dikman

Post-bed machines aren't that common and it's unlikely too many on here (your average hobbyist type person) will have one. There is a vendor (Robin Industries) who has advertised the odd machine on here. They are new machines and he is overseas, but they appear to make some quite specialised machines, including for shoemaking.

Mike, when I click on the link you provided it takes me back to the start of this thread. Pretty clever......I think? Anyhow, I always like looking at MSDS's, fun things indeed.

I'd already figured that out. I could mark the stack first and do it one at a time, sliding each one down the rod, but if I used diluted white glue (the logical choice) I would then have to start drying it out all over again! After leaving it overnight I checked it this morning and it felt much drier (and harder) but the whole lot had obviously shrunk and had to be tightened up again. It looks like the best way to do this type of construction is to tighten it up and then "bake" it in the oven (low heat) for a few hours, tighten again and repeat the baking/tightening cycle until it's dry and hard. Unless you live in the middle of a hot desert.

I concur with mikesc and Hildebrand, the best thing is to search for comments on this forum. It might not be as easy as finding and reading a specific review, but you will get warts and all comments from actual users.

I've pondered doing that (there's between 60 - 80 pieces!) but if I do that I need to have the metal end piece in place first, to tighten it up against. Which is another problem, I tried melting scrap brass to pour into suitable molds but I melted the bottom of my melting pot and lost some of the brass!! The pot is (was?) a piece of heavy-walled steel tube with a 1/4" steel plate welded on the bottom. I left it unattended for a couple of minutes, came back and saw this wonderful display of colour coming out of it and it took me a minute or so to work out it was the brass burning!!!!! When I cooled it there was obviously a hole in the bottom and the brass had fused to the steel. I've ordered a graphite crucible and will have to try again. I've had the thing in my small oven for a few hours, at about 50*C, and it feels like it's drying properly. I don't know why I didn't think of this before (dumb!).

Good idea Tom, I've been fixated on drying it in the sun, of which we haven't had much for a few days, but I think you're right. I'll stick it in my small oven on low heat for a while and see what happens.

After leaving it to dry for a few days I turned it down in the lathe. There's a couple of issues, first is that it obviously isn't dry enough as it still seems a bit soft in places. We've finally got a bit of sun so I'll leave it in the sun for a couple of days and see what happens. Second is that I can still tighten it up a bit more! I'm not sure just how tight I'm supposed to go. I'm thinking that maybe I should apply something and put it in a vacuum chamber to pull it into the hide. This might stiffen it a bit. I thought of a diluted white glue, but I also have some concrete waterproofing stuff, it's a very thin polymer so should soak in quite easily under vacuum. I also wondered whether I should have soaked the cut discs in a diluted white glue solution before stacking and clamping them. The problem with making this is that there's very little information on how to do it, virtually everything I've found is to do with rolling it up to make a mallet, not stacking discs of rawhide.

But Mike, what do you really think of them?

Sounds like the needle bar needs re-adjusting.

Jimi's right about the needle positioner, which I see is fitted. They generally don't work with most servos as far as I can tell (certainly not with mine) if you fit a speed reducer. Mine is an old casting, same as yours, and while I got it to work with #138 it is much happier with #69. The stitch length on mine is also pretty short, which doesn't help with thicker thread. I believe some of these older models may have longer stitch length than others, but given most seem to be set up as binders I guess a short stitch length is all that's needed.

That scissors holder is complicated! I notice the scissors are engraved!! As for the original photo, doesn't look too complicated, although obviously only for a very small axe. Not sure if I'd want to be carrying something like that on a belt for too long as it looks a bit cumbersome. On a backpack is probably a better idea.

