Dwight

Looking at the knob, . . . you'll have to watch your speed with that thing. The bigger the tool rotating, . . . the faster the edge speed becomes, . . . one of those annoying laws of physics, you know. Also make sure you take some beeswax and break it in using some scrap leather, . . . work it till you get a smooth patina on the knob, . . . Looks like you hit a winner, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I only do dog collars when the customer supplies me with an old one that the dog wore and was the proper size. I measure the "most obviously used" hole in the old collar, . . . make the new one with 5 holes, . . . that measurement I did is for the center hole, . . . and I give them two holes on each side 1 inch apart. I'm not a dog person, . . . so I can't tell anyone how to measure a dog for a collar. But I also haven't had one come back yet. May God bless, Dwight

If you have anyone at all who is even half baked handy with tools they are very easy to make. You will need a 1/8th inch (3mm) drill bit (get a package of 5 or so) and a 1/2 inch or 13mm hardwood dowel. Put the drill bit in the Dremel, . . . put the dowel in a vice, . . . drill into the center of the dowel for about an inch. Fill the hole with epoxy or just good glue, . . . push the drill bit into it and let it dry. Cut the dowel off so you have a piece of wood about 2 inches (50 mm) long, . . . put it into the Dremel, . . . and with files and sandpaper, . . . shape the tool as you want it to be. The picture included here shows mine when they were first made a number of years ago. Sand em as smooth as you can, . . . then beeswax em real good, . . . and turn the dremel up to about 4000 rpm, . . . and burn the wax just a smidgen, . . . that will give you a good base to work with. May God bless, Dwight PS: PM me if you have any issues, . . . I'll try to walk you through it.

Thank you, my friend, . . . but they only make thread up to 277, . . . the smallest I use is 346, . . . and I'd really like to stay there. I like the way it works, and the way it looks. I tried others, . . . maybe I'm too picky, . . . But, again, thanks for the heads up. May God bless, Dwight

Take it into a NAPA store, . . . they should have some type of liquid metal, . . . epoxy, . . . bondo, . . . or other product you could rebuild the thing with, . . . build a little ring around it with wood or plastic or heavy aluminum foil, . . . pour the well full, . . . let it set, . . . you will be good to go. I dropped my 40 year old, . . . aluminum handled, . . . Porter-Cable power saw several years ago, . . . snapped both handles off. Good old liquid metal epoxy, . . . I've used it ever since. May God bless, Dwight

I'll add a second vote for the arbor press, fence, one letter at a time, . . . etc. BUT, . . . if for some reason I have to use a mallet, . . . mine is not very large, . . . not really heavy, . . . and I do a lot of "tap, tap, tap" in stead of "WHACK". Several lighter blows always does a much better job for me than whaling the thing. And I don't have any problem with the mallet, . . . when I'm "carpentering", . . . 16 coated sinkers go in flush on the 3rd hammer stroke, . . . with my 28 oz Estwing. But I digress, . . . Tree Reaper's setup is really good, . . . make one similar for the arbor press, . . . VOILA. May God bless, Dwight

I have presently (leather shop still under construction) two "C" clamps. One clamps the Boss to my work table, . . . the other clamps my little home made table extension that goes around the little table area of the Boss, . . . allowing me to sew flat things much easier. My new table in the shop will allow every thing coming off the Boss to go straight away from the needle on a flat surface, . . . making especially chaps and long gun bags and suspenders even easier to do. Now belts, . . . that's a can of worms with a Boss, . . . May God bless, Dwight

You may want to google Carjacker, . . . look at that style. This is the type I do for those who need a crossdraw. May God bless, Dwight

Thank you, . . . 50yl, . . . sure hope all is well. May God bless, Dwight

I don't know what kind of tool you are using, . . . mine is an old saddle makers tool, . . . it is a hunk of steel. Using it and an suitable mallet are crucial to getting really good rivet tops. Plus, . . . see the enclosed diagram, . . . it will help your work immensely to have something like this, . . . and get off the kitchen table. May God bless, Dwight

You didn't say if it was vegetable tanned leather you are using. That can make all the difference in the world. I know of holster makers who do what you are planning, . . . gluing them flesh side to flesh side, . . . it makes a very pretty and smooth inside and outside for the holster. It is also very rigid. I made one some time ago and got in a hurry with my selection, . . . used 2 pieces of 5/6 for the front and the same for the back, . . . laughed about it later as being the 10th round of the weapon. Shoot all 8 bullets, . . . if that don't work hit em with the gun, . . . if that fails, . . . hit em with the holster . I use weldwood contact cement when I'm doing things like this, . . . cut two pieces, one slightly larger than the other, . . . then after the gluing process, . . . trim the fat one down. You can also "massage" it a bit and it will become somewhat more flexible, . . . but it will almost never become loose and limber. May God bless, Dwight

^ ^ ^ What he said, . . . is in most cases going to be the best. May God bless, Dwight

You are a fortunate man, . . . grand daughters are always more important than saddles. (AND, . . . that is one good looking rig,........... ) May God bless, Dwight

