Dwight

A couple of months back . . . had a fellow need a new belt . . . his older one had seen better days. Simple project . . . grabbed a Script font from MSWord . . . wrote his name out . . . on the computer . . . did a screen shot . . . turned it into a *.jpg . . . picked it up with Laser GRBL . . . plotted in on my little 50 dollar laser engraver . . . did a "guesstament" as to the settings . . . darned if it didn't turn out just hunky dory. Laid his belt onto my engraver's table . . . did a couple of test runs for position . . . turned my little laser loose . . . and about 6 or 8 minutes later . . . took the finished project off the table . . . wiped it down with a paper towel . . . dyed and finished the belt. He was happier than a broke out jailbird . . . May God bless, Dwight

If you saw the right front pocket of most of my work britches . . . you would not wonder why I don't have one. May God bless, Dwight

I like the patch idea . . . but I'd rather just make the holster out of two pieces of 6/7 leather and be done with it. It'll make a really good sturdy holster . . . it'll outlive your friend unless he is come kind of hard on holsters . . . I've made some ungodly number like that . . . only ever had one that would not pass my quality control . . . I did some experimentation on it for rigidity . . . and you could probably get arrested for hitting someone in the head with this one . . . it would knock him out . . . leave a concussion . . . and he might bleed to death from it. May God bless, Dwight

It ain't HO . . . but I've never had much more than a small quibble about the sides I've purchased thru Tandy. Granted . . . I don't order them on line . . . I go in . . . start pulling and inspecting sides with my dial caliper and my two good eyes. It has taken a good half hour in the past . . . but that side of leather I walk out with tucked under my arm . . . it does the job and then some. May God bless, Dwight

1: don't use glue . . . use contact cement . . . put it on with a plumber's brush . . . (cheap metal handled / size of a pencil / buy at Harbor Freight in a bag) 2: it goes on both surfaces that are to be put together . . . let it get 95% dry . . . then put them together. 3: a minimum amount of care will keep it off where you don't want it. May God bless, Dwight

No . . . you absolutely DO cement the lining to the kydex . . . just don't glue the outside holster cover to the kydex. May God bless, Dwight

No . . . you mold it to the weapon . . . and if you buy it from Tandy . . . get their thicker batch. There should be a shiny side and a dull side. The dull side goes inside like it would lay on and touch the gun . . . the shiny side faces out. Put a row or two of masking tape over the top of the weapon . . . gets rid of the need for a sight channel . . . take it up to just before it gets to the rear sight (that's how I do it) . . . if you've got a piece of thin suede . . . wrap the gun it it . . . it helps with the spacing. Put the grip in a leather padded vice and lay the kydex piece on top of the gun . . . heat that center piece until each side falls down . . . pull the edges together and rub the top with a wet wash cloth . . . it will set the kydex from any bending right now. Lay the gun on one side . . . heat the top side of it . . . and wearing a pair of leather gloves . . . mold the kydex to the weapon . . . over top of the suede. Again . . . once you get it molded good . . . hit it with the wash cloth to stop it from moving. Flip it over . . . do the above steps again on the other side. BE CAREFUL WITH MAGAZINE DISCONNECTS . . . and other levers / buttons / or whatevers . . . don't get them involved deeply in the molding process. Then comes the fun part . . . with the kydex all molded . . . nice and cold . . . put the bottom of it in that leather padded vice . . . so the top of the mold where the sight track of the gun is . . . that part is up on top . . . and level. You should notice a definite "spring" sensation as you try to close the bottoms of the pieces together . . . and what you will do now . . . is reverse the spring. As it is now . . . it will want to spring apart when you squeeze the bottoms together. What you do is apply just enough heat across the top to relax that springiness. Hit it with the wash cloth . . . and when you take it out of the vice . . . the bottoms will want to touch or come within 1/16 of an inch in doing so. When you pull the bottoms apart . . . it will want to spring back together. Trim the kydex only enough to get it inside the leather stitching. Double check the springiness . . . you may have trimmed enough off the edges that you may want to repeat that last heat / mold you did. You then mold the inside . . . leather lining of your holster . . . I like 5/6 oz for this job. Mold the leather as tight to the weapon as you can . . . maintain a sight track . . . be mindful of those buttons and levers on the side of it . . . BE CAREFUL WITH MAGAZINE DISCONNECTS . . . STEER CLEAR OF THEM. I have actually cut totally around them for 1911's . . . just a hole there where the leather and kydex used to be. Here you check and see if you have a decent grip on the gun using the kydex as the spring. It has to at least keep the gun in the leather and kydex if you hold it so the gun conceivably could fall down and out. CONTACT CEMENT THE KYDEX TO THE INNER LINING. Next . . . finish the holster with the outside layer of leather . . . belt loops . . . snaps . . . whatever . . . and sew her up. If you use any glue or contact cement . . . steer clear of the kydex. Wet the holster once it is finished the construction . . . and put it in a hot box to dry . . . 140 degrees F . . . Doing that twice will harden up the whole process like you would not believe. Be careful not to go over 140. You now should have a fairly springy holster. May God bless, Dwight