Even though I now have two HDPE mauls, I got an urge to make a rawhide one. A chap on youtube used a large rawhide dog bone to make one, and while in a local pet shop I saw that they had a clearance on medium sized rawhide dog bones - 3 for $15. I couldn't help myself so bought the last three. After soaking for a few hours I unravelled them and ended up with three largish pieces and a lot of small chunks, which were packed in the centre of the bones. My initial idea was to do what the guy on the youtube did, roll it up into a "Swiss roll" to make the head, but looking at what I had I wasn't sure that would work. A bit of research showed that commercially sold units used stacked discs of rawhide, similar to a stacked leather handle, so I decided to go with that. This also let me use up some of the junk bits, basically if I could cut a 2 1/2" circle out of it then it got used. I used a brass lump that I had (which had a large threaded hole in it) and fitted a piece of wood in the middle with a hole in it to mark the centre of the disc, then started cutting and punching the centre hole. The discs were then stacked between two pieces of wood, with a piece of milk jug plastic between the wood and the discs, and tightened up. According to what I've read it could take a few days to dry completely and I need to keep tightening it up regularly. More to come.

I think you've made the right choice. Regarding your wife, tell her you were going to buy the cheaper one but the forum members convinced you it might be a bit iffy and made you nervous about it. Blame us, we can take it.

Thanks folks. The chrome-tanned that I referred to was a very small piece and I just wanted to see what the engraving looked like on something black. The process was carried out right next to an open door, and I've already made a separate fan to blow towards the door. I'll be mostly working with veg-tan anyway (and definitely no more engraving of chrome-tanned). Grant, thank you for the concise explanation of what is released from those products, that sort of info is usually buried away under too much writing! I'm sure there are others here who will appreciate it too. Besides, I can't afford to lose any more brain cells as I think I lost too many during my younger drinking days!!

The limiting factor is the travel of the piston. It's going to require a re-design to get more travel. I'm working on it.

The 51W55 is not a walking foot. Not much good for holsters (unless they're very thin holsters!).

Already thought of that but there's no such thing as a "cheap arbor press" here in Oz!

Having recently acquired 3 Carr presses (for snaps, rivets etc) I thought they must be useful for something else. I made an adapter for alphabet stamps. The shaft that fits into the socket on the stamps has a supermagnet glued to the end and a small washer was glued into the bottom of the shaft on each stamp (because they're non-magnet). The magnet is just strong enough to stop the stamp from falling off. A short piece of bar fits over the base to press against. My sewing machines are limited to 3/8" thick leather (although one can just get through 1/2") and the last time I tried sewing a welt on a holster I had all sorts of trouble getting an awl through. In amongst all the gear I recently got was an awl needle, obviously meant to be pushed into a handle. I made an adapter to hold the needle and glued it in with JBWeld, then made an adapter plate for the bottom of the press. I had to modify the cam action of the handle a little to get the maximum travel I could, which is 3/4". It goes through that thickness with no effort at all. If I can figure out how to make a new handle with a better designed camming action, I will then be able to get 1".

Lucky you. I can understand why you want to shout it from the rooftops!

Don't forget that hand stitching thinner materials with relatively large thread is easy but machine stitching such items is not!

I've been trying to convince myself to learn 3D modelling so I could make a maker's mark stamp, but without success (every time I try it all gets too hard!). So, having recently bought one of those dinky little laser engravers I thought "I wonder....". A bit of doodling later with photoshop and I got something that sort of works. Not sure how practical it is yet. The round one gives better detail on the cactus but smaller printing, the oval one is probably a better design, with larger lettering, but then I loose detail on the cactus. A work-in-progress, as they say. Oh, and burning into garment leather (chrome tan, I guess) stinks!!!!!!!

Probably a smart move, I think. Stitching looks good on the wallet.

The motor/speed reducer shouldn't have anything to do with your problem. From the look of your video the gears are out-of-mesh underneath the shuttle. You have two choices - as has been mentioned find a sewing machine mechanic who can fix it or, if you insist on doing it yourself, spend a LOT of time reading posts and studying various manuals of similar type machines because you need to be sure you understand what you're doing. There is a limit to the advice people can give via a forum and mostly it assumes a reasonable mechanical knowledge on the part of the person with the problem for anything other than simple issues - and this is not a simple issue.

I haven't actually tried it working so I'll have a look tomorrow.

I'm not familiar with your machine but it is extremely unlikely that there is a clutch underneath the bobbin case. The clutch that Wiz is referring to is quite large and is located in a completely different place on machines that have one. Unless you have some idea about adjusting and timing machines, and have a suitable manual, I would not advise removing that bobbin case assembly.