dikman
-
Content Count
4,317 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by dikman
-
Sounds like a better idea. I just remembered that the fibre optic linesmen used them for dispensing alcohol to clean the fibres when joining them.
-
Lilbax, have you read the sticky at the top about the type of machine(s) needed to sew leather? That is required reading for anyone looking for a machine. There's a lot of info to absorb but it should help with understanding the issues with sewing leather.
-
Once someone mentions sewing holsters then a 441-class is the obvious choice, plus by using a modified needle plate and feed dog setup it will be far more versatile, capable of comfortably sewing down to #138 thread and lighter materials. BUT it won't do everything, you will find an upholstery-class machine (like the Consew) will be very useful to have too. Between the two machines you will be able to sew most things. If you decide you want to saddle-stitch a holster, then like JLS said the big machine will allow you to quickly pre-punch your stitch holes, giving you even spacing.
-
Yep, if they're using Minie bullets then they'll grease the bullets themselves, if shooting more traditional round ball then they'll lube the cloth patches with it. And yes, rendered pork is generally called lard.
-
I've been pondering the subject of tallow and trying to do what little research I can on it. It seems that traditionally tallow is made from beef or sheep fat as both of these appear to store indefinitely without refrigeration. When using pork fat it's called grease as the chemical structure of pork fat is different to beef and sheep fat and it also has a finite life. Tallow can be made from other animals - bear, elk, deer, buffalo - but from what I can glean none of them have the shelf life of beef or sheep tallow BUT I have no experience personally with them. Quite a fascinating subject, did you know that tallow was used for lubricating steam engines? Amazing stuff, really.
-
You did well. When I looked at buying a machine from China by the time I factored in shipping, assorted handling and brokerage charges, delivery, GST (our VAT) blah, blah, blah it wasn't any cheaper than buying it here - and Australia is closer to China than the UK!
-
Yeah, I used one for dispensing patch lube for a while but don't think I'd use it for dye. I can't see much benefit and the potential for making a mess (for me, anyway ) would be high.
-
Looks like you've got quite a restoration project ahead of you, my friend!
-
Ok, it's cooled enough to get an idea of what it's like, I can push my finger down into (with just a little bit of force) so it's pretty close to what I wanted i.e. like commercial paste waxes. I wouldn't mind it a little bit thicker but I'll try it as it is first. Before I had to scrape the mix out and apply heat to the leather to rub it in. I don't think I needed to add the baby oil as I reckon the lanolin grease would have been enough to soften the original mix, as it was I had to add nearly a third in volume of beeswax to start thickening it. deboardp, I think you might be able to achieve what you want using the same ingredients (which is what Colorado use). Start with, say, 80% tallow, 20% beeswax (just weigh them out as a starting point) and add a small amount of lanolin, if it's liquid then measure it out. so you know how much you've used. Melt it together then put a few drops onto a cool surface, once it's cooled down push it with your finger to check the consistency. You should be able to adjust the consistency by varying the amount of lanolin. If you think it needs too much lanolin for what you require then reduce the beeswax, which means you'll need less lanolin. Make very small quantities until you get the mix right. Reading Colorado's story about how they got started, I suspect they began with tallow and added lanolin to soften it, then added a small amount of beeswax to stiffen it back up. This also lets them advertise that it contains beeswax, which always sounds good to anyone looking for a leather conditioner. I forgot to add that some of the Aussie conditioners add a few drops of eucalyptus and/or tea-tree oil to give them a fragrance.
-
Pretty well. I've just re-mixed it, waiting for it to cool, tried a couple of drops on a plate to cool it and it looks promising.
-
Sorry mate, I just wing it until I get what I want. Initially I tried measuring parts but I didn't write them down (I thought my memory was better than it is!) so don't bother. I think it's called "experience".
-
In that case there's not much beeswax in it! Mostly tallow. I have a mix that I use for leather, it's beeswax, tallow and a little bit of baby oil (mineral oil) from memory. It's pretty stiff and while it softens slightly in a hot sun in doesn't go anywhere near melting. So, today I decided to remix it to soften it slightly by adding a little bit of lanolin grease and a bit more baby oil. It worked - too well! It's what one might call semi-liquid, too runny for my liking, looks like I'll be adding more beeswax. All good fun.
-
That Colorado stuff is sort of what many on here have been saying to use - tallow, beeswax and some sort of oil to thin it out, in this case lanolin. If it is soft enough to spread then the bulk of it must be lanolin, as while tallow has a relatively low melting point beeswax does not and once you start adding it the mixture will thicken/stiffen very quickly. I see Sup just said the same thing. Even the Colorado add said "just a bit of beeswax", so it's mostly lanolin and tallow. In my experiments I started off with beeswax and found I had to add a LOT of oil to make it softer, as Sup has said.