Kydex . . . properly molded with a hair dryer . . . can double for the steel spring . . . You can sew it into the holster . . . works great . . . my derringer holsters use it quite effectively (and I hate to make em) May God bless, Dwight

Thanks for the video . . . cool presentation May God bless, Dwight

Handstitched ^^^^^ gave you the best advice. Talk to people . . . you either have to become a good salesman . . . or you need to wear your wares. Show off a gorgeous belt . . . wallet . . . maybe a hatband . . . key fob . . . vest . . . AND . . . carry a pocket full of business cards . . . When you strike up a conversation with a new person . . . make sure you let them know that their new belt of wallet . . . etc . . . does not have to come from China or Pakistan. Create a website . . . get on facebook . . . and put some stuff on Etsy or Facebook marketplace. Get your face and examples of your wares in front of people is how it starts. And don't be discouraged if it takes 2 years to get the "groove" you wanted. Took me several different tries . . . and I'm still adding newer products. May God bless, Dwight

There are some still sold by Lowes Lumber . . . that's where I get my replacements. Plus if you can buy a 40 yr old string of the bigger christmas tree bulbs . . . I had one that was so hot that it burnt the linoleum on my living room floor. May God bless, Dwight

My box is about 16 x 16 and 48 tall. I bought 100 watt incandesent bulbs . . . 5 of em sitting on the bottom . . . gives me a 140 deg box up at the top. Never had any problems with that setup May God bless, Dwight

If you do many belts . . . like me . . . you'll find you are changing that 30 inch rascal all too often. I still use both of the two I've got . . . but just as soon as I can get some of the junk work out of my hair . . . I'm going for a 2 x 72 inch knife grinder . . . with a bit less than 5 times the belt surface . . . I'm looking to get 5 times the use out of it . . . plus the 2 inches wide will do better than the 1 inch I'm now using. But I do like your rig . . . and if I did any real serious wood working . . . I'd be very much interested in one of those May God bless, Dwight

Actually I should add a couple of "tips" to help with holsters . . . especially western / cowboy types. 1: Once the contact cement is applied . . . I like doing the liner first . . . allow the whole shebang to "almost" dry to a DRY state. The piece that makes the outside of holster and the inside of the belt flap is my dryness tester. I let all of it dry until this piece is still just a tad bit still sticky. It won't glob off on your finger . . . but you can still feel a tiny little bit of sticky there. That will allow you to take it apart if something didn't quite line up right. AND . . . yes . . . that's the voice of experience talking. 2: Go to a hardware store . . . buy a hammer handle for a typical old style 16 oz carpenter's hammer. Cut the end off of it where it would go thru the hammer head . . . sand it real smooth . . . and put some poly finish on it. You will use this tool once the two pieces are put together . . . force it down thru the holster . . . keeping the stitch edges together. It opens that sight track very well and will give you room for the ejection handle as well. Latigo Smith wrote: "Alrighty, it sounds like pre-bending is the way to go. Do you find that simply applying pressure with your hands when cementing the layers results in a strong enough bond? This was the only reason I had planned on gluing flat, that I have more confidence in the hold of the contact cement when it's had a little time with some weight applied to it while curing. You use the gun to wet mold the individual layers to the correct curve radius before glue up? That sounds like an excellent way of doing it. Do you leave the gun in the leather while it's drying like when doing final molding or do you just mold it to the proper curve, take the gun out and let it dry? " Yes . . . hand pressure is usually enough . . . have never had a problem with it. And actually . . . once it is sewn . . . it ain't gonna go no where. I only use the gun for wet molding the interior liner . . . everything else is molded over top the liner piece. The gun is in a plastic bag while doing that bit of molding . . . and once I have that mold (about 3 minutes) the gun is not needed in the rest of the process. Have fun . . . may God bless, Dwight