For the last several years, I have used Tandy's 346 white waxed nylon (?) thread, . . . with almost no problems at all. The one situation I cannot fix is the thread will not take dye permanently, . . . it eventually rubs off, . . . and generally turns some color between white and the product dye color. I'd like to find the same thread, . . . in brown and in black. I bought the offering Springfield Leather had to offer, . . . was very much disappointed with their thread (but to my pleasure they offered to take it back, . . . full refund ). Anyway, . . . it is a heavily waxed thread, . . . wonder if you all know where I can get something equivalent. May God bless, Dwight

A template for decoration? A template for hole spacing? A template for buckle end? A template for tongue end? A template for a Ranger Belt? Kinda tough when no one knows what it is you want. But at just about any local Tandy shop, . . . they carry books on belts, . . . patterns, . . . layouts, . . . etc. Google up Tandy Leather Works, search for belt book, . . . the Al Stohlman one is $19.99, . . . and you can get it cheaper than that on the internet. May God bless, Dwight

After, . . . finish the work, . . . 100% final, clean, done, . . . then put on the Resolene. There may be some other special applications of things done after Resolene, . . . but I don't know what they are, . . . and don't do them. Other than, . . . some extra final wax polishing for certain items. And for the OP question, . . . GranpaJoel pretty well summed up my practice as well. If for some reason you do not want to use a stitch groover, . . . buy a pair of LARGE dividers, . . . dull the points down, . . . and use them to make your line and your groove. In one of his older video's, . . . that is the exact process that was taught by John Bianchi, . . . no groove, . . . just a wetted leather indentation produced by a pair of dividers. I also have used this process, . . . it does preserve the top layer, . . . but generally I only use it on very thin veggie tan stuff. May God bless, Dwight

Me, too, Chris, . . . I'd love to have one like the example Tippmann has on its website. Dreamer I guess. May God bless, Dwight

And I'm getting a post in here, . . . so I can follow what is going on. I've only made a couple pair, . . . and I can use all the help I can get too. May God bless, Dwight

So you are telling me that to conform to the accepted practice of a professional saddler, . . . I need to space 5 holes, 2 inches apart, on my 2 inch wide belts I make for my customers, . . . in order to conform to "belts should have 5 holes space the width of the belt apart." Some stuffed shirt know-it-all may have written down in some dusty old book a hundred or two years ago that this is the "accepted practice", . . . but it just does not make any sense at all. And you can relay that to him for me. My customer's needs, . . . desires, . . . comfort, . . . likes, . . . and dislikes are what drive my production, . . . and the "real" production of the whole profitable trade enterprise. Suggesting that everyone conform to some silly rule like that is beyond silly, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I'm really not sure where you came up with this information, . . . but it is just totally incorrect, . . . period. The tongue end of the belt needs to be long enough to go out through the keeper with an extra 1 inch or so, . . . when the buckle is in the first hole. Spacing them the width of the belt is not only silly, . . . but totally defeats the purpose if you have a belt that is wider than 1 inch. And 5 holes or 7 holes is only a function of how the maker wants to do it, . . . there is no "standard formula", . . . at least not on the west side of the Atlantic. May God bless, Dwight

Yep, . . . looks really good from here. I'm curious though, . . . how you finished off the beads, . . . or, probably, . . . how you did it in the first place. I could do the loom part, . . . even copy the patterns, . . . but the attachment, . . . haven't figured that one out yet. Have you got the little guy helping you with the beading yet? May God bless, Dwight

I don't have the fancy one made yet, . . . when I do, . . . it will be square white vinyl tubing, white vinyl angle, . . . the square tubing being bolted to the back of the press, . . . the angle guides being adjusted in and out by 1/4 x 28 threads and springs. I figure when I get time to do it, . . . it'll be a couple hours work, . . . but it will be worth it. Presently, . . . I'd use the "C" clamp set up if I couldn't just eyeball it. I did a leash for a friend over Christmas, . . . name and 10 digit phone number, . . . did it on a 1 inch strap, . . . all by eyeball, . . . turned out AOK, . . . but I wouldn't do that with belts or something I had a lot of other time or material invested in it. Hope this helps. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good, Josh, . . . any old outlaw (or peace officer) would have been proud to wear that into Dodge City. One of these days, . . . I'm going to waste a bunch of leather, . . . time, . . . etc. and make a "somewhat" copy of Roy Rogers' double rig. That is, . . . unless I change my mind and do a Lone Ranger, . . . I always liked both. Whichever I do, . . . I hope it turns out as well as yours did. May God bless, Dwight

Show us a picture of the holster you now want to duplicate. Most likely, . . . it will be a simple process, . . . but I hate to start trying to give advice: if it is this one, do this, . . . if it is that one do that, . . . but if the other one, gotta do the other thing. The 1911 is one of the thinnest of the big bore auto's, . . . so to start with the pattern will have to be somewhat bigger, . . . but again, . . . pop up the pics and one of us can probably point you in the correct direction. May God bless, Dwight

Redhairing, . . . while I do not do a lot of hand stitching, . . . as often as not, . . . it is done without a clam or stitching pony. Yeah, . . . it's a little tougher to do, . . . but I get it done, . . . mostly putting it between my knees or laying it off the edge of my work desk. You follow the same procedure, . . . it just takes a bit longer. But, . . . in all honesty, . . if you have a machine available, . . . that would most likely be a lot quicker and easier. May God bless, Dwight