dikman

That sheath must rate as a "classic"!

AdamDavis, please don't give up on it, you have a very nice machine there. Although I'm mechanically inclined and like to think I can fix almost anything, for most of my life sewing machines were a mystery to me and to be honest I was slightly intimidated by them, so much so that I if I wanted something sewn I had to get my wife to do it! When I got into leatherwork a few years back it was all hand stitching until a friend gave me his old Singer post bed that he didn't want. Believe me, it was a long slow process trying to figure out how to use it (coming with a clutch motor didn't help!!). So don't give up, you have an advantage over me in that your first machine is new (nothing missing or worn out to cause problems) and is capable of doing what you want, none of mine were (I make holsters) but I didn't understand why for quite a while. Unless you've been fiddling with some of the screws, nuts and bolts and re-adjusted things willy-nilly it should sew leather, you've got the right needles and it's stitching, the main issue is likely to be getting the thread tension correct - and that is going to be trial and error.

You may have noticed that I didn't show the back. I had a lot of trouble stitching the belt loop, because I'd formed the leather into a curve when gluing the liner (as recommended) so I couldn't flatten it and trying to work it under the feet of the machine was a problem (this is when I broke the needle!). I had a couple of holes go skewed, so I ended up hand stitching it. While gluing the liner while curved definitely worked well, it's not so good for sewing the belt loop.

Confusing, isn't it? I shoot single action and my persona is Cactus Jack Slade, hence the cactus when I was tossing around ideas for a maker's mark. IF I ever make things for sale it should confuse people slightly. Particularly if I put "Made in Australia" underneath.

Alpha2, I have that modified needle plate (bought one as soon as I found out about it, and it's great) the problem I had was forcing the maximum thickness I could under the feet! If I had taken off the edge corners first it may not have got caught in the plate slot. Oh well, we live and learn.

Thanks mate, yeah, the stitching was a bit nerve-wracking, particularly as I got nearer to the thicker part of the welt! I was impressed with the 4500, it went through the 7/8" effortlessly. But never again!!!

For $500 it looks like a pretty good deal to me, particularly if it's sewing ok. Not too much paint worn off the base (I've bought worse!), nice strong table legs, good servo with speed adjustment dial, decent speed reducer - if it was me I'd grab it, but then, I'm not you. As Doc said replacing a bearing in the speed reducer shouldn't be hard and by measuring the old bearing you should be able to order a replacement fairly easily - if you actually need one. As for the table you could either glue some trim around the edge or just plane the edge back a bit and paint it. If later on you feel you need something to handle slightly heavier stuff then I would think you would be able to get your $500 back on this one?

Thanks for the kind words. It was partly in way of an experiment as it doesn't matter how much practice I do I have to make the real thing to find out what I'm doing wrong (the pear shading, for instance, is a bit heavy in places). As for the contrast stitching, I've always used dark stitching on the other holsters I've made and I needed to try this. I'm not sure how much I like it and may revert to darker stitching on the belt at least. Thread in #277 isn't that common here in Oz and I only have black, slightly off-white and a medium-darkish brown. If it hadn't been such a bugger to sew I'd be tempted to remove the stitching and sew it in brown, but that would be asking for trouble!!!!!!

It won't win any beauty prize, given the problems I had with it, but I learned a lot (like don't make the welt so bloody thick!!). I made it so the trigger guard would sit inside, resting on a "ledge" so there is zero resistance to pulling out the revolver, which made it 7/8" thick. This is the absolute max that my 4500 will sew, but I forgot that as the machine crawls up the thicker stuff the stitch length will shorten. It also went off-line right at the top, as I turned the corner the bottom edge of the holster caught in the slot of the needle bar, which I didn't realise until it was too late. This was because it was such a tight fit under the feet. I also broke one #26 needle and bent another! The colour came out close to what I wanted, although a little more red would have been nice. I have one more (similar) holster to make and a matching belt. Rather than use the same carving pattern I'll make it slightly different, with less background space and bigger leaves.

I've made a few gunbelts, both ranger and tapered, with stitching all around the edges and I've always used one piece. Guess I must be a bit thick?

PM RockyAussie, he'll be able to get one to you.

Bert, Sth. Oz, colloquial slang for South Australia.

Modifying an existing "something" is often problematic. It looks better without that strap around it, much cleaner.

Spent all day carving this thing! I can see lots of areas that need improvement. The leaves are too small and there is too much open area, at least using the backgrounder (talk about tedious!) let me tidy up the scrolls a bit. From a distance it doesn't look too bad but it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. Next thing is to dye it and antique it, will be interesting to see if that disguises some of the flaws.

Well, you may not have created it but you did a great job carving it.

I've cut the pattern on the holster and started the bevelling. My first mistake has already become obvious, the swirls are too small and it's bloody hard to bevel around them!! I've made a smaller beveller, and modified another one, but it's still not good. Hopefully I can smooth the edges slightly with a backgrounder later. I should have stuck to leaves and flowers.

Seems to me that in this particular case the best way would be that used on some (usually cheaper) knife pouches - cut two vertical slots in the back and feed the belt through. Not as pretty or elegant as attaching an actual loop, but simple, strong and will keep the pouch closer to the body, helping to reduce snagging.

Don't get yourself wound up over oils. The commonly used Lilly-White sewing machine oil is basically hydraulic oil, around ISO 32. I'm using ISO 68, which is probably a bit on the thick side but it was all the auto store had at the time. It works fine for my needs.

Interesting. Very nicely designed. The operation looks fairly simple (on the original one), the black bar has two pivot points for the two arms, the foot lever pivots and pushes directly onto the bottom of the left arm to close the jaws. The metal contraption on the foot lever would be a friction lock to keep the jaws closed, with a foot lever to release it. Initially I was visualising a cam inside but that would be unnecessarily complicated. Not that difficult to make, although ideally the curved arms would need to be steamed and bent for maximum strength. It would be an interesting project, except for the fact that I don't need one.

Aaarrrggghhhhh! Don't complicate matters, MIke! Thanks Chuck, good advice. One thing I've slowly realised is I don't like those acanthus swirls, they just don't appeal to me, probably why I subconsciously used so many leaves. I'll do this one and next time might have a go at Oak leaves and acorns.

Yes, I've watched a lot of videos, including those by Joe, and it looked easy - until I tried it! I've already tweaked this pattern many times and while it's not perfect by any means I'm going to go with it as I need to see a finished result to gauge where my faults are. I suspect I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but that's never stopped me in the past.

I made up some swatches and found the colour varies slightly between different pieces of veg tan. Anyhow, thinning it looks a bit better. I wanted to try and match the colour on the front of Packing Iron but this will have to do. Most of the other brown's/tans I have don't show a lot of difference between them - I didn't realise I had so many different browns!!

Yeah, I know, but it's your fault, you made me think about it! I tried the russet and compared to a brown I have there's a subtle difference, which I like, but it's far too dark (as in very dark). I wanted to antique the carving but it probably won't show as it's so dark. I'll try thinning it today.

The more I looked at it the more I felt the cactus didn't fit, I felt I should either make it much bigger, to make it dominant, or get rid of it - so it's gone! A small flower and assorted leaves have replaced it, I still need to work on the scrolls a bit. I went out to get some Chestnut dye, but they didn't have any (do they even make it?) so I got some Russet, the colour sample in the shop looked good, unfortunately it's extremely faded, as I found out when I tried it at home! I'm wondering if I cut it 50:50 whether that will lighten it a bit? Hmmm, does this pattern even work for a holster?

Yes, I can see that now that you've pointed it out. Or maybe I should get rid of it altogether and just put another, smaller, flower in there. Might look more balanced.