dikman

I doubt if there's an "ideal" design for a stitching pony, like many things they can be made to suit specific needs. As a general purpose one I think yours looks about right, with the design of the jaws allowing for holding different shapes. Mine is roughly the size of yours and I've made several western-style holsters on it (they can be tricky to clamp) and associated gunbelts. For the gunbelts longer jaws would have been nice but then they might have been a nuisance on other projects. As for clamping pressure, that will vary depending on the project, which is why the adjustable locking lever is good, just tighten or loosen as required. And when stitching long runs the thread WILL get caught on the locking lever!!!!

Another "environmentally-friendly" way is to soak the metal parts in molasses, it's an olde-school method for removing rust (and probably paint too). It's a slow process, but at least you're not working with hazardous products.

Looks much better than my effort! I would have put the clamp screw a bit higher, to exert more pressure when it's operated and put a spring around the screw between the uprights, then when you release the clamp it pushes the jaws apart. At least, that's what I did on mine.

Somehow I knew you would say that!

I have a pair of parallel-jaw pliers that I used when I worked as a technician, they are excellent for grabbing the needle when hand-sewing and don't mark/damage the needle.

In answer to your last question, I think it's safe to say that most on here have learned sewing machine maintenance the hard way - by finding a manual where possible, watching youtube videos and asking questions on here. And, of course, by just tinkering with them.

It will be fair bit of messing around but worth a try. I don't think anyone has fitted one to the motor before so it will be an interesting experiment.

The first thing to do is fit a servo motor, preferably with a small 45mm pulley. That may be slow enough to do what you want, if not the next step is to fit a speed reducer pulley setup between the motor and the sewing machine. There are generally two commercially available types, the box type you're referring to and a large/small combined pulley on an arm. But if you currently have a clutch motor swap to a servo! The one Wizz suggests is a proven type, but any of the generic ones on ebay will be a vast improvement over a clutch motor.

Some NP's will work with a speed reducer, but in most cases you won't know until you try it.

That's a nice bit of wood for the handle.

Yep, that's what I did, I put my feet on the base and I can turn/twist the clamp to suit my needs. Works well.

Road Agent Leather has a few videos on youtube, his method is to apply a coat of NFO, let it dry, thin the dye then apply liberally with a sponge (he sploshes it on!). It seems to work well for him.

That's an ingenious way of creating the curved jaws. A couple of years ago I bought a reasonable size bandsaw and I have to say I love it! Doesn't take up as much room as a tablesaw and in my opinion it's far more versatile.

3D printed a fan-duct flange I found on thingiverse and sat some aluminium ducting on it that was left over from our kitchen reno, it now sends the fumes directly into the overhead exhaust fan. One other benefit of the enclosure is it cuts down the noise considerably. I might try and get some orange perspex to replace the smoky stuff in the window, other than that I think I'll call it done.

Like its owner?

Excellent job, looks great!

Screw with no head? Sounds like a rivet, a photo would help a lot. If it's a rivet it could be drilled out our use a dremel with a ball grinder.

AlZilla, that "curling" of the brim gives it a used rustic look. Some people pay good money to get a hat that already looks used.

Yes, your stitching needs some work, but after dyeing them they look pretty bloody good!

Well, I've been forced to make an enclosure for the wee beastie. After my effort at engraving bakelite I realised my theory of using it under an overhead exhaust fan didn't work out too well in practice. I knocked this up over three days, it's rough-as-guts and I used whatever I had lying around. Cost = $0 . I had a few constraints in designing it - it had to be removable from the baseboard so I could move things around and also to give me access if I wanted to do anything bigger than the framework (an advantage of the open-frame diode type laser), be as light as I could make it and with a window to see what's happening inside. The frame is welded up from some 8mm rod salvaged from a section of decorative fencing (heavily galvanized so it was a pain to weld!) and fits into holes in the corners of the baseboard. The sides are mostly ply from various packing cases from tools I've bought (lathe, mill, Cowboy 4500 etc), not really good quality stuff but good enough for this. I cut some 3/4" stock and used a nail gun to attach it to the ply so it acts as guides to hold the lids in place. After coming up with all sorts of clever ideas for the top I simply made it in two halves and both are removeable, they simply sit across the rails. The fan needed a 110mm hole and my holesaws are either too big or too small, a jigsaw would have made a messy job and then it occurred to me that I have a laser cutter! Doh! The advantage of an open frame laser, I took it outside and put it over the plywood and cut a perfect hole!! The window was cut out with a jigsaw to fit (sort of!) a piece of smoked perspex I had, and two 2" holes cut in the front to allow air in to feed the exhaust fan. It's a big and bulky lump of a thing, but it works, I engraved a piece of leather (took 40 minutes) and although there was still a faint smell of burning leather I'd say it was a success. I think a short length of pipe over the fan to feed the fumes up closer to the exhaust fan might reduce the faint smell even more, and if I can get a length of flexible tubing I can move the whole thing and vent the exhaust out a window or door (but that means spending money.).

What happens if you only have granddaughters? I am fortunate to have five of them.

I'm guessing that Toxo is talking about making it like a toeplug in a holster, which is usually done by marking out the holes on the outer piece, scribing a guide line on the plug, gluing the plug in and then using an awl to punch the hole so it comes out on the guide line. The spacing on the plug is determined by where you punch the awl through. I think this is what chuck is talking about. His method of drawing out the two circles is probably the only accurate way of doing it, if a little time consuming, but there's no margin for error if it doesn't line up exactly when you assemble it.

Jigga, that was going to be my suggestion, learn the basics first. You don't have to be able to skive to make things.

Hi Bill and welcome mate. You've only got a couple of years on me and I use those head magnifiers a LOT! I find them indispensable.

Handstitched, if you've got a dr. that bulk bills consider yourself very lucky! We don't know any that do, they are (very) few and far between. My dr's clinic used to do it but they stopped sometime ago as they were losing money due to the pittance that the government re-imbursed them. Even with the recent increases from the government (first increases since medicare came in many years ago) they still can't afford to bulkbill because of all their other rising costs. In theory Medicare is a great system, in practice it's struggling, and guess why? The incompetence of successive governments.