-
Sup, I came to the same conclusion the other day. The vast majority of commercial leather treatment products, judging by the MSDS of those I've looked at, use primarily petroleum-derived products, with smallish amounts of beeswax and/or lanolin and other things added. The Germans developed Ballistol (Ballistic Oil) during WW1 to use on military leather (boots etc) and continued to use it during WW2. As a product it's still in use today and guess what, it's almost pure mineral oil, with just a few minor things added primarily to make it smell nice! It seems to me that a mixture of beeswax and mineral oil should solve deboardp's problems - no animal smell and no animal matter used so pure vegan, pure mineral oil can be ingested so safe for people and the oil doesn't go off so should last indefinitely (or at least a very long time). Ticks all the boxes.
-
dboardp, you won't use tallow because of the "animal" smell but you're happy to use lanolin? Lanolin smells a lot stronger than my (sheep) tallow. I also have some lanolin grease and again, it smells very strong compared to my tallow. I also have a can of spray lube that is lanolin-based and anything I spray it on smells like sheep!
-
Sup, found on the 'net - Beef tallow has a melting point 35-40 deg. C. Mutton tallow has a melting point 40-45 deg. C. (I think my sheep tallow might be higher as it doesn't soften over summer). D-limonene might be a solvent, but does it actually dissolve beeswax? People who have lubricated bullets with a beeswax concoction have asked about removing it and the answer has always been to melt the lead and re-cast the bullets. Beeswax is extremely difficult to remove once applied, not much will touch it. And ScottWolf is right, D-limonene is expensive, particularly here in Australia. So I don't think I'll bother with it.
-
Sup, ScottWolf has used it in his recipes so I'm assuming it's not detrimental to leather, BUT as you say it is a fairly strong solvent (used as a paintstripper!!) so I guess one would have to be careful about how much is added to the mix. Burkhardt, it is difficult to find information about using vegetable oils in leather conditioners but when I searched for info on pork fat and macadamia oil it all related to using them in cooking. All mentioned about shelf life (1 - 2 years) and deteriorating after that, even when kept refrigerated, in other words turning rancid. Anything that can't be stored indefinitely at room temperature has to be considered suspect for long-term use on leather. I haven't looked at every vegetable oil but those I have all mention having a finite storage life. Maybe we need a post (sticky?) of a simple list of stuff that is known to be harmless when used on leather?
-
Wow!
-
Thanks for an excellent summary, ScottWolf, something that even I can understand. Looks like it could be a great "softening" agent for making paste wax.
-
I guess purplefox was having a bad day when he made his original comments. Happens to all of us. Frodo, airbrushes aren't intended to do large areas, something I discovered too, it is very difficult to get uniform coverage. You need to go up in size and get a small spraygun to do that, you can find them on ebay/Aliexpress. Interesting heritage you have there, perhaps we should call you Frodo the Black.
-
The tallow has a lower melting point than beeswax so mixing it in should help to soften the wax. As to whether it's needed I guess that's up to the person making the conditioner. Making tallow itself is another separate process, of course, which is probably why you won't find it in commercial conditioners, they're all about making a product that will work but is as cheap to make as possible. Looking at the MSDS for them generally shows beeswax, mineral oil and a few other man-made products in very small percentages. Olive oil mixed with beeswax makes a great soft paste, I made some years ago and it hasn't gone off yet.
-
I forgot to mention that in my early experiments at making waxes a chap who posted a long explanation about his experiments said he used pure gum turpentine (so completely natural) as a thinning agent to make the beeswax/carnauba wax softer to apply, so I made a batch using it. It worked ok but after a year or two in the tin a black tar-like deposit started forming on the tin. The wax didn't "go off" or anything and was still quite useable but I don't think I would apply it to leather, just in case, it seems to work fine on wood/metal, however. Just a bit more info to add.
-
Sup, my sheep tallow doesn't go particularly soft in hot weather (we occasionally reach 40*C plus, more often it's in the high 30's) it has quite a high melting point, but lanolin, of course, does soften significantly. deboardp, I don't think you can go far wrong using combinations of beeswax, lanolin, nfo and maybe a decent tallow, they're all tried and proven for using on leather. The tricky part with using beeswax is finding something to thin it down sufficiently to make a soft paste (and without going rancid ). You'll find that most of the commercial products use mineral oil as the thinning agent primarily, I suspect, because it's cheap and is stable.
-
I had a 211G for a while and if I remember correctly the design of the handwheel meant it wasn't easy to replace with a pulley as there was a bearing as part of the handwheel assembly, when the handwheel is removed the shaft doesn't have any support at the end. The more common method is to fit the bearing inside the machine body to support the shaft.
-
That whip looks great. They look like a lot of work to make though.