dikman

Just when I was wondering about your progress this pops up. You've been a busy boy, looks great. I like the spool holders, very neat. "drive belt beauty cover and needle positioner were placed just for the photo's and have been delegated to the darkest corner of the spare parts bin." That made me laugh, my cover is still in the original bubble wrap! Only one criticism, first photo the top bolt doesn't match the others.

The next is always better! We all have to start somewhere, the experience of making the first is invaluable.

No argument from me about servos, at their price point I can't see any point in messing around with anything else for sewing machines. The tricky part with using anything else is working out a suitable foot control to give speed control. That is the point I'm up to with my rod-building jig, the speed control for the motor is a potentiometer and I have to figure out how to make it work from a foot pedal. Fortunately I have the time to do it............

Not a good comparison, he thought he knew better than the experts, ignored advice and believed in "breaking the rules". The result was inevitable. Some people (me) don't take into account any time spent on something like re-purposing a treadmill as it is a challenge and fun. The enjoyment outweighs the time. I'm currently making a fishing rod building jig and am already up to version 3 of the motor drive (the first two motors didn't do what I wanted), #3 is an old Singer sewing machine motor. To me the time spent on it isn't a factor - but that's just me.

You've got a deft touch at carving oak leaves. Having spent some time trying to draw acceptable leaves I can appreciate the detail.

Well, that's different. As long as it works is all that matters.

I did a bit of research and the Badger brush isn't as old as I thought. It is a double-action airbrush, i.e. push the button down for airflow and pull back to release paint. One of the problems with that compressor is it doesn't have an air regulator, which you will need to regulate the air pressure, they usually have a water trap fitted as well.

You certainly have an assortment there. The Badger airbrush is quite an old model, I haven't seen it before, it is a bottom siphon feed, most these days are top/gravity feed (they require less air pressure to operate and can do finer details). The other two are essentially touch-up guns, probably a bit too big for leather use. The compressor is a very old model, dare I say it primitive by modern standards. Having said that the compressor should work ok with the Badger airbrush for doing basic colouring/shading of leather. I notice some of the fittings are different, it suggests to me that he may have had another, bigger compressor, particularly for the touch-up guns. There was obviously more stuff that is missing, for instance the airbrush is fitted with a cup but would have also come with bottles to hold the paint, you can see the black screw-on top in the third photo. First thing to do is strip the airbrush and if there's any sign of paint residue soak the parts in paint thinner to remove it. And then hook it up to the compressor to try it, most dyes should be thin enough to use as they are (you want the consistency of milk). Try spraying on some cardboard to get the feel for it, if you don't want to waste dye you could buy some modelling paint that is made for airbrushes, just make sure you clean the airbrush afterwards. Those compressors will generate moisture in the airline after a while so a water trap is a good idea. But try it out first before you go spending any money on it. Does this help in any way?

I've watched a lot of vids on bow-making and reckon it would be a good challenge but the problem here in Oz is getting suitable wood, believe it or not the commonly used woods in bowmaking aren't readily available here. As for that epoxy, it looks like it could be good stuff for cane rods, being flexible and durable, the biggest issue would be making a suitable temperature controlled "oven" for the curing.

How dare they change their hours without telling you first! Chuck, I did a bit of research on gluing split cane rods and it seems people have used everything , from white glue, epoxy, UHU, to Gorilla glue. One flyrod maker used this ProPaste (I could see the tubs on the bench) to glue the grips on and used an epoxy to glue the canes together so I'm assuming he probably used the same stuff. The consensus appears to be that slow-curing epoxy is better as it retains some flexibilty whereas rapid-cure dries brittle. I also didn't realise just how much work there is in building split-cane rods!

Not sure, it may be a bit stiff (as in rigid when cured) for that type of gluing? I have an old split cane rod that was my father's and I wouldn't mind refurbishing it, guess I'll have to trawl through some youtube vids to find out how to do it.

Something I just discovered, I'm rebuilding a fishing rod and came across this stuff, it comes in two tubs and is a paste (hence the name ). My last lot of no-brand epoxy in tubes didn't make it past opening, one of the tubes had gelled and was useless, so I decided to buy this as I like the idea of the paste. Just thought some may find it interesting (and yes, I've used JBWeld and Devcon but this looks to be pretty good value). https://proproducts.us/portfolio-product/propaste-adhesive/

Both are neat solutions but Frodo's is obviously faster at burnishing because it's red!

Neat idea for making use of the wax pot (I just took mine off as I considered it superfluous).

Looks great. Stacked leather handles are a lot of work but they do look classy.

Yep, what Bob said. This is what I ended up with (was originally a "conventional" table), shifting the left leg in caused a problem because the weight of the overhang is significant. I had to reinforce the underside of the bottom piece that carries the pedals and fit a castor wheel at the end to stop it falling over. It's not as rigid as I would like but it works for my needs.

Fred, here in Oz we have little choice as our manufacturing base is now minimal, thanks to successive government policies. Most of the items I end up buying are made in China and sold here at highly inflated prices compared to buying them from ebay/aliexpress - much as you've found. Many are advertised on ebay as "local supply", with an Australian city as location, but in reality they are drop-shipped from China once the order is placed. I hate that but it's difficult to determine before ordering if they are doing that, other than a long delivery time. And yes, I've often found the same item, sold by different sellers and with identical advertising so I figure it's likely the same company just using different seller names to give people the impression they have choices. It's all a bit of a game dealing with these people.

Yes, I think kgg is trying to figure out just how much he can remove before it collapses.

Have you got any fine iron filings handy? See if they're attracted to any part of the leather.

Looks like a very solid setup, which you really need for these machines.

Maybe that piece of leather came off a cow that was abducted by aliens and experimented on?

He probably had no idea just how expensive leather is, plus your time if you tool it.

Sort of looks like a thread guide? As kgg said, knowing which machine it is would help, maybe a couple of photos of the thread path, to see if anything is missing?

How true, I'm guilty of doing that many times over.

You're on a roll!