dikman

As long as it sews/runs ok the Singer would probably be your best bet, in my opinion. They are well built and parts (feet etc) should be cheap. The motor setup on it looks like it may be variable speed rather than a clutch motor, if so you could use a VFD, as Gerry suggests, to run on single phase. Just set the VFD to a fixed speed and use the variable speed in the motor control unit - I think it should work. Otherwise just buy a servo.

Very neat solution to avoid drilling the stock. Very neat job overall.

Yep, cut and burn.

Excellent job, should be good for another 100 years! I wondered what you meant by "tapered screw", we call those countersunk heads.

Once you apply wax to something not much will stick to it - except more wax!

12.5mm shaft, so it's actually a 1/2" imperial shaft.

That's what I used for my mallet head, finding rawhide here isn't easy so I just bought some rawhide dog bones. Took a bit of soaking to unwrap them but it worked great (and cheap).

Looks good, the rivets look ok to me.

Groan..................

When I made my stacked leather handle for my mallet I glued them using PVA wood glue. I slid them onto a length of threaded rod and clamped them tight with nuts and washers, slowly tightening them as the leather compressed. If you tap a thread in the end of the handle (good idea) you could use this process directly on the mallet. I reckon a hex-head bolt would closer match the age of it than an Allen-head bolt.

That's a lot of stamping! Good job.

Nice job - and no welding required! The simplest way to slow it down even further is to replace the handwheel with a larger pulley BUT you'll probably have to extend the slot in the table where the belt goes through.

Wouldn't it need it's own special feed dog?

I'd just like to reinforce what Bladegrinder said - buffing wheels can be extremely dangerous if you get a "catch"! The loose floppy ones in particular, I approach them with a degree of caution, having had a few things grabbed by them and flung hard against the wall behind. I have a couple of different grits but I tend to use green mostly, seems to work fine for my needs.

Looks good to me! You did a great job on the pattern, it's quite complex. Once it's used and gets a bit worn any perceived imperfections will disappear.

Given that a rifle sling is going to be handled a lot and outdoors in the weather I reckon a good wax would be the the best option.

A daunting task indeed, given the age and condition of the leather. You did an excellent job.

I doubt if any airbrush would be able to spray NFO, as Fred said it would need to be thinned a lot! Which then raises the question of which solvent to use? This would apply to spray bottles as well. It's not something I would even consider doing.

I think you made the right decision, you've probably avoided a lot of stress/messing around/anguish! I was in a similar situation once over a $450 mini-lathe, dealing with the chinese company was frustrating and Paypal were unhelpful, refusing to acknowledge my consumer rights under Australian Consumer Laws. It took me three months and then only after I got the Australian financial authorities involved did Paypal relent and give me a refund (grudgingly, I must add). I should have taken the company's best offer!

That sort of reply is pretty typical when dealing with Chinese companies, they generally try to avoid refunds/returns as much as possible. I have had issues in the past and have tried to get help from ebay/paypal and they usually insist that I have to return the goods first at my expense (which can be an expensive proposition). I'm a bit surprised, I thought Vevor were better than that, I guess not.

Bearing noise?

A cylinder arm is probably the most useful overall. My first machine was a post bed (given to me by a friend) but I hardly use it.

So I guess Reliable aren't very reliable.........

That brass one with the wood inlay is almost a work of art itself.

Looks very nice to me, just tell them to keep the dog away from it!