I'd wear it proudly if I were a lady May God bless, Dwight

That would be made by me using two molds. Both are 2 piece molds . . . one big enough for the pen body . . . the other one big enough to hold the total pen body. You might try making one big enough to put both pieces in there . . . that would alleviate any match-up problems later on. I'd then find out the dimensions of his pens . . . taking a decent picture of them . . . you can fairly accurately predict the size for each hole . . . and I would add a 1/16 to 1/8 inch to each hold just to make sure. Wooden dowels can be substituted for the real thing. And don't worry about the expense . . . if you do that right . . . I'm betting for more orders based on word of mouth . May God bless, Dwight

Yes . . . I totally pre bend my holsters that are lined. AND . . . you isolated the big reason . . . wrinkles. If you glue them flat . . . you have a 999 out of 1000 chance that the inside will wrinkle like the 98 yr old witch living down the road. I moisten and wet mold the inside piece . . . as it touches the weapon . . . so it needs it's positioning settled up front and wet molding it does that trick. I then let it dry . . . completely . . . At the same time . . . I will also wet mold the outer layer so that the sight track portion knows it is not laying flat the rest of it's life. It's only a so-so molding . . . just enough to set the curve for the final bonding. I do the same for the back flap of the holster . . . bending the inside piece before bonding with the outer piece. It makes for a much better curve for the flap. Concerning the weight . . . generally speaking the thicker the leather . . . the stiffer the final product. But that can also be achieved by cheating. Putting the two pieces together . . . and either slipping it thru the Mexican loops or adding the front buckle loop . . . you then wet the whole thing . . . and hang it in a 140 degree farenhite "hot box" . . . take it out after a couple hours . . . if it was made out of 5/6 or 7/8 . . . the holster itself is a weapon . . . you could knock someone out . . . banging them on the head with that holster. May God bless, Dwight

I am going to give this man or the scribe who wrote this . . . a get out of jail card. The last sentence is totally . . . completely . . . dumber than a cracked rock . . . WRONG !! The get out of jail card says they simply made an editing mistake . . . or were talking without thinking . . . the statement is totally wrong. A holster made for example out of one single piece of 12 oz veg tanned leather will be a stiff holster. . . . no doubt. But if you take two pieces of 6 oz . . . (piece # 1) one with the exact design and dimensions of the original 12 oz . . . and a (piece # 2) second piece that is about 3/8 inch longer and wider than the first one . . . and you make a holster out of this . . . it will be MUCH stronger . . . MUCH more durable . . . and will retain it's strength for years . . . after the first is a flat plie of trash leather . . . looking for a scrap heap to jump into. You make the first piece so that it is cut from the original pattern . . . but cut with the flesh side facing up and the pattern laying on it. The second is cut with the hair side facing up and the added 3/8 inch added to the original pattern. Take this first piece . . . dampen it substantially . . . and roll it into the general shape the holster body would need . . . let it dry. Add contact cement to the flesh sides of each piece . . . let it get dry enough that there is only a very slight tacky feeling to the touch. lay the second piece on the table . . . hair side down . . . and using the edge of the barrel that houses the sight track . . . gently put the sight track of the first piece down onto the second piece . . . get a good contact . . . and roll it a bit from side to side. Keep working until you have the stitch edge in your left hand . . . the holster basically squeezed together. This is the process that makes the strongest and most durable holster out there . . . made entirely of leather. Some folks add a metal lining between the two pieces of leather or a piece of kydex. I've never found a need for it. And again . . . that is in full defiance of the last sentence I highlighted for your understanding. As printed, that statement is not worth a pothole in the middle of an airport runway. May God bless, Dwight

What he ^^^^ said May God bless, Dwight

First off . . . I only did this once . . . came out really good. It is a throw-off of the Roman soldiers in Jesus' day . . . how they made their "Caligae" footware. They laid down a substantial thickness of a basic hunk of leather . . . thru which they protruded the little nail like devices that gave them traction in slippery ground . . . something like a baseball players spiked of years ago. Next . . . on top of that they would lay down a piece of leather that would become the shoe part . . . it envelopes your foot . . . has the laces / buckles . . . and holds the shoe onto your foot. It is simply a flat piece of leather that would not be cut out unless the maker knew already the exact measurements. A third layer would then be added. All these layers would follow the general shape as OP's original page. These three layers would then be sewn together using 3 distinct stitch rows. One on the very outside perhaps 1/4 inch from the edge. Second inside the first about 1/4 inch and the third about 1/4 inside the second one. The foot was placed in the proper orientation . . . the leather pulled up . . . and cut off to match the wearer's foot. Sandals were also made this way . . . as were dress sandals . . . but it was designed originally for the Legionaires and for the battlefield. The drawing is not to any kind of scale . . . just showing how you would do it . . . with a bit of a modern twist. Pull the tabs over to the area with the same label . . . run a lace thru theree . . . starting at the toe and going upward. Tie off at the top. Drawing is rough . . . but a picture is worth a thousand words . . . so here is the 1000 word response The real beauty is that this can be made on any flat sewing machine . . . no super equipment required. All the sewing is done with it in the flat layout May God bless, Dwight

Yep . . . that's a good way to do it . . . But my problem would be if I had anything more than a couple different belt configurations and maybe one bridle . . . I'd for sure have to put tags on them . . . tell me what the heck it is I made. I'm moving my reloading room . . . and I've had to laugh at myself . . . things in there I have no idea what they are . . . and won't remember until I need it for the job. It's tough getting old. May God bless, Dwight

Do you still have the HDD?? I've got a buddy that is fantastic at fixing computer stuff. If you have it . . . I could ask him to take a shot at maybe retrieving the stuff . . . he's usually up for a challenge of most any sort . . . and that would be one. Lemme know. May God bless, Dwight

You need to do 3 things: 1: get 120 or 150 grit sandpaper . . . and you may even want to to up to 180 or 200. It looks like you have 80 or 60 grit on there now . . . and it is way too coarse. You also might want to hook up a vacuum to the sander . . . I did with mine . . . it grabs the dust and makes a better experience. 2: move your machine so there is almost zero distance between the sandpaper and the shelf on which the leather will sit. Mine would not move so I made a topper for the table . . . out of 3/16 basswood plywood and contact cemented it to the table. I purposely changed the sanding belt . . . and then placed the plywood shelf up so it was just barely touching the sandpaper. When I started it up . . . it sanded the plywood slightly . . . but left a VERY THIN space between the shelf and the sandpaper . . . THAT is the desired effect. 3: make sure your table is exactly 90 degrees angled from the sandpaper. I sometimes have a problem with seeing my project . . . so I outline where I want the sanding to go with a black ball point pen . . . and I sand it until the ink line just disappears . . . works perfectly. The technique is to slide the project back and forth . . . barely touching for chrome tanned . . . you can apply a bit more pressure with veg tan . . . especially if it is layered thicker . . . like a knife sheath or holster. When you have your desired edge . . . comes the final tricky part you need to do. Turn your project over and VERY LIGHTLY touch the sandpaper. It will take off a little "edge" that the earlier sanding produced. Try it . . . you'll like it. May God bless, Dwight

Actually if you do it that way . . . it is about identical to the one Weaver Leather sells for some exorbitant fee . . . I don't want anything in my shop to be intentionally built or made by me that could be interpreted as patent stealing. That's why my design did not use the stiff wire pointer . . . theirs does . . . But going back to your clear plastic . . . do you actually have the plastic? And do you have the drawings? Reason I ask . . . I have a laser engraver that I've never used on plastic / plexiglass. AND . . . what little I have . . . it is really thin . . . wouldn't work for the thicker belts I make. I'd be interested in doing a "shared experience" project if you could supply the drawings and plastic. I'd put it on my machine and see how well . . . or even IF . . . it would work. We would both learn something from the process. So far . . . I've cut 3/16 basswood plywood very successfully . . . but that is about all I've cut. It engraves beautifully. May God bless, Dwight

For punching belt holes and not having problems . . . take 2 or 3 hours out of your day and make this little jig. It will darn near end all your belt hole problems . . . May God bless, Dwight