Have you tried removing the grub screw completely and twisting the pulley to see if it's screwed on? If you can't get the pulley off I wouldn't worry too much as from what you've said about using it if you buy one of the commercially available speed reducers (one with a BIG pulley and a small one) I'm sure that will solve your problem.

Most servos are made in China and it's highly likely that they will have metric shafts so you should check the diameter as tt said. Pulleys can be picked up on ebay pretty cheap, but most that I have seen use a keyway and a nut on the end of the shaft to retain them, just make sure that's what your shaft uses. I still don't understand why you can't get it to go slower, as the model you quote should be adjustable down to 0rpm according to the specs I saw.

It has given me something to strive for - but I see an awful lot of practice ahead!

Looks good! See, that wasn't so hard after all, was it? Seems like an awful lot of (small) rivets, though.

Sounds like you might have a hard time deciding what to keep.

A decent speed reducer is probably the way to go if you already have a servo fitted. Couple that with the smallest pulley you can fit on the motor and you should get it to go much slower and have increased torque. You can make your own, but it's a fair bit of messing around. I'm surprised that, being a servo, you can't get a slower speed out of it.

Ken, like the other machine you bought this one appears to be in excellent condition! Not even any sign of the usual paint wear on the bed. I like the big hand wheel.

G'day mate, I paid $150 for mine (that's probably what you really want to know), bought it somewhere out Elizabeth way from memory). It was on a homemade table and powered by an ordinary 1/4 hp motor with a separate clutch/pulley arrangement, same idea as yours but a different design. I scrapped the table, used the motor to mount a burnisher on and pulled the pulley arrangement apart to re-use the pulleys (drove it with a servo motor). The timing belt on mine looks to be in better condition than yours. For $150 I figure it's a pretty good machine, although I don't use it now as I've just swapped it out for my 51W59 and modified the table to get this one working - I have three working tables and figured one flat bed was enough (the Seiko) and as the Pfaff 335 is also working I thought it made sense to have the post bed available if needed. I should sell the SV77, but I can't quite bring myself to do it! The SV77 appears to be almost identical to the 111W153 so parts should be interchangeable. I've compared parts in mine to the parts list for the 153 and other than different part numbers they look the same as far as I can tell. Like most old Singers these things are built like tanks! The additional label on yours is interesting, as mine has one with 55-1-329 on it, which indicates they were most likely owned by the same company which put their own tracking info on when they bought them. My gut feeling is they came from GMH, as in it's day their Elizabeth car manufacturing plant was huge and they did everything themselves, including upholstery. They would have been large enough to warrant individual identification on their machines. An educated guess would be 55=year of purchase, 1=month and 329 = the number of the machine? Probably never really know for sure now. If you intend using that clutch motor then you might be able to utilise that clutch/pulley you've got to reduce the speed. Check that it spins ok (might need greasing inside) and see if you can lock (bolt?) the pulley with the clutch facing to the pulley stack so it acts as a speed reducer, coupled with a small (45mm) pulley on the motor it should slow it down a little. I guess if yours needed a lot of work, plus a new timing belt, you could factor that into a suitable price.