dikman

To my un-tutored eye, and with nil experience in bag-making, they look excellent!

From memory they all had 3/8" lift except the 155 at 1/2". The 155 was the model with the "major" differences in that sub-class grouping, the rest were similar, as you say.

In the third photo the bed looked pretty bad, it's hard to believe how well it cleaned up. Overall it appears to be in good condition. I once bought a similar machine with the same type of motor/clutch setup, and while it was interesting, from a mechanical perspective, I didn't mess around with it, I went straight to a servo and (home-made) speed reducer.

My first thought was "an interesting shape, looks quite useful", my second thought was "it wouldn't be hard to make".

The front ones look like leaves to me so my eyes tried to see the rear one as a leaf, but once I accepted that it is a feather then it looks right (if that makes sense). You still did a good job on it.

It may darken a little more after oiling.

Air pressure will be affected by the type of brush, I'm guessing yours is probably a basic external mix siphon feed, which will require a bit more pressure, probably around 25-30 psi. That's what I run my Paasche at.

I use mauls I made myself from melted plastic milk bottles. I also made a maul from rawhide and have a couple of rawhide mallets that were given to me, I find the milk bottle mauls work fine, the rawhide mallets don't have enough weight but that could just be my technique that's at fault.

I don't know about using it in Weldwood but I've used it to thin Sika brand contact cement. I would think it would probably work in any contact cement that is made using hydrocarbons, as Xylene is a strong solvent.

I turned up a burnishing tool from hardwood, cut various grooves in it and mounted it on an electric grinder, works well for all the belts I've made (dress and gunbelts). I also made a small one to fit a Dremel, handy for odd corners etc. Anything to make my life easier.

We all have to start somewhere, well done.

Sounds much like our postal system in Australia, items can travel half-way around the country just to go next door!

Looks pretty damn good to me!

Very nice work, the leaf on the back, being so large, looks a bit like a feather to me (?) but the shading on it is very subtle, it looks great. When I got my arbor press I made a few odds and ends for it, one of them was to mount an awl blade in a fixture so I could use it for precisely your problem, thick welts. Never used it 'cos not long after I bought a Cowboy 4500.

No blaah needed, it looks great. Just one complaint, could you make your images a bit bigger, please? Bell's Palsy - many years ago a work colleague got it (no idea how) but he still had to go to work. After the initial shock he just accepted it and got on with life, he figured there were many other things he could have got that were much worse. It obviously hasn't affected your leatherworking ability.

Very nice work. You do realise, of course, that you're supposed to give brief details when posting? Like handle material etc? Some of us like to know these things. The dark/light leather contrast is very well done.

I don't know if it's available where you are but kangaroo hide is thin and tough.

Beautiful workmanship!

There are quite a few different servos available on ebay (and Amazon?), most of them are pretty generic with the major difference usually being how the menus are accessed to change parameters. Wiz's recommendation is probably the safest as if you buy a "generic" off ebay you'll be on your own (other than possible help from here) if you have difficulties setting it up. For some of us it's just a minor challenge if that happens but there have been many requests for help from folks having trouble with the setup menu on their servo.

That's probably more readily identifiable, the hide image would only be obvious to someone who works with leather whereas the needle and awl is a bit more generic. And yes, I too like the Amopelle, particularly the left one, it's clean and easily read.

Lots of good points here. Large compressors are certainly ideal as they have large air storage so don't have to run very often when using airbrushes, in fact I have two but they are noisy and not portable. The smaller units I referred to are great because they are quiet, so can be used indoors without disturbing other people, are portable and easy to store. If all you want to do is spray leather, where no fancy detailing is required, then the type of unit fredk mentioned is perfectly adequate and can often be picked up cheap from people who buy them for applying makeup but then give up on it. My first airbrush was a Paasche H, external mix siphon feed, a basic airbrush but still highly regarded today, a real work horse. Funnily enough that is often the first brush I go to as it is easier to clean afterwards! JLS is right about cup capacity as up until the Chinese started copying airbrushes high end quality gravity-feed brushes only had smallish cups on top, great if you're doing fine graphics but not much use for covering largish areas. The Chinese double-action internal mix gravity-feed brushes are now available with interchangeable cups which have a decent capacity, and extra cups can be bought pretty cheap. These days, unless you're an airbrush snob or do very fine graphic artwork, the Chinese airbrushes will be perfectly adequate for most people, they are cheap, spare needles (and cups) are usually available and if they do break they're cheap to replace. I have several different types and I pulled each one apart, polished the needles and lubricated them. Result, smooth operating airbrushes that haven't cost me a fortune.

My take is that you're trying for a patriotic flavour (the word Union and parts of the Stars and Stripes?) and being American I can understand that. A simpler font might be better - the lettering used in est 2022 looks quite nice - and yes, drop the 2022, it's too early for that. Personally, if you're going for the patriotic look then a waving flag as the background would look better and will be instantly recognisable. On the other hand you could use the original flag of the Northern States, with the word Union, depends what you're trying to achieve (although I suppose it could upset buyers from the South ). Union Leather Supply Company has a more olde world feel to it but may be getting a bit wordy? Maybe shorten it to ULSC? By the way, there's no charge if you use my ideas.

Yep, I agree.

There are a few videos on youtube about spraying leather, and many, many more on using airbrushes for model-making. The inexpensive airbrushes are actually quite good, and with a bit of polishing of the needle work well. The external-mix siphon feed will work fine for spraying leather and are easier to clean but you won't get the fine control that you have with a double-action brush (with a 0.3/0.35 needle). You also need to consider your air supply. Their are a few options available, a small air compressor with a tank is probably the best choice, they are fairly compact and quiet. The version without the tank is cheaper and works well but unless you live in the middle of a hot dry desert you will need a small water trap on the airbrush itself as the compressor will produce moisture in the airline. The tank version tends to trap the water in the tank. External-mix brushes need a slightly higher air pressure to work, probably around 20 - 30 psi, while a dual-action gravity feed (paint bowl on top) can run at 15 psi and up. Obviously with higher air pressure more dye will be atomized and blasted out and probably wasted. The key to using an airbrush successfully is getting the right consistency in the stuff being sprayed and that is where using dyes makes it easy as the spirit/oil based dyes are already thin enough to spray as is. If you want to thin them you can, which should help with colour penetration in the leather (but you may need to apply extra coats to get the final colour you want - it's all about experimenting). Just a few thoughts to consider.

The thread would have been thicker than the material! Seriously, that is a pretty good effort.