dikman

When I carved my Slim Jim holster I carved it all the way around because it doesn't have a skirt so it's all visible. If it had a skirt I wouldn't have bothered because I don't know anyone who removes a skirt to look at the rear of a holster once it's finished and is being used (I know I don't).

Yep, tallow lasts almost forever. I made mine from suet (from sheep), the butcher gave me some, I used an electric slow cooker and cooked it on low for a few hours then poured off the liquid which cooled to a nice milky-coloured slab. The remaining bits didn't taste too bad either. I still have some that is nearly 10 years old, the shed it's stored in has gone through hot summers (up to 40C) and cold winters (near 0C) and it hasn't affected it.

Curtains on a 441-class machine? Now THAT would be a good trick!

An interesting read, Fred. When I first got interested in leatherwork I did lots of reading about it (still do) and I was adamant I would only use natural products to treat it - pure neatsfoot oil, beeswax, olive oil, lanolin - no petrochemical products. My thinking has now changed slightly in that perhaps pharmaceutical/food grade mineral oil might not be the evil product that I originally thought. It's use certainly makes it easier to concoct the thin pastes that are commercially available (I tried using pure gum turpentine as a thinning agent once, but over time it left a black residue in the tin I had the wax in so I won't use that again).

Sounds like a bargain for what you paid. As for re-painting, if it was me I might repaint the bottom arm as that is pretty worn but I'd leave the top half alone as it still looks good and still has the nice Singer brand on it.

Chicken fat - that is the last thing I would use on leather! It deteriorates quickly and smells revolting!!!

Ballistol is basically highly refined mineral oil, what today is called pharmaceutical-grade as in baby oil, with a couple of extras added in minor amounts (mainly to make it smell nice!). It is an interesting exercise to look up the MSDS for various commercial leather-care products, many of them use the term "natural products" but then use mineral oil (I guess it depends how you define "natural" ). I'm guessing that for these manufacturers it's easier and cheaper to get bulk supplies of this oil than to source large quantities of neatsfoot oil, mink oil etc, plus it would be easier to get the soft consistency they want for their products. I found one product that, once I chased up the MSDS, appeared to be using hydraulic fluid, which is also a highly refined oil available in various viscosities. This, by the way, is also what is used for Lily White sewing machine oil because supposedly it doesn't stain material being sewn.

The lifter is even worse to use if you fit a drop-down edge guide! As for your welding, you obviously haven't seen mine. Your next project - make a sewing machine using the 3D printer.

I had the same problem with pulley sizes when I was experimenting with speed reducers. 120mm appears to be the largest a lot of ebay sellers have, and trying to buy anything local was expensive. Fortunately I had a bit of an assortment of old pulleys, which I managed to make useable by sleeving the oversize shaft holes. I used the 45/120mm combo on one machine and also replaced the hand wheel with a larger pulley, this gave me 1 stitch every 3 seconds! Impressive but not very practical.

Yep, domestic machine. Unless you need one don't bother, as said above not much use for leatherwork.

Tastech, there have been many posts on here regarding building a speed reducer. As you say, not too difficult to cobble something together.

Tastech, that method of speed control adjustment was used in early servos and as far as I know stopped being used some time ago. They tend to use Hall effect sensors these days, which work on a magnetic field variation to generate an electrical signal. It's pretty hard to tinker with these.

Looks great, yuma. Simple and effective. I wouldn't worry about any marks on it, if it's used by him then it won't take long to get scuffed/scratched/beatup! Which will all add to its character.

Ahhh, ok, I see now, thanks. I didn't think it was hanging at such an angle.

Not needle positioner hate (), I have one but don't like it for what I do. I can see where they would be very useful for high speed sewing but my leather machines are all slowed down and I can easily control where the needle stops. The last thing I need is an extra hole where I don't want it.

Looks good to me. How does it attach to a belt? You have that "flap" on the left but I'm puzzled how it's used. I suppose more photos may have helped.

Disable the needle positioner and see if it still happens.

I'm not sure if a table attachment would be of much benefit when making holsters? I haven't come across anyone who makes holsters wishing they had one.

Very neat, and a clever way of keeping the binding attachment assembled and readily available.

Very nice work, both blades and sheaths. I reckon the orange clashes with the pattern-welded blade (but that's just my opinion), it looks better with the lighter-coloured blades. Having said that, at least it will be easy to find if dropped!

I bought a Cowboy 4500 from Sun Valley Trading, in Qld. I only bought the head unit as I already had a suitable table and servo to use with it. They are very good people to deal with. I have to admit I haven't used it much as I seem to keep getting distracted from leatherwork and doing other things. But it's a lovely machine. I see they also have the Cowboy Outlaw for $1800.

Putting that much filament through a machine definitely makes you qualified to comment on them, imo! I too bought a kit to get started, a Tevo Tarantula. There were a couple of reasons, price (assembled units were pretty expensive back then) and I figured it was the best way to learn about 3D printing. Getting it running properly was a long process and it still requires the occasional bit of tinkering. I changed the software, added an additional Z axis drive plus a few other mods. There are obviously much better machines around now but for my simple needs it's adequate. These days there's not much point in buying a kit, however, as the printers have become more affordable, and simple plug-and-play has a lot going for it! I also considered getting a resin printer as the final finish is very good but they appear to be limited in the print size they can do. For someone who makes smallish model figures they would be excellent, but not so much for my needs.

Probably pretty close to how the original sheath would have looked.

The chances of finding a large replacement handwheel would be very slim, it's not something that was commonly offered as an option. Some people (me!) have replaced the handwheel on a sewing machine with a large pulley, the main reason being to slow the machine down but it would also help with hand-wheeling.

I'm a bit perplexed by the suggestion to use a mix of vinegar and baking soda - vinegar is an acid, baking soda is an alkali so they would neutralise each other when mixed. What would be the point of applying the mix to anything (might as well use water